scholarly journals Indo-Europeanization – the seven dimensions in the study of a never-ending process

2007 ◽  
Vol 34 ◽  
pp. 155-175
Author(s):  
Harald Haarmann
Keyword(s):  
Central Europe ◽  
Caspian Region ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
Ending Process ◽  
European Populations

This contribution focuses on the multifaceted process of Indo-Europeanization which started out, in the Pontic-Caspian region, with the formation of a distinct ethno-cultural epicenter, the Proto-Indo-European complex. Since the late Neolithic, the Indo-Europeanization of Europe and parts of Asia produced various scenarios of contact and conflict. Altogether seven dimensions are highlighted as essential for the study of the contacts which unfolded between Indo-Europeans and non-Indo-European populations (i.e. Uralians, Caucasians, ancient populations in southern and central Europe). Selective aspects of cultural and linguistic fusion processes during the Neolithic and subsequent periods are discussed, and the controversial term ‘migration’ is redefined.

scholarly journals Ancestors of domestic cats in Neolithic Central Europe: Isotopic evidence of a synanthropic diet

2020 ◽  
Vol 117 (30) ◽  
pp. 17710-17719 ◽  
Author(s):  
Magdalena Krajcarz ◽  
Maciej T. Krajcarz ◽  
Mateusz Baca ◽  
Chris Baumann ◽  
Wim Van Neer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Central Europe ◽  
Trophic Ecology ◽  
Niche Partitioning ◽  
Significant Proportion ◽  
Isotopic Signature ◽  
Ecological Niches ◽  
Agricultural Activity ◽  
Domestic Cats ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
Early Farmers

Cat remains from Poland dated to 4,200 to 2,300 y BCE are currently the earliest evidence for the migration of the Near Eastern cat (NE cat), the ancestor of domestic cats, into Central Europe. This early immigration preceded the known establishment of housecat populations in the region by around 3,000 y. One hypothesis assumed that NE cats followed the migration of early farmers as synanthropes. In this study, we analyze the stable isotopes in six samples of Late Neolithic NE cat bones and further 34 of the associated fauna, including the European wildcat. We approximate the diet and trophic ecology of Late Neolithic felids in a broad context of contemporary wild and domestic animals and humans. In addition, we compared the ecology of Late Neolithic NE cats with the earliest domestic cats known from the territory of Poland, dating to the Roman Period. Our results reveal that human agricultural activity during the Late Neolithic had already impacted the isotopic signature of rodents in the ecosystem. These synanthropic pests constituted a significant proportion of the NE cat’s diet. Our interpretation is that Late Neolithic NE cats were opportunistic synanthropes, most probably free-living individuals (i.e., not directly relying on a human food supply). We explore niche partitioning between studied NE cats and the contemporary native European wildcats. We find only minor differences between the isotopic ecology of both these taxa. We conclude that, after the appearance of the NE cat, both felid taxa shared the ecological niches.

Abstract P389: Cardiovascular Disease Mortality Risk Prediction in Educational Classes across European Regions, in the MORGAM Project Populations

Circulation ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 125 (suppl_10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco M Ferrario ◽  
Giovanni Veronesi ◽  
Lloyd E Chambless ◽  
Hugh Tunstall-Pedoe ◽  
Kari Kuulasmaa ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Risk Factors ◽  
Socioeconomic Status ◽  
High Education ◽  
Risk Prediction ◽  
Central Europe ◽  
East Europe ◽  
Hazard Ratios ◽  
Score Risk ◽  
European Populations ◽  
Cvd Mortality

Aims: Although socioeconomic status is a recognized independent risk factor for CVD mortality, the recommended European risk prediction equation for primary prevention does not consider it; an approach criticized by previous results in the UK and US. We aim to assess whether the SCORE project equation adequately estimates the risk in different educational classes, across several European populations. Methods: We considered 47 prospective population-based surveys from Nordic Countries (Finland, Denmark, Sweden), UK (Belfast and Scotland), Central Europe (France, Germany and Italy) and East Europe (Lithuania, Poland) and Russia. Baseline data collection and mortality follow-up (median time 10 years) adhered to standardized MONICA-like procedures. Three educational classes were derived from population-, sex- and birth year-specific tertiles of years of schooling. The individual SCORE risk was computed from age, total cholesterol, systolic blood pressure and smoking; the risk was recalibrated to the average observed risk in each population. We estimated age- and traditional risk factors-adjusted hazard ratios (HR) for 10 year CVD mortality (highest education as the reference), from Cox models. Moreover, the observed number of fatal CVD events by educational class was compared to the expected number, as estimated by the recalibrated SCORE function. Results: The cohorts summed-up 39,215 men and 29,240 women 40 to 64 years old and free from CVD event at baseline. Education was associated with CVD mortality in men (pooled age-adjusted HR for low vs high education: 1.6, 95% CI 1.4–1.9); the hazard ratios ranged from 1.3 (95%CI: 0.9–1.8) in Central Europe to 2.1 (1.6–2.7) in East Europe and Russia. The association attenuated after adjustment for SCORE risk factors and HDL-cholesterol. Among women, the association was significant in Nordic Countries only (age-adjusted HR for low vas high education: 1.7, 95% CI 1.1–2.6), but it was no more significant after adjustment for multiple risk factors. The original SCORE equation overestimated the risk at a population level, both in men and in women, except in East Europe and Russia. After recalibration, the SCORE equation overestimated the risk among the more educated men by 20% to 50% (in Central Europe, East Europe and Russia, respectively), but underestimated it in the less educated men by 7% to 23% (in Central Europe, East Europe and Russia, respectively). Conclusions: Our results, based on a well-harmonized study comprising several European populations, suggest the need to include country-specific socioeconomic status in the risk estimation equations.

The orientation of rondels of the Neolithic Lengyel culture in Central Europe

Antiquity ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 82 (318) ◽  
pp. 910-924 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emília Pásztor ◽  
Judit P. Barna ◽  
Curt Roslund
Keyword(s):  
Central Europe ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
Neolithic Europe

AbstractThe rondels – circular earthworks of late Neolithic Europe – have a repeated form highly suggestive of deliberate design and symbolism. The concentric ditches are cut by two, three or most often four causeways at right angles. Here the authors investigate the orientation of the causeways in 51 rondels belonging to the Lengyel culture and conclude that they correlate well with the sunrise. The idea of a solar cult receives some corroboration from patterns on contemporary pottery.

scholarly journals Ancient genomes provide insights into family structure and the heredity of social status in the early Bronze Age of southeastern Europe

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Žegarac ◽  
L. Winkelbach ◽  
J. Blöcher ◽  
Y. Diekmann ◽  
M. Krečković Gavrilović ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Family Structure ◽  
Social Organization ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Central Europe ◽  
Genetic Relationships ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Southeastern Europe ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
Social Hierarchies ◽  
Status Differences

AbstractTwenty-four palaeogenomes from Mokrin, a major Early Bronze Age necropolis in southeastern Europe, were sequenced to analyse kinship between individuals and to better understand prehistoric social organization. 15 investigated individuals were involved in genetic relationships of varying degrees. The Mokrin sample resembles a genetically unstructured population, suggesting that the community’s social hierarchies were not accompanied by strict marriage barriers. We find evidence for female exogamy but no indications for strict patrilocality. Individual status differences at Mokrin, as indicated by grave goods, support the inference that females could inherit status, but could not transmit status to all their sons. We further show that sons had the possibility to acquire status during their lifetimes, but not necessarily to inherit it. Taken together, these findings suggest that Southeastern Europe in the Early Bronze Age had a significantly different family and social structure than Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age societies of Central Europe.

scholarly journals Where did the Central European populations of Ornatoraphidia flavilabris (Costa) come from? (Neuropterida, Raphidioptera, Raphidiidae)

2021 ◽  
Vol 68 (2) ◽  
pp. 249-259
Author(s):  
Horst Aspöck ◽  
Ulrike Aspöck ◽  
Julia Walochnik ◽  
Edwin Kniha
Keyword(s):  
Central Europe ◽  
Balkan Peninsula ◽  
Morphological Characters ◽  
Distribution Center ◽  
Central European ◽  
Northern Areas ◽  
Faunal Element ◽  
Reliable Differentiation ◽  
Biological Methods ◽  
European Populations

Ornatoraphidia flavilabris (Costa, 1851) is one of 15 snakefly species occurring in southern parts of Central Europe. It is a polycentric Mediterranean faunal element with refugia in the Apennine Peninsula and the Balkan Peninsula. Two phylogeographic questions are dealt with in this paper: (1) Is it possible to differentiate, morphologically or genetically, the Balkanic populations from the Italian? (2) Did the species reach Central Europe from the Balkan or Apennine Peninsula? These questions were investigated using morphological and molecular biological methods. No morphological characters were uncovered which could serve to differentiate specimens from either distribution center. However, differences were detected in cox1, cox3 and 28S genes which allow for a reliable differentiation. Central European populations were largely identical with populations from Italy, but distinctly different from specimens from Greece. This could lead one to assume that the species migrated from Italy to Central Europe, although colonization from the southeast would appear easier due to more favorable orographic conditions. This discrepancy may be explained by the apparent absence of O. flavilabris from the large central part of the Balkan Peninsula, so that a gap exists between the southern and northern areas inhabited by O. flavilabris. Moreover, the species does not occur in eastern parts of Europe. Thus it would be more probable to assume that the occurrence of the species in the northwest Balkan Peninsula can be traced to migrations from the Apennine Peninsula to areas north and northeast of the Adriatic Sea, where O. flavilabris may have colonized the southeast of Central Europe. A migration of Adriatomediterranean faunal elements from the northwest Balkan Peninsula to Central Europe might be of more significance than previously assumed.

Central and Eastern Europe

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
William O'Brien
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Central Europe ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Copper Slag ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
Copper Strip ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Neolithic Culture ◽  
Copper Mines

This survey of prehistoric copper mines in Europe began with the oldest known examples, namely Rudna Glava and Ai Bunar in the Balkans. It is now time to consider some of the largest Bronze Age mines, which were major producers of copper that influenced its supply across large parts of the continent. Much of the focus is on Austria, where the earliest scientific investigations of early copper mines were undertaken in Europe. The earliest use of copper in central Europe can be linked to a Late Neolithic culture called the Münchshöfen group, best known in south-eastern Bavaria. A small number of copper objects can be associated with this culture group, including axe-hammers and flat axes, awls, beads, and rings. Scientific analysis of these objects reveals that they probably originated in the Balkans, as part of a spread of metal use into central Europe from that area during the second half of the fifth millennium BC (Höppner et al. 2005). This is supported by the material culture of the Münchshöfen group, in particular the ceramic evidence, which finds close typological parallels with metal-using groups in the Carpathian Basin. It is likely that the same spread of copper use into Austria and southern Germany eventually led to the first attempts to exploit the copper resources of the Alpine region. The evidence comes from the hill-top settlement of Mariahilfbergl near Brixlegg in the Inn Valley of North Tyrol, Austria. Excavation uncovered traces of metallurgical processes in the form of a fireplace with fragments of copper slag, two clay nozzles, and two items of copper metal (Bartelheim et al. 2002, 2003). Radiocarbon analysis indicates a 4500–3640 BC date range, however, the wider cultural context of the site may place these discoveries in the later fifth millennium BC. It is not certain whether smelting took place in this site, though some of the slag-like material suggests the heat treatment of a type of fahlore (tetrahedrite) that is common in the Brixlegg area. Interestingly, chemical and lead isotope analyses of a copper bead and copper strip from the same site context revealed a different chemical composition from that of the slag, one that matches with copper metalwork from Bulgaria and Serbia (Pernicka et al. 1997).

scholarly journals Female exogamy and gene pool diversification at the transition from the Final Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age in central Europe

2017 ◽  
Vol 114 (38) ◽  
pp. 10083-10088 ◽  
Author(s):  
Corina Knipper ◽  
Alissa Mittnik ◽  
Ken Massy ◽  
Catharina Kociumaka ◽  
Isil Kucukkalipci ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Central Europe ◽  
Dna Analysis ◽  
Human Mobility ◽  
Isotope Ratios ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
Bell Beaker ◽  
The Bronze Age

Human mobility has been vigorously debated as a key factor for the spread of bronze technology and profound changes in burial practices as well as material culture in central Europe at the transition from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age. However, the relevance of individual residential changes and their importance among specific age and sex groups are still poorly understood. Here, we present ancient DNA analysis, stable isotope data of oxygen, and radiogenic isotope ratios of strontium for 84 radiocarbon-dated skeletons from seven archaeological sites of the Late Neolithic Bell Beaker Complex and the Early Bronze Age from the Lech River valley in southern Bavaria, Germany. Complete mitochondrial genomes documented a diversification of maternal lineages over time. The isotope ratios disclosed the majority of the females to be nonlocal, while this is the case for only a few males and subadults. Most nonlocal females arrived in the study area as adults, but we do not detect their offspring among the sampled individuals. The striking patterns of patrilocality and female exogamy prevailed over at least 800 y between about 2500 and 1700 BC. The persisting residential rules and even a direct kinship relation across the transition from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age add to the archaeological evidence of continuing traditions from the Bell Beaker Complex to the Early Bronze Age. The results also attest to female mobility as a driving force for regional and supraregional communication and exchange at the dawn of the European metal ages.

Spondylus shell ornaments from late Neolithic Dimini, Greece: specialized manufacture or unequal accumulation?

Antiquity ◽  
1993 ◽  
Vol 67 (256) ◽  
pp. 603-609 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Halstead
Keyword(s):  
Central Europe ◽  
Social Role ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
Northern Greece ◽  
Neolithic Site ◽  
Neolithic Europe ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Working Community ◽  
Marine Shell

Rings and buttons and beads cut from the marine shell, Spondylus gaederopus, are among the most distinctive exchange items of Neolithic Europe. From sources on the coast of the Mediterranean, these highly valued objects were widely distributed across central Europe. A re-examination of the nature and contexts of shell objects and manufacturing waste at Dimini, a key late Neolithic site on the coast of northern Greece, explores their social role within a Spondylus-working community.

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