The First Farmers of Europe: An Evolutionary PerspectiveKnowledge of the origin and spread of farming has been revolutionised in recent years by the application of new scientific techniques, especially the analysis of ancient DNA from human genomes. In this book, Stephen Shennan presents the latest research on the spread of farming by archaeologists, geneticists and other archaeological scientists. He shows that it resulted from a population expansion from present-day Turkey. Using ideas from the disciplines of human behavioural ecology and cultural evolution, he explains how this process took place. The expansion was not the result of 'population pressure' but of the opportunities for increased fertility by colonising new regions that farming offered. The knowledge and resources for the farming 'niche' were passed on from parents to their children. However, Shennan demonstrates that the demographic patterns associated with the spread of farming resulted in population booms and busts, not continuous expansion. |
Contents
The Speed of the LBK Spread | 88 |
Population Ecology of the LBK Expansion | 95 |
The Decline and Disappearance of the LBK | 101 |
Expansion and Adaptation | 134 |
The Young Neolithic c 64005500 BP in Northern France | 142 |
PostLBK Genetics and the ReEmergence of Indigenous Hunter | 151 |
Summary and Conclusion | 158 |
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Common terms and phrases
7th millennium BP Aegean agriculture analysis archaeobotanical assemblages associated Balkans barley Basin Bogaard burials caprines Cardial Çatalhöyük cattle causewayed enclosures Central Europe cereal Chapter climate coastal Colledge colonisation Conolly construction continued crops cultivation cultural decline demographic distribution domestic animals earliest Early Neolithic einkorn enclosures Epipalaeolithic European evidence example expansion exploitation farmers faunal fertility foragers founder effects France genetic genome Germany Göbekli Tepe groups Holocene hunter-gatherer Iberia indications individuals isotope Journal of Archaeological Late megalithic Mesolithic Michelsberg Middle Neolithic monuments Natufian Neolithic Demographic Transition Néolithique northern occupation pattern peak period Pétrequin phase Pitted Ware Culture plant pollen pottery PPNA PPNB Pre-Pottery Neolithic radiocarbon dates Radiocarbon population proxy region Reproduced from fig reproductive result Scandinavia sedentism seen Shennan social south-east south-west Asia southern Levant southern Scandinavia spread of farming subsistence suggests transition Ware west Mediterranean western wild Younger Dryas