Swiss Bell Beaker population dynamics: eastern or southern influences?

The Bell Beaker complex is defined, above all, by a ceramic style widespread across Europe during the 3rd millennium BC. Its particularly large geographic distribution has provoked different interpretations: a unique population invading Europe, the long-distance exchange of prestige goods, and the absence of a real Bell Beaker population with only the diffusion of its cultural components. For Switzerland, the Bell Beaker period would have developed following influences varying in significance from both the Mediterranean region and Central Europe. Bioanthropology makes it possible to test the first of these hypotheses, which proposes the diffusion of a culture by population displacement. Here, the choice was made to analyze dental nonmetrics. Our previous research on dental nonmetrics supports the idea, for Switzerland, of a certain harmony in Middle Neolithic populations, and the mobility or a moderate population contribution beginning in the Final Neolithic and continuing more intensely during the Bell Beaker period. The aim here is to identify the provenance of the population contribution at the end of the western Swiss Neolithic, and more specifically during the Bell Beaker period. To do so, we have compared the dental morphology of Swiss pre-Bell Beaker, Bell Beaker, and post-Bell Beaker populations with that of contemporaneous populations found not only in the eastern sphere (Czech Republic and Hungary), but also in the southern sphere (southern France and northern Spain). We are now able to demonstrate that the axis for external population influences at the end of the western Swiss Neolithic is clearly southern.     

河南邓州八里岗遗址出土植物遗存分析

植物遗存的分析显示,八里岗遗址前仰韶时期的植物性食物资源主要是水稻和橡子等,经济方式上农业与采集并存。自仰韶时期开始,则一直保持了稻粟黍的作物组合,但各种作物的比例在不同时期存在一定的变化,同时这种变化与该遗址的考古学文化变迁是相符的,从农业经济的角度体现了南北方文化的消长过程。稻属穗轴形态的分析则表明该遗址驯化穗轴自前仰韶时期开始一直保持了很高的比例,驯化过程可能很早就已完成。此外,从对杂草遗存的分析结果来看,该遗址整个新石器时代的作物加工模式或许没有发生太大的变化,作物加工的大部分步骤都是在遗址上进行的。     

Neolithic rock art in context: Landscape history and the transition to agriculture in Mediterranean Spain

Rock art is one of the most salient features of Neolithic societies in eastern Spain and an explicit form of landscape history. This paper summarizes current debates of Mediterranean rock art chronology and interpretation and explores the contextual differences in two areas of Neolithic settlement with rock art: the Canyoles Valley (Valencia) and the Alcoi Basin (Alicante). Large-scale survey of the Canyoles Valley resulted in a clearer understanding of agricultural land use during the Neolithic that contrasts with evidence from the Alcoi Basin. By analyzing Neolithic rock art in its archaeological context, we discuss the significance and limitations of rock art analysis for understanding and characterizing landscape histories and the transition to agriculture in the region.     

Evidence for a Neolithic Age fire-irrigation paddy cultivation system in the lower Yangtze River Delta,China

Establishing stable cropping systems was vital in antiquity, assuring certain yields and enabling ancient people to settle, thus possibly causing various modern food habits and culture to form around the world, especially in cereal-cultivation-dominated countries. China, one of the most famous ancient agricultural countries, has a long history of rice planting, and the fire-irrigation paddy cultivation system is prevalent in the lower Yangtze region, which is considered a rice domestication center. However, its origin and cultivation pattern remain unclear. We studied a famous agricultural vestige, the Chuodun site, involved in rice planting in the lower Yangtze River Delta in eastern China, during the Neolithic Age. Clear evidence from archaeology, paleobiology, pedology and biogeochemistry suggest both that the rice fire-irrigation cultivation system formed during the Neolithic Age and that ancient peoples lived there steadily. Under this extensive cultivation system, soil structures and properties changed significantly; in particular, it left more black carbon in the soil and increased the organic carbon soil stability, which can be used to reconstruct prehistoric environments. Meanwhile, the prevalent fire-irrigation paddy cultivation system used by farmers in this area, though for a different purpose than ancient people, may be inherited from the Neolithic Age.     

The emergence of rice agriculture in Korea: archaeobotanical perspectives

This paper reviews archaeobotanical records on the beginning and spread of rice agriculture in the Korean peninsula. Argument for the earliest evidence of domesticated rice at the Sorori site, 15,000 years ago, is invalid. The evidence for rice cultivation in the Neolithic (Chulmun) is still insufficient although rice remains have been reported from a few late Neolithic sites in central-western Korea which dated to about 3000 BC. The existence of rice agriculture in the Bronze Age (Early and Middle Mumun: c.1300 ∼ 300 BC), on the other hand, is demonstrated by the high percentage and/or frequency of rice remains among crops recovered from various sites, as well as through the numerous findings of paddy fields. Rice appears to have been introduced from the Liaodong region, China, while so called 'southern diffusion route' that the beginning of rice cultivation was first stimulated by influences from Southeast Asia or South China is no more valid. Charred rice remains recovered from the Bronze Age dwellings consist of dehusked clean grains and weedy seeds are very rare among samples containing rice grains, which could be related with the harvesting and processing methods of rice. Measurements of charred rice grains also will be reported in this paper. Agricultural villages disappear from the archaeological records from the third century BC, which corresponds to the beginning of the Early Iron Age (Late Mumun), and reappear from the late first century with the emergence of urban societies.     

Ergosterol (5, 7, 22-ergostatrien-3β-ol) as a potential biomarker for alcohol fermentation in lipid residues from prehistoric pottery

In this paper we explore the potential use of ergosterol (5, 7, 22-ergostatrien-3β-ol) as a possible biomarker for yeast and alcohol fermentation, applying the analytical technique previously used routinely in Swedish archaeology for the analysis of lipid residue in prehistoric pottery. Taking note on the connection between brewing, baking and agriculture the frequency of vessels showing gas chromatography mass spectrometry traces of this compound in lipid residues from a clearly agricultural Bronze Age/Early Iron Age population was compared with the same signal in a clearly non-agricultural Neolithic foragers pottery population. The result shows a small but statistically significant difference between the two populations, indicating a connection between the presence of ergosterol in lipid residues from pottery and agriculture. The results are also discussed in terms of varying cleanliness, degradation, deposition conditions and contamination. Suggestions for future research include the use of a more sensitive analytical protocol in order to improve detection limits and to include materials from clear agricultural Neolithic vessel populations.     

中国新石器时代文化演变动力分析

对多年来积累的气候资料的综合分析表明:在全新世期间有两个比较明显的温暖期。它们的时间分别为8～6kaBP(校正成日历年龄大约为9～7calkaBP)和5～3kaBP(日历年龄大约为5.5～3.2calkaBP)。文化的发展很大程度上受到了环境条件的制约。在前一个温暖期的后半段(8～7calkaBP),北方旱作农业(磁山文化、大地湾文化、兴隆洼文化)发展起来。南方稻作农业要在7.0～6.0calkaBP才初具规模。而6.0～5.5calkaBP的气候冷干事件使得南北方文化均有不同程度的衰退,但是南方受到的影响要小于北方。在后一个温暖期到来之后(5.5～3.2calkaBP),分别以龙山文化和良渚文化为代表的南北方新石器文化几乎同时进入发展史上的另一个黄金时代。尽管南北方文化体系对于气候变化的响应有所差异,并且不同时期不同地域文化发展动力也不尽相同,但是从大的时空尺度上来看,我国的新石器时代发展经历了如下阶段:最早期文化萌芽阶段(10calkaBP)——早中新石器时代之间的文化相对衰退期(10～8calkaBP)——新石器时代中期的北方农业文明崛起(8～7calkaBP)——7.0～6.0calkaBP的南方稻作农业的极大发展期——6.0～5.5calkaBP的文化衰退期——新石器时代晚期(5.5～4.0calkaBP)文化的极大繁荣。其间一些大的文化演替或者转型事件的时间在各地也大致相同。说明这种大的文化演进过程还是受到了同一个信号的支配,而只有环境气候因素才可能影响到如此大的范围。     

Early farming in hordaland,western Norway. Problems and approaches in archaeology and pollen analysis

This article discusses the evidence of farming settlements in Neolithic times in the county of Hordaland, in western Norway, and possible ways for future research to establish the introduction of a farming economy, with its cultural and ecological implications.

Using distribution maps, Bakka demonstrates how the people of the mainly hunting and fishing sub‐Neolithic dwelling‐place culture of the Middle Neolithic period preferred a coastal area of habitation, while the find groups of Neolithic artifacts are generally to be found in those areas more suitable for farming. This change of habitat is interpreted as evidence of a general change in economic structure, with a greatly increased emphasis on agriculture.

Kaland discusses the Sub‐Boreal history of vegetation in Hordaland as revealed by pollen analysis. The earliest phase of agriculture in the pollen diagrams is dated in relation to the pollenanalytical leading horizons, the shore‐line displacement, radiocarbon measurements and the archaeological chronology. He puts forward the working hypothesis that in the sub‐Neolithic culture of the Middle Neolithic period some animal husbandry may have been practised in zone VIII b as a supplementary means of livelihood, and that this was followed by a phase of cereal growing in zone VIII c. The Late Neolithic culture appears to be responsible for this more intensive mixed farming, and this corresponds to the archaeological evidence of the introduction of cereal cultivation, which demands the better‐soils of the later farming land.     

The spread of Neolithic plant economies from the Near East to northwest Europe: a phylogenetic analysis

Phylogenetic techniques are used to analyse the spread of Neolithic plant economies from the Near East to northwest Europe as a branching process from a founding ancestor. The analyses are based on a database of c. 7500 records of plant taxa from 250 sites dated to the early Neolithic of the region in which they occur, aggregated into a number of regional groups. The analysis demonstrates that a phylogenetic signal exists in the data but it is complicated by the fact that in comparison with the changes that occurred when the crop agriculture complex expanded out of the Near East, once it arrived in Europe it underwent only limited further changes. On the basis of the analysis it has been possible to identify the species losses and gains that occurred as the complex of crops and associated weeds spread and to show the influence of geographical location and cultural affinity on the pattern of losses and gains. This has led to consideration of the processes producing that history, including some reasons why the dispersal process did not produce a perfect tree phylogeny, as well as to the identification of some specific anomalies, such as the unusual nature of the Bulgarian pattern, which raise further questions for the future.     

Stable isotope analysis of humans from Xiaojingshan site: implications for understanding the origin of millet agriculture in China

Millet agriculture originated in Northern China in the early Neolithic period (ca. 8000 BP), however, the actual importance of millet in human diets is still not clear. To determine the relative contribution of millet in human diets in this period we undertook stable isotope analysis of humans from Xiaojingshan site and fauna from Yuezhuang site, both of which are attributed to the Houli Culture and date to about 8000 years ago. The carbon isotope values of human bone collagen showed that millet (as a C₄ plant) only contributed approximately 25% of dietary protein, with the rest from C₃ based plant and animal sources, if a simple mixing model is used. We did not observe any statistical dietary difference between males and females at the site, although it has been argued that the Houli Culture was a matriarchal society. Finally, we compared our data with other published isotopic data from the contemporary Jiahu site and Xinglongwa site and a number of sites from the subsequent Yangshao Culture and found that millet only became a significant source of dietary protein approximately 1000 years later, as human carbon isotope values from these later sites indicated that almost all of dietary protein came from C₄ (i.e. millet) sources.     

Ancient DNA insights from the Middle Neolithic in Germany

Genetic studies of Neolithic groups in central Europe have provided insights into the demographic processes that have occurred during the initial transition to agriculture as well as in later Neolithic contexts. While distinct genetic patterns between indigenous hunter-gatherers and Neolithic farmers in Europe have been observed, it is still under discussion how the genetic diversity changed during the 5,000-year span of the Neolithic period. In order to investigate genetic patterns after the earliest farming communities, we carried out an ancient mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis of 34 individuals from Wittmar, Germany representing three different Neolithic farming groups (ca. 5,200–4,300 cal bc) including Rössen societies. Ancient DNA analysis was successful for six individuals associated with the Middle Neolithic Rössen and observed haplotypes were assigned to mtDNA haplogroups H5, HV0, U5, and K. Our results offer perspectives on the genetic composition of individuals associated with the Rössen culture at Wittmar and permit insights into genetic landscapes in central Europe at a time when regional groups first emerged during the Middle Neolithic.     

Rice fields and modes of rice cultivation between 5000 and 2500 BC in east China

Recently, rice fields dated between 5000 and 2500 BC were found at the Tianluoshan sit in east China. The early rice fields dated between 5000 and 4500 BC are the oldest rice fields known. The discovery has provided data of recovering reclamation, cultivation, and the ecological system of rice fields in the Neolithic age. People opened up marshes of dense reeds with fire and wooden or bone spades, in order to create rice fields. In the rice fields, there was not only rice, but a lot of weeds as well. The excavations proved that little or even no weeding or irrigation was adopted. However, tilling soil by wooden and bone tools was evidenced. The average yields are estimated to have been about 830 kg for the early period and 950 kg per hectare for the later period. The cultivation system was low-level. Although the Tianluoshan people cultivated rice, they still obtained a great deal of food by gathering and hunting.     

Foraging–Farming Transitions in Island Southeast Asia

The origins of agriculture have been debated by archaeologists for most of the discipline’s history, no more so than in Island Southeast Asia. The orthodox view is that Neolithic farmers spread south by sea from mainland China to Taiwan and thence to Island Southeast Asia, taking with them a new material culture and domestic rice and pigs and speaking the precursor of the Austronesian languages that are spoken in the region today. Opponents of this ‘farming/language dispersal’ theory have proposed models of acculturation, in which foragers acquired new material culture and food resources by trading with farmers. However, new work in archaeology, palaeoecology, palynology and anthropology, especially in Borneo, and in genetics and linguistics for the region as a whole, is suggesting that foraging/farming transitions in Southeast Asia were far more complex than either of these opposing ‘grand narratives’ of discontinuity (population colonisation) or continuity (acculturation) allows. Through the course of the Early/Mid-Holocene new material culture, technologies and foods were variously taken up, promoted or resisted in order to provision changes in the social and ideological constitution of societies. Whilst new readings of the data for foraging–farming transitions in the region vary, a consensus is emerging that it is more useful to focus on how materials and modes of life were used to underwrite changes in social networks than to seek to explain the archaeological record in terms of migrating farmers or acculturating foragers.     

Modelling the effect of Mesolithic populations on the slowdown of the Neolithic transition

The expansion of the Neolithic transition in Europe took place gradually from the Near East across the whole continent. At Northern Europe, observations show a slowdown in the speed of the Neolithic front in comparison to other regions of the continent. It has been suggested that the presence of high population densities of hunter-gatherers at the North could have been the main cause for this slowdown. This proposal has recently been described by a mathematical model that takes into account: (i) the resistance opposed by the Mesolithic populations to the advance of Neolithic populations in their territory, and (ii) a limitation on the population growth dynamics due to the competition for space and resources. But these two effects are not equally responsible for the slowdown of the spread. Indeed, here we show that the limitation on the population growth dynamics seems to have been the main cause of the delay of the expansion of farming in Northern Europe.     

长江中游新石器时代的显著成就和特色文化现象

本将长江中游的新石器化置于全国新石器时代的总体背景下,侧重于比较研究的视角,选取了五个方面的问题——聚落与建筑,栽培稻起源和史前稻作农业,白陶和彩陶,普用的巫物陶偶,高一级的灵物玉雕人首和动物,列举实证,以阐述长江中游新石器时代若干较显的成就和特色鲜明的化现象。     

中国新石器时代早期文化遗存的新发现和新思考

本文依据中国新石器时代早期文化遗存的新发现,提出稻作农业的起源和早期发展形式是中心起源、边缘发展的看法,即稻作农业大约在公元前１００００年起源于自然食物来源充足的中国南方腹心地带,于公元前７０００年后发展于“富裕的食物采集文化”区边缘的两湖平原西部地区和钱塘江流域,并逐步向淮河流域推进。     

Pre‐Pottery Clay Innovation in the Zagros Foothills

Neolithic material engagements transformed the ways in which communities interacted with the physical world and one another. Based on evidence from the flanks of the Zagros Mountains, in western Iran and north‐eastern Iraq, Robert Braidwood initially proposed his ‘Hilly Flanks’ hypothesis for the origins of agriculture and sedentism. The evidence for multi‐centred developments in domestication has demonstrated that elements of these practices spanned south‐west Asia in the Early Neolithic. The Zagros Mountains (and the eastern branch of the Fertile Crescent as a whole) constituted an area of vibrant engagement with new ideas, materials, experimentation and innovation, participating in the networks of interaction and exchange that facilitated the spread of alternative lifeways. This research examines how engagements with clay influenced the development and spread of new ways of thinking about the physical world, highlighting the role of clay as a transformational material through sites in the Central Zagros.     

A Comprised Archaeological History of Taiwan through the Long-Term Record of Heping Dao,Keelung

We present the results of six years of archaeological work carried out in Heping Dao, Keelung, northern Taiwan. The site has revealed a rich archaeological record spanning a sequence that comprehends most of the history of Taiwan, including the most salient historical landmarks in it. The study of this long-term sequence of habitation in Heping Dao throughout prehistory to current times, allows us to attempt a historical archaeology of the longue duree of the place that in turn enables the establishment of comparisons between periods and raising of specific questions, among them: the general understanding of cultural transformation along the Neolithic and the Iron Age, and in turn the transition Iron Age/Aboriginal historic times in Taiwan, which in our view has to be observed as a history of continuity rather than of interruptions; the recognition of the Chinese presence in Taiwan in the pre-European period; the implantation of the European colony and its effects on the local populations; the differing material remains and impacts caused by the presence of pre-European Chinese and the Qing occupation; and the potential for a comparison between the European and the Japanese colonial projects as seen in the material record.     

The Stone Age of northern Scandinavia: A review

Throughout most of the Stone Age, which covers the time period between ca. 10,000 and ca. 3500 B.P., the majority of groups in northern Scandinavia was hunter-fishers with a strong orientation toward the coastal environments. Three areas, southwestern and northern Norway and northern Sweden, have been singled out for more detailed discussions of the social and cultural developments in different types of marine environments. Differences can be discerned between the societies in the southern and those in the northern regions, as the northern groups seem to have developed more complex social and cultural systems than in the south. These differences have been related partly to a greater emphasis on maritime sea hunting in the north. Agriculture was introduced twice. The first time, in the early Neolithic, agriculture was tried but apparently did not manage to compete with better-adapted local hunting-fishing practices. The second time, in the late middle Neolithic, agriculture resulted in drastic social, economic, and cultural changes.     

New data and new issues for the study of origin of rice agriculture in China

China was one of the major centers for the origin of agriculture in the world. The origins of agriculture in China, especially the origin of rice agriculture, made a significant contribution not only to the occurrence of Chinese civilization but also to the development of world history. Recently, the study on the origin of rice agriculture has attracted the attention of the academic community due to the dramatic development of archaeobotanical research in China. In recent years, the flotation technique has widely implemented in archaeological excavations in China. As the result, a tremendous amount of plant remains have been recovered from archaeological sites, including those much related to the study of early rice agriculture. The new data provide direct archaeological evidence for, and raise some new issues about, the origin of rice agriculture in China. For example, the rice remains from the Shangshan site, dated to ca. 10,000 cal. B.P., suggest the beginning of rice cultivation regardless of whether that rice was domesticated or not. The quantitative analysis of plant remains recovered by floatation from the Jiahu site, dated to ca. 8,000 cal. B.P., revealed that the subsistence of the Jiahu people mainly relied on fishing/hunting/gathering, while the products of rice cultivation and animal husbandry were only a supplement to their diet. The ongoing excavation, with floatation and water-sieving, at the Tianluoshan site, dated to 6,000 to 7,000 cal. B.P., suggests that rice farming, though important, was only part of a broader subsistence pattern of the Hemudu Culture, and rice domestication culminated after 6,500 B.P and the beginning of rice domestication remain unclear.