The transition to farming and the ceramic trajectories in Western Eurasia. From ceramic figurines to vessels

Documenta Praehistorica ◽

10.4312/dp.33.17 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 33 ◽

pp. 183-201 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Mihael Budja

Keyword(s):

Eastern Europe ◽

Ceramic Technology ◽

Hunter Gatherers ◽

South Eastern ◽

South Eastern Europe ◽

Ritual Economy ◽

Western Eurasia

In Eurasia the invention of ceramic technology and production of fired-clay vessels has not necessarily been related to the dynamics of the transition to farming. The invention of ceramic technology in Europe was associated with female and animal figurine making in Gravettian technocomplex. The fired-clay vessels occurred first in hunter-gatherer contexts in Eastern Eurasia a millennia before the agriculture. The adoption of pottery making in Levant seems to correlate with the collapse of the ‘ritual economy’, social decentralisation and community fragmentation in the Levantine Pre-Pottery Neolithic. In South-eastern Europe the adoption of pottery making was closely associated with social, symbolic and ritual hunter-gatherers’ practices.

Download Full-text

Genomic and dietary transitions during the Mesolithic and Early Neolithic in Sicily

10.1101/2020.03.11.986158 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Marieke S. van de Loosdrecht ◽

Marcello A. Mannino ◽

Sahra Talamo ◽

Vanessa Villalba-Mouco ◽

Cosimo Posth ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Material Culture ◽

Eastern Europe ◽

Central Position ◽

Neolithic Period ◽

Early Neolithic ◽

Hunter Gatherers ◽

South Eastern ◽

South Eastern Europe ◽

Early Farmers ◽

Late Mesolithic

AbstractSouthern Italy is a key region for understanding the agricultural transition in the Mediterranean due to its central position. We present a genomic transect for 19 prehistoric Sicilians that covers the Early Mesolithic to Early Neolithic period. We find that the Early Mesolithic hunter-gatherers (HGs) are a highly drifted sister lineage to Early Holocene western European HGs, whereas a quarter of the Late Mesolithic HGs ancestry is related to HGs from eastern Europe and the Near East. This indicates substantial gene flow from (south-)eastern Europe between the Early and Late Mesolithic. The Early Neolithic farmers are genetically most similar to those from the Balkan and Greece, and carry only a maximum of ∼7% ancestry from Sicilian Mesolithic HGs. Ancestry changes match changes in dietary profile and material culture, except for two individuals who may provide tentative initial evidence that HGs adopted elements of farming in Sicily.One-sentence summaryGenome-wide and isotopic data from prehistoric Sicilians reveal a pre-farming connection to (south-) eastern Europe, and tentative initial evidence that hunter-gatherers adopted some Neolithic aspects prior to near-total replacement by early farmers.

Download Full-text