Abstract: This paper presents the demographic changes that followed the transition from a hunting-gath- ering way of life (Natufian) to an agricultural, food-pro- ducing economy (Neolithic) in the southern Levant. The study is based on 217 Natufian (10,500 - 8,300 BC) skele- tons and 262 Neolithic (8,300 -5,500 BC) skeletons. Age and sex identification were carried out, and life tables were constructed. A five-parameter competing hazard model developed by Siler ((1979) Ecology 60:750 -757) was used to smooth life-table data. No indication of increased mortality with the advent of agriculture was noted. On the contrary, both life expectancy at birth (24.6 vs. 25.5 years) and adults' mean age at death (31.2 vs. 32.1 years) in- creased slightly from the Natufian to the Neolithic period (assuming stationary populations). Yet the transition to agriculture affected males and females differently: mean age at death in the Natufian was higher for adult females compared to adult males, while in the Neolithic, it was the reverse. One interpretation given to the distribution of female ages at death is that with the onset of the Neolithic period, maternal mortality increased as a result of a con- comitant increase in fertility. If the adoption of agricul- ture in the Levant increased the rate of population growth at the beginning of the Neolithic, expectation of life may have increased dramatically. Am J Phys Anthropol 124: 315-329, 2004. © 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Abstract: A previous radiocarbon dating and stable isotope study of directly associated ungulate and human bone samples from Late Mesolithic burials at Schela Cladovei in Romania established that there is a freshwater reservoir effect of approximately 500 yr in the Iron Gates reach of the Danube River valley in southeast Europe. Using the δ15N values as an indicator of the percentage of freshwater protein in the human diet, the 14C data for 24 skeletons from the site of Lepenski Vir were corrected for this reservoir effect. The results of the paired 14C and stable isotope measurements provide evidence of substantial dietary change over the period from about 9000 BP to about 300 BP. The data from the Early Mesolithic to the Chalcolithic are consistent with a 2-component dietary system, where the linear plot of isotopic values reflects mixing between the 2 end-members to differing degrees. Typically, the individuals of Mesolithic age have much heavier δ15N signals and slightly heavier δ13C, while individuals of Early Neolithic and Chalcolithic age have lighter δ15N and δ13C values. Contrary to our earlier suggestion, there is no evidence of a substantial population that had a transitional diet midway between those that were characteristic of the Mesolithic and Neolithic. However, several individuals with "Final Mesolithic" 14C ages show δ15N and δ13C values that are similar to the Neolithic dietary pattern. Provisionally, these are interpreted either as incomers who originated in early farming communities outside the Iron Gates region or as indigenous individuals representing the earliest Neolithic of the Iron Gates. The results from Roman and Medieval age burials show a deviation from the linear function, suggesting the presence of a new major dietary component containing isotopically heavier carbon. This is interpreted as a consequence of the introduction of millet into the human food chain.

Abstract: The main objective of this paper is to suggest an alternative approach for the investigation of domestication in the Levant. First, basic data regarding domestication in the Levant are presented. Then the various traditional approaches towards domestication in the prehistoric Levant, labeled (1) environmental, (2) social and anthropological, and (3) cognitive, are briefly reviewed. This discussion forms the basis for a proposal of a “holistic approach,” in which domestication is regarded as a long-term, multidimensional and multirelational phenomenon, including many elements—such as plants, animals, humans, material culture and ancestors—with increasing human manipulation of these various constituents. After a presentation of the theoretical framework, a growth metaphor is used to reconstruct the process of domestication (ca. 20,000–6500 B.P.) as a number of phases: (1) germination in the Kebaran; (2) development in the Early Natufian; (3) retreat/dormancy in the Late/Final Natufian; (4) growth in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A; (5) florescence in the Early- and Middle Pre-Pottery Neolithic B: (6) further development in the Late Pre-Pottery Neolithic B; (7) dispersal in the Final Pre-Pottery Neolithic B and the Pottery Neolithic. In each of these phases, relations between the various elements are dealt with, special attention being paid to symbolical relations, as evidenced by “art” and ritual.

Abstract: Post-processual views of the transition to agriculture in North-western Europe have sought to decouple ideology and subsistence economy as a means of protecting the status of ideology as the sole cause of change. Ideology(as reflected in material culture and monument building) changed abruptly. To achieve the required decoupling, subsistence is therefore portrayed as having changed slowly. This implies three things: (I) 'Mesolithic foragers were gradually intensifying their subsistence economy. (2) Neolithic people subsisted mainly on wild animals and plants and were nomadic. (3) Subsistence change across the ideological transition was slow, continuous, and seamless. Many other scholars, although not post-processualists, have come to accept these three points. But as the post-processual view has become the consensus, the data from Britain, Ireland, and southern Scandinavia have all been leading in the opposite direction: (I) There is no reason to think that Mesolithic foragers were intensifying economically. (2) Neolithic people subsisted mainly on cultivated plants and domestic animals and were fully sedentary. (3) The transition to agriculture was rapid and probably traumatic. The current consensus has yet to incorporate these data into its explanatory framework.

Abstract: In this paper we present 17 new AMS dates from the Mesolithic–Early Neolithic sites of Padina and Hajducka Vodenica and discuss the continuity and nature of occupation at them in the context of the Mesolithic–Neolithic transformations in the Danube Gorges region (north-central Balkans), c.10000–5500 Cal BC. The dates indicate long occupation sequences and help refine the stratigraphies of the two sites. They, also enable us to date architectural features, burial positions and bone/antler tools, and to further our understanding of the impact of the noted aquatic reservoir effect on radiocarbon dating of human and dog remains from this region. Finally, these dates suggest continuity of occupation at sites other than Lepenski Vir in the Danube Gorges at the time of the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition, c.6300–5950 Cal BC.

Abstract: The late Mesolithic and Neolithic cemetery of Zvejnieki on the shore of Lake Burtnieki, northern Latvia, is unique. More than 300 burials have been found, spanning over three millennia. The skeletal evidence, supported by the numerous grave goods (both tools and ornaments) provides invaluable evidence for the anthropological types of the Mesolithic tribes and their origins' as well as a better insight into the processes of interaction between Neolithic tribes' over a very long period of time. The study, which includes illustrated catalogues of burials and finds, was first published in Latvia in 1987 (a year after the author's death) but is now available in English for the first time.

Abstract: In this contribution I address a series of recent publications which present revisionist accounts of the beginning of the Neolithic in the British Isles. New evidence suggests that we need to reconsider issues of population movement, diet, mobility and residence patterns. However, I conclude that a return to a model of colonisation by an agricultural population from the continent is premature, and seek to stress the distinct patterns of change that characterised Britain and Ireland respectively.

Abstract: Some previous authors have argued for the practice of offshore, deep-water fishing in the European Mesolithic. In this article, various lines of evidence are brought to bear on this question: the kinds of fishing gear employed, the evidence relating to the use of boats and navigation, site location, ethnographic data, and fish biology and behaviour. It is concluded that the existence of deep-sea fisheries cannot be demonstrated on the basis of the available data. However, around much of Europe Mesolithic shorelines now lie below sea level and the study highlights the need for underwater archaeological investigation of submerged landscapes.

Abstract: We present new data on Early Mesolithic settlements in northern Sweden and discuss the process of pioneer colonization. A new set of radiocarbon dates from archaeological sites push deglaciation of northern Fennoscandia further back in time and demonstrate the rapid arrival of pioneer settlers. Environmental data reveal a highly productive early postglacial setting with plant communities unmatched in present ecosystems. The chronological and technological setting supports immigration from the north and northwest with pioneers relying on a long history of enculturating northern subarctic landscapes.

Abstract: By 3000 BC, farmers had settled most of the small islands of north-western Europe. This implies the transportation of domestic animals by sea, sometimes over long distances, and the adaptation of herding techniques to new marine environments. While many of the same islands were in use in the Mesolithic period, the nature and extent of this use appears to have been quite different. Zooarchaeological and stable isotopic analysis converge to suggest that the diet of human communities at this time was heavily reliant on marine foods. Neolithic settlements located in the same setting offer a contrasting view. Shell middens were still present at this time, and the remains of fish, marine birds and sea mammals confirm that marine resources were still exploited, but isotopic evidence highlights their minor contribution to the diet. This, combined with the faunal dominance of cattle, sheep and pig, indicates a reliance on domesticated resources. By the end of the Neolithic, even the most peripheral islands...

Abstract: In 1976 a late Mesolithic Ertebolle settlement (c.5000 BC) and a slightly later male burial in a dug-out canoe, were discovered off the southern coast of Denmark. Small-scale investigations by the Langeland Museum and volunteer divers led to a full-scale excavation of the submerged remains in 1990-1. This volume publishes the findings of the excavations with a detailed discussion of the geology and topography of the area, the methods used and developed to record and recover material, as well as descriptions of the structures, finds and environmental remains. Reports on flint and other stone objects, bone and antler artefacts, wood, seeds, fruits, pottery are all included. The evidence from the Mollegabet II site is then placed within a regional context as the authors examine other near contemporary finds in the waters off the southern coast.

Abstract: In 1976 a late Mesolithic Ertebolle settlement (c5000 BC) and a slightly later male burial in a dug-out canoe, were discovered off the southern coast of Denmark Small-scale investigations by the Langeland Museum and volunteer divers led to a full-scale excavation of the submerged remains in 1990-1 This volume publishes the findings of the excavations with a detailed discussion of the geology and topography of the area, the methods used and developed to record and recover material, as well as descriptions of the structures, finds and environmental remains Reports on flint and other stone objects, bone and antler artefacts, wood, seeds, fruits, pottery are all included The evidence from the Mollegabet II site is then placed within a regional context as the authors examine other near contemporary finds in the waters off the southern coast

Abstract: This paper focuses on the agricultural transition in Portugal and on demography across this transition, concentrating on two key skeletal samples, the Mesolithic shell midden of Cabeco da Arruda and the Neolithic burial cave of Casa da Moura. It extends our previous work on the demography of the transition and the methodology surrounding its determination. We explain our method for determination of the number of individuals in samples where whole skeletons cannot be used. We then concentrate on the estimation of fertility, placing it within limits of biological feasibility, sample inadequacies, and vagaries of age assessment. From our analysis, which includes an examination of historical issues with the sites, we argue for regional population continuity between 8000 and 6000 cal BP, and suggest that Neolithic life-ways slowly intensified, founded on important elements deriving from the late Mesolithic, with changes that included increased fertility through shortening of the birth interval

Abstract: The fundamental elements of material culture - essentially stone, bone and antler tools - surviving from the Mesolithic period in Scotland are described and discussed in terms of significance and chronology

Abstract: The discovery of Mesolithic sites in Upper and Lower Sindh is of fundamental importance for the study of the Early Holocene communities that inhabited the territory around the beginning of the Holocene. Microlithic chipped stone assemblages have been discovered in two distinct regions: the Thar Desert of Upper Sindh, and along the coast of the Arabian Sea and on the terraces of the rivers that flow into it, around the Karachi Gulf (Lower Sindh). The variable characteristics of the chipped stone assemblages seem to indicate different chronological periods of habitation and models of exploitation of the natural resources. Due to the rarity of organic material, only one Lower Sindh site has been so far radiocarbon-dated. The typological analysis of the assemblages, currently under way, will lead to a more detailed definition of the periods represented at the different sites. At present the only parallels can be extended to the microlithic sites of Rajastan and Gujarat, in India, a few of which consist of radiocarbon-dated, stratified settlements.

Abstract: After the close of the Tardiglacial, when human settlement had extended high into the Cantabrian Cordillera and throughout the entire northern region of Atlantic Spain, dense early Holocene forests seem to have caused a major shift in human distributions involving at least substantial abandonment of the interior and concentration along the early Postglacial coast, especially near the newly created estuaries. This led to the formation of shell middens and simplified technologies that included the Asturian and other local adaptations to varying coastal substrata and resources between c. 9000-6000 radiocarbon years BP. Major changes again occurred with the late arrival of the Neolithic in this agriculturally marginal region of the Atlantic facade, not only in subsistence practices, but importantly also in ideology and settlement pattern, including the recolonization of the Cantabrian hinterland. This paper briefly reviews this archeological record in Asturias, Cantabria & the coastal Basque Country and discusses various models that have been advanced to explain it.

Abstract: In the Balkans archaeologists until recently have neglected Pleistocene and early Holocene remains in open-air contexts in favor of excavations in caves. As a consequence, they have reconstructed patterns of settlement and land use that in many areas are misleading. The authors of this paper suggest that a systematic examination of Palaeolithic and Mesolithic open-air sites through intensive surface survey has the potential to transform entirely our understanding of early Balkan prehistory. We demonstrate this by presenting in detail the results of our own fieldwork in central Albania in the region of Mallakastra, in particular a description of surface archaeological investigations and test excavations at the site of Kryegjata B that have yielded Middle Palaeolithic, Early Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic finds.

Abstract: Several faunal assemblages excavated in deposits of different antiquity (from Lower Paleolithic to Bronze Age), located in Northern, Central and Southern Italy, were studied from the archeozoological and taphonomic point of view. Data obtained by different Authors allow reconstruction of subsistence strategies adopted by prehistoric humans in these areas and through time, in particular as far as the exploitation of animal resources is concerned. The following assemblages were considered: Isernia La Pineta (Molise; Lower Paleolithic), Grotta Breuil (Latium; Middle Paleolithic), Grotta della Ghiacciaia (Verona; Middle Paleolithic), Riparo di Fumane and Riparo Tagliente (Verona; Middle and Upper Paleolithic), Riparo Mochi (Liguria; Upper Paleolithic), Grotta della Continenza (L'Aquila; Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic), Grotta dell'Edera (Trieste; Mesolithic and Neolithic), Grotta della Cala at Marina di Camerota (Salerno; Eneolithic), Contraguda (Sassari; Neolithic), Castellaro Lagusello (Mantova; Bronze Age). Exploitation of the vegetal resources has been analyzed in the Neolithic sites of Colle Santo Stefano (Fucino), Settefonti (L'Aquila) and Catignano (Pescara).

Abstract: Attempts to identify the seasons during which Mesolithic sites may have been occupied have usually concentrated on evidence from faunal assemblages, while the potential of plant remains has been largely neglected. In this paper the use of plant remains as indicators of seasonality is discussed, especially where they represent the accidental charring of species unlikely to have been deliberately collected and stored. This is illustrated with reference to the early Mesolithic site of Star Carr, North Yorkshire, and discussed in the context of other Mesolithic sites from which assemblages of charred plant remains have been recovered.

Abstract: The surface pottery from a well-preserved Holocene archaeological site in south-western Libya is analysed. The collection suggests a long and protracted human occupation of the shelter, from Late Acacus (Mesolithic) hunter-gatherers to Late Pastoral (Neolithic) herders. Aim of the work is to decode the dynamic history of the site via the study of its surface elements, both artefacts and ecofacts, and the way they interacted over the millennia. To do this, traditional ceramic analysis is combined with recently developed methods of description imported from sedimentology, stressing the potentialities of surface archaeological material. In this framework, spatial analysis of scattered potsherds, in connection with their quantitative and qualitative features and chronological attribution, appears of main relevance in the analysis of site formation processes and postdepositional events that altered the archaeological deposit, transforming its present surface.

Abstract: Chipped stone tools made by both Mesolithic foragers and Neolithic farmers, play a significant role in discussions about the beginning of the Neolithic in Central Europe (LBK culture). In this paper I compare the technology of blade production, the distribution of raw stone sources and the occurrence of so-called culturally specific tool types (trapezes, borers and retouched blades) of the chipped stone industries of Mesolithic and Early Neolithic sites in Central Europe and Balkans. I suggest indigenous development of the LBK culture in the region of Transdanubia. I would like to emphasize the psychological implications on Neolithisation. I suggest long before the physical acceptance of the Neolithic, some changes occurred at the psychic level. First, there was a Neolithisation of the hunter-gatherer soul (psyche), followed by Neolithisation at the material level. On the end of this paper I try to explain the rapid dispersion of the Early LBK culture throughout Central Europe.

Abstract: Thembi Russell's thesis analyses and compares in meticulous detail two radiocarbon databases, one from Europe and the other from south-western Africa, in order to examine the circumstances and rate of the transition from hunter-gathering to farming. The evidence from Mesolithic and Neolithic sites across Europe (9-5,000 years ago) is contrasted with the radiocarbon evidence for the first sheep farming in southern Africa (4,000 years ago). Graphs, maps and tables help to illustrate the results.

Abstract: The article outlines the first results of the French Archaeological Mission to Mongolia centered on the Neolithic. The topics discussed include general aspects of the initial Neolithisation in Eurasia, and the use of state-of-the art archaeological techniques in studies of Prehistory, with special reference to the Mesolithic/Neolithic interface, as exemplified by a survey and excavations in the area of Tamsagbulag site (Eastern Mongolia, aimak/district of Dornod) originally investigated by a Soviet-Mongolian mission directed by Professor A. P. Okladnikov, a renowned Russian archaeologist.

Abstract: One of the most striking results from the excavation of Sarnes B4 in 1993 was a radiocarbon date of 10,280 ± 80 B.P. − the earliest date associated with a north Scandinavian Early Mesolithic context. The date revitalized an old, but still ongoing, debate about the pioneer settlement of both the region and the country as a whole, and also generated international interest. Since then, researchers have cited this early date without undertaking a critical assessment of its nature, while a younger radiocarbon date of 8120 ± 75 B.P. from the same site has been largely ignored. This situation is problematic and this paper undertakes to reassess the evidence through a re-analysis of the site. First, the topography, climate, and vegetation are examined. Then, an examination of excavated materials reveals both the material culture and chronological homogeneity of the site as well as of its social and economic setting.