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Pereira D, Manen C, Rigaud S. The shaping of social and symbolic capital during the transition to farming in the Western Mediterranean: Archaeological network analyses of pottery decorations and personal ornaments. PLoS One 2023; 18:e0294111. [PMID: 37939080 PMCID: PMC10631656 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0294111] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/20/2023] [Accepted: 10/25/2023] [Indexed: 11/10/2023] Open
Abstract
Storing information and circulating it between individuals and groups is a critical behaviour that signals a tipping point in our evolutionary history. Such practices enabled the preservation and consolidation of knowledge over extended periods, facilitating the accumulation of cultural innovations across generations. In this study, we used Social Network Analysis methods to explore how knowledge circulated during the transition to agriculture in the Western Mediterranean region. Previous studies have shown that specific elements of the material culture reveal distinct patterns of cultural interaction among early farming communities. Here, we investigated if two archaeological proxies, personal ornaments and pottery decorations, both with an exclusively symbolic function, reveal different network structures, and if the different degree of connexions acted equally on the transmission of styles, symbols, and network changes over time. Our results relied on cultural data recorded from 77 archaeological occupations covering Italy, France, and Spain, spanning over 1,500 years (ca. 7950~6450 cal BP). By utilizing a chronological dataset comprising 114 radiocarbon dates, we revealed that pottery decorative techniques networks exhibited stronger connexions over space and time, with nodes organized in clear cluster, when compared to personal ornaments networks. The findings highlight the regionalization and fragmentation of cultural networks during the Early Neolithic, and that the transmission of cultural traits within each category of artefact operated through varying cultural and social mechanisms. Pottery expressed a dynamic regional identity, continuously shaped by geographical and chronological proximity, while bead-type associations contributed to enduring identities shared across vast geographical scales. These networks shed light on the multifaceted shaping of social and symbolic capital among the Mediterranean's early farmers, emphasizing the strength and quality of social ties that existed between communities and the level of reciprocity and cooperation required to foster these diverse social, economic, and cultural development strategies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniel Pereira
- CNRS, Université de Bordeaux, Ministère de la Culture, PACEA, UMR 5199, Pessac, France
| | - Claire Manen
- CNRS UMR5608 TRACES. Université de Toulouse Jean-Jaurès, Maison de la Recherche, Toulouse, France
| | - Solange Rigaud
- CNRS, Université de Bordeaux, Ministère de la Culture, PACEA, UMR 5199, Pessac, France
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Betti L, Beyer RM, Jones ER, Eriksson A, Tassi F, Siska V, Leonardi M, Maisano Delser P, Bentley LK, Nigst PR, Stock JT, Pinhasi R, Manica A. Climate shaped how Neolithic farmers and European hunter-gatherers interacted after a major slowdown from 6,100 BCE to 4,500 BCE. Nat Hum Behav 2020; 4:1004-1010. [PMID: 32632332 DOI: 10.1038/s41562-020-0897-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/14/2019] [Accepted: 05/18/2020] [Indexed: 01/08/2023]
Abstract
The Neolithic transition in Europe was driven by the rapid dispersal of Near Eastern farmers who, over a period of 3,500 years, brought food production to the furthest corners of the continent. However, this wave of expansion was far from homogeneous, and climatic factors may have driven a marked slowdown observed at higher latitudes. Here, we test this hypothesis by assembling a large database of archaeological dates of first arrival of farming to quantify the expansion dynamics. We identify four axes of expansion and observe a slowdown along three axes when crossing the same climatic threshold. This threshold reflects the quality of the growing season, suggesting that Near Eastern crops might have struggled under more challenging climatic conditions. This same threshold also predicts the mixing of farmers and hunter-gatherers as estimated from ancient DNA, suggesting that unreliable yields in these regions might have favoured the contact between the two groups.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lia Betti
- Centre for Research in Evolutionary, Social and Inter-Disciplinary Anthropology, Department of Life Sciences, University of Roehampton, London, UK.
| | - Robert M Beyer
- Evolutionary Ecology Group, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK. .,PAVE Research Group, Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
| | - Eppie R Jones
- Evolutionary Ecology Group, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Anders Eriksson
- Evolutionary Ecology Group, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.,Department of Medical and Molecular Genetics, King's College London, Guys Hospital, London, UK.,cGEM, Institute of Genomics, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia
| | - Francesca Tassi
- Department of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, University of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy
| | - Veronika Siska
- Evolutionary Ecology Group, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Michela Leonardi
- Evolutionary Ecology Group, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Pierpaolo Maisano Delser
- Evolutionary Ecology Group, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.,Smurfit Institute of Genetics, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
| | - Lily K Bentley
- Evolutionary Ecology Group, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Philip R Nigst
- Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Jay T Stock
- PAVE Research Group, Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.,Department of Anthropology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.,Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany
| | - Ron Pinhasi
- Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Andrea Manica
- Evolutionary Ecology Group, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
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Rigaud S, d'Errico F, Vanhaeren M. Ornaments reveal resistance of North European cultures to the spread of farming. PLoS One 2015; 10:e0121166. [PMID: 25853888 PMCID: PMC4390204 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0121166] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/07/2014] [Accepted: 01/30/2015] [Indexed: 02/02/2023] Open
Abstract
The transition to farming is the process by which human groups switched from hunting and gathering wild resources to food production. Understanding how and to what extent the spreading of farming communities from the Near East had an impact on indigenous foraging populations in Europe has been the subject of lively debates for decades. Ethnographic and archaeological studies have shown that population replacement and admixture, trade, and long distance diffusion of cultural traits lead to detectable changes in symbolic codes expressed by associations of ornaments on the human body. Here we use personal ornaments to document changes in cultural geography during the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition. We submitted a binary matrix of 224 bead-types found at 212 European Mesolithic and 222 Early Neolithic stratigraphic units to a series of spatial and multivariate analyses. Our results reveal consistent diachronic and geographical trends in the use of personal ornaments during the Neolithisation. Adoption of novel bead-types combined with selective appropriation of old attires by incoming farmers is identified in Southern and Central Europe while cultural resistance leading to the nearly exclusive persistence of indigenous personal ornaments characterizes Northern Europe. We argue that this pattern reflects two distinct cultural trajectories with different potential for gene flow.
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Affiliation(s)
- Solange Rigaud
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Unité Mixte Internationale 3199 (UMI3199), Centre for International Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences (CIRHUS), New York University, New York, New York, United States of America
- Service de Préhistoire de l’Université de Liège, Liège, Belgium
| | - Francesco d'Errico
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Unité Mixte de Recherche 5199 (UMR5199), de la Préhistoire à l'Actuel: Culture, Environnement et Anthropologie (PACEA), Université de Bordeaux, Talence, France
- Institute for Archaeology, History, Cultural Studies and Religion, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway
| | - Marian Vanhaeren
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Unité Mixte de Recherche 5199 (UMR5199), de la Préhistoire à l'Actuel: Culture, Environnement et Anthropologie (PACEA), Université de Bordeaux, Talence, France
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Pinhasi R, von Cramon-Taubadel N. A craniometric perspective on the transition to agriculture in Europe. Hum Biol 2012; 84:45-66. [PMID: 22452428 DOI: 10.3378/027.084.0102] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/05/2022]
Abstract
Debates surrounding the nature of the Neolithic demographic transition in Europe have historically centered on two opposing models: a "demic" diffusion model whereby incoming farmers from the Near East and Anatolia effectively replaced or completely assimilated indigenous Mesolithic foraging communities, and an "indigenist" model resting on the assumption that ideas relating to agriculture and animal domestication diffused from the Near East but with little or no gene flow. The extreme versions of these dichotomous models were heavily contested primarily on the basis of archeological and modern genetic data. However, in recent years a growing acceptance has arisen of the likelihood that both processes were ongoing throughout the Neolithic transition and that a more complex, regional approach is required to fully understand the change from a foraging to a primarily agricultural mode of subsistence in Europe. Craniometric data were particularly useful for testing these more complex scenarios, as they can reliably be employed as a proxy for the genetic relationships among Mesolithic and Neolithic populations. In contrast, modern genetic data assume that modern European populations accurately reflect the genetic structure of Europe at the time of the Neolithic transition, while ancient DNA data are still not geographically or temporally detailed enough to test continent-wide processes. Here, with particular emphasis on the role of craniometric analyses, we review the current state of knowledge regarding the cultural and biological nature of the Neolithic transition in Europe.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ron Pinhasi
- Department of Archaeology, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland.
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