Abstract: Foreword ( Clark Spencer Larsen). List of Contributors. 1. Introduction: Changing Paradigms in Our Understanding of the Transition to Agriculture: Human Bioarchaeology, Behaviour and Adaption (Jay T. Stock and Ron Pinhasi). Section A: Subsistence Transitions. 2. Mesolithic-Neolithic Transitions: An Isotopic Tour through Europe (Rick Schulting). 3. The Mesolithic-Neolithic Transition in Eastern Europe: Integrating Stable Isotope Studies of Diet with Palaeopathology to Identify Subsistence Strategies and Economy (Malcolm Lillie and Chelsea Budd). 4. Climatic Conditions, Hunting Activities and Husbandry Practices in the Course of the Neolithic Transition: The Story Told by Stable Isotope Analyses of Human and Animal Skeletal Remains (Gisela Grupe and Joris Peters). 5. Health, Diet and Social Implications in Neolithic Greece from the Study of Human Osteological Material (Anastasia Papathanasiou). 6. Using a Bioarchaeological Approach to Explore Subsistence Transitions in the Eastern Cape, South Africa during the Mid- to Late Holocene (Jaime K. Ginter). Section B: Growth and Body Size Variation. 7. Long Bone Length, Stature and Time in the European Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene (Christopher Mieklejohn and Jeff Babb). 8. Variability in Long Bone Growth Patterns and Limb Proportions Within and Amongst Mesolithic and Neolithic Populations from Southeast Europe (Ron Pinhasi, S. Stefanovic, Anastasia Papathanasiou and Jay T. Stock). 9. Reaching Great Heights: Changes in Indigenous Stature, Body Size and Body Shape with Agricultural Intensification in North America (Benjamin M. Auerbach). 10. Evolution of Postcranial Morphology during the Agricultural Transition in Prehistoric Japan (Daniel H. Temple). Section C: Biomechanics and Indicators of Habitual Activity. 11. The Bioarchaeology of Habitual Activity and Dietary Change in the Siberian Middle Holocene (A.R. Lieverse, Jay T. Stock, M.A. Katzenberg and C.M. Haverkort). 12. 'An External Agency of Considerable Importance': The Stresses of Agriculture in the Foraging-to-Farming Transition in Eastern North America (Clark Spencer Larsen and Christopher Ruff). 13. Mobility and Lower Limb Robusticity of a Pastoralist Neolithic Population from North-Western Italy (Damiano Marchi, Vitale Sparacello and Colin Shaw). 14. Body Size, Skeletal Biomechanics, Mobility and Habitual Activity from the Late Palaeolithic to the Mid-Dynastic Nile Valley (Jay T. Stock, Matthew C. O'Neill, Christopher B. Ruff, Melissa Zabecki, Laura Shackelford and Jerome C. Rose). Section D: Archaeogenetics, Palaeodemography, Cranial and Dental Morphology. 15. The Palaeopopulationgenetics of Humans, Cattle and Dairying in Neolithic Europe (Joachim Burger and Mark G. Thomas). 16. The Genetics of the Neolithic Transition: New Light on Differences Between Hunter-Gatherers and Farmers in Southern Sweden (Anna Linderholm). 17. Palaeodemography of Southern Levantine Pre-Pottery Neolithic Populations: Regional and Temporal Perspectives (Vered Eshed and Ehud Galili). 18. Skeletal Differentiation at the Southernmost Frontier of Andean Agriculture (Marina L. Sardi and Marien Beguelin). 19. Dental Reduction and the Transition to Agriculture in Europe (Ron Pinhasi and Christopher Meiklejohn). Index.

Abstract: The generalised picture of Mesolithic marine diet giving way to a Neolithic terrestrial diet, as derived from isotope measurements, has been both championed and challenged in this journal. Here new results from the Balkans offer a preliminary picture of a diversity of food strategy, both before and after the great transition.

Abstract: Careful examination of the probable natural conditions for travel in the North Sea and Irish Sea during the late Mesolithic are here combined with the latest radiocarbon dates to present a new picture of the transition to the Neolithic in the British Isles. The islands of the west were already connected by Mesolithic traffic and did not all go Neolithic at the same time. The introduction of the Neolithic package neither depended on seaborne incomers nor on proximity to the continent. More interesting forces were probably operating on an already busy seaway.

Abstract: Recent paleogenetic studies have confirmed that the spread of the Neolithic across Europe was neither genetically nor geographically uniform. To extend existing knowledge of the mitochondrial European Neolithic gene pool, we examined six samples of human skeletal material from a French megalithic long mound (c. 4200 cal BC). We retrieved HVR-I sequences from three individuals and demonstrated that in the Neolithic period the mtDNA haplogroup N1a, previously only known in central Europe, was as widely distributed as western France. Alternative scenarios are discussed in seeking to explain this result, including Mesolithic ancestry, Neolithic demic diffusion, and long-distance matrimonial exchanges. In light of the limited Neolithic ancient DNA (aDNA) data currently available, we observe that all three scenarios appear equally consistent with paleogenetic and archaeological data. In consequence, we advocate caution in interpreting aDNA in the context of the Neolithic transition in Europe. Nevertheless, our results strengthen conclusions demonstrating genetic discontinuity between modern and ancient Europeans whether through migration, demographic or selection processes, or social practices. Am J Phys Anthropol 144:108-118, 2011. (C) 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Abstract: The Neolithisation process is one of the major issues under debate in Aegean archaeology, since the description of the basal layers of Thessalian tell-settlements some fifty years ago. The pottery, figurines or stamps seemed to be of Anatolian origin, and were presumably brought to the region by colonists. The direct linking of the so-called ‘Neolithic Package’ with groups of people leaving Central Anatolia after the collapse of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B resulted in the colonisation model of the Aegean. This view is not supported by results obtained from natural sciences such as archaeobotany, radiocarbon analyses, and neutron activation on obsidian. When theories of social networks are brought into the discussion, the picture that emerges becomes much more differentiated and complex.

Abstract: This article considers the long-debated and thorny issue of the transition from the Mesolithic to the Neolithic in Britain. The apparently polarised debate that has dominated this discussion is, we suggest, unhelpful, and rather than positing either total colonisation from abroad, or simple indigenous continuity, we propose a model where both incomers and autochthons had their part to play. To explore this further we trace continuities across the divide in practices of hunting and gathering, and place these alongside the demonstrable evidence for change.

Abstract: This paper discusses the Greek Mesolithic record in the light of refinements to the international calibration curve and recent archaeological research. Central to the discussion are the time frame used for this period of Greek prehistory, and the diagnostic potential, or visibility, of Mesolithic stone tools. Rather than offering a comprehensive account of Mesolithic sites across Greece, this study focuses on a few known cave sites in the northwest, in order to bring out some less pronounced aspects of their material record. Close and comparative examination of their radiocarbon dates, and traits of continuity and change in the lithic industries, highlights a regional pattern. At some sites, occupation extended into the Holocene, but there is little or no contrast to the preceding, late Upper Palaeolithic technological traditions. A working hypothesis to account for the geographic, temporal and cultural diversity of early Holocene sites and finds in Greece is thus spelled out. It is proposed that the Greek Mesolithic record is the manifestation of a mosaic of human groups, of different origins and cultural traditions, subsisting on a variety of resources and living in different regions, at different times and seasons of the early Holocene.

Abstract: The Niah Caves in Sarawak, Borneo, have captured evidence for people and economies of 8000 and 4000 years ago. Although not continuous on this site, these open two windows on to life at the cultural turning point, broadly equivalent to the transition from Mesolithic to Neolithic. They have much in common, inferring that the occupants, perhaps belonging to an older maritime dispersal, had a choosy appetite for the Neolithic package.

Abstract: This thesis focuses on practices of disarticulation and bodily manipulation in the Mesolithic of north-west Europe. While the presence of ?loose human bone? has been noted on Mesolithic sites for several decades, this has often been dismissed as the result of taphonomic factors, such as disturbed graves. Instead, studies of mortuary practices have primarily focused on the cemeteries and issues of social complexity, ranking and status. Disarticulated human bone, which cannot throw new light on such issues, has consequently been ignored. Only with more recent discoveries of larger collections of disarticulated human remains, from secure contexts, has this phenomena begun to be taken more seriously, Cauwe (2001) arguing for example, that disarticulation represents the primary Mesolithic mortuary practice. Despite this claim, little work has focused on practices of manipulation and disarticulation beyond a few studies of individual sites, thus little is understood about the nature and variability of these mortuary practices. The aim of this thesis is therefore to provide a broad study of disarticulated Mesolithic remains across north-west Europe (though excluding Scandinavia). In order to tackle the methodological issues involved in the analysis of these assemblages, as well as to provide a considered study of the context of these remains, three detailed osteological case studies ? Hardinxveld in the Netherlands and Les Varennes and Petit Marais in France ? are presented. These are then compared with a series of well-published sites in order to draw out the full parameters of Mesolithic mortuary variability. It is argued here that Mesolithic mortuary practices were complex and were often temporally and spatially extended. These practices of disarticulation and manipulation also appear to indicate a concern with bodily decay and the circulation of body parts. The implications of these practices for the understanding of Mesolithic identities, bodies, and attitudes to death are also drawn out.

Abstract: Shellfish metrical data are a source of information about the exploitation of marine resources in the past. In this study, we propose a methodological approach based on the size structures of different rocky intertidal gastropod species. Three limpet species (Patella vulgata, Patella intermedia and Patella ulyssiponensis) and the toothed topshell Osilinus lineatus are studied from two sites in Cantabrian Spain: La Garma A and Los Gitanos caves over a period of 10 000 years, covering the Pleistocene–Holocene transition. Data are also supplied about a further sea snail species, the periwinkle Littorina littorea (Upper Magdalenian). A reduction in size can be seen, between the upper Magdalenian and the late Neolithic, in the case of the first four species. The explanation for this decline is probably related to the climate change that occurred in the transition between the Late Pleistocene and the Holocene, but it is possible that human impact might also have influenced shell sizes in the Mesolithic and Neolithic.

Abstract: During the earlier phases of occupation the surrounding woodlands wee probably still relatively undisturbed providing a range of typical lowland woodland tree species for fuel and construction. Hazel nut fragments in some pits may indicate a Mesolithic or early Neolithic date. Evidence for Neolithic agriculture was found in the form of carbonised emmer and bread wheat together with naked barley. Charcoal production was taking place and may be related to industrial activity of some kind.

Abstract: First identified 100 years ago, the Iberomaurusian is an Epipaleolithic industry that was described from a number of sites across western North Africa. One of these is Grotte des Contrebandiers (Smugglers’ Cave) in Morocco, where Abbe Jean Roche recovered Iberomaurusian materials in excavations in the late 1950s. Although the lithics were published in the early 1960s, subsequent changes in methods and in assessing the interpretive potential of lithic assemblages necessitated a restudy of these collections from Contrebandiers. This study led to a better understanding of the lithic types present and of the use of particular stone raw materials. Iberomaurusians emphasized lithic strategies that maximized use of fine-grained stone to the extent that pieces esquillees should be, among others, a defining criterion for this lithic industry.

Abstract: List of Illustrations vii List of Abbreviations ix Introduction: The Fantastic Cauldron of the Mediterranean Koine xi 1 Seafaring in the Mesolithic Mediterranean 1 2 The Neolithic Revolution/Transition 13 3 The Neolithic Diaspora 35 4 Urbanization in Mesopotamia 60 5 The Third Millennium 83 6 The Middle Bronze Age (2000 1550 BC): Recoveries 126 7 Late Bronze Age Maritime Networks 162 8 The Late Bronze Age Collapse and its Aftermath 193 9 Recovery and Expansion (1050 850 BC) 220 Bibliography 256 Index 349

Abstract: As Mesolithic people living on the Baltic coast began to adopt farming in the later fifth millennium BC, imports of a new type and quality started to reach them from the south — highly decorated pots and then copper axes from the Hungary-Serbia area. With new excavations at the site of Dąbki 9 in northern Poland, the authors are able to show how high quality thin-walled shiny black vessels are travelling over 1000km in the early fourth millennium BC, bringing prestige cups and jugs to the Baltic shore.

Abstract: 1 Department of Archaeology, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland 2 Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade, Cika Ljubina 18-20, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro 3 Ephorate of Paleoanthropology and Speleology, Greek Ministry of Culture,11636 Athens, Greece 4 Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies, Department of Biological Anthropology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 1QH, UK

Abstract: Der Beitrag stellt drei mesolithische Geweihlochstäbe der Fundstellen Twedt-Buschau, Verchen (beide Norddeutschland) und Krzyż (Polen) vor, die nach Meinung der Autoren als zoomorphe Darstellungen interpretiert werden können. Die Basis der Abwurfstangen wurde jeweils teilweise abgearbeitet und die Sprosse als spitzer Stumpf zugerichtet. Die so entstandene Form kann als stilisierter Kopf eines Elches angesprochen werden. Die ähnliche Zurichtung der Objekte und die nahezu übereinstimmende absolute Datierung der Geweihstäbe von Twedt-Buschau und Krzyż in das frühe Boreal unterstützen diese Hypothese. Die skulptierten Geweihstäbe, die ein neues Element mesolithischer Kunst der nordeuropäischen Tiefebene repräsentieren, werden abschließend in die Entwicklung der spätpaläolithischen/mesolithischen Kunst eingeordnet. Cet article présente trois bâtons percés mésolithiques trouvés sur les sites de Twedt-Buschau, Verchen (tous deux en Allemagne du Nord) et Krzyż (Pologne), dans lesquels les auteurs voient des représentations zoomorphes. Ces bois tombés ont été partiellement travaillés à leur base et les andouillers taillés en pointe arrondie. La forme qui en résulte peut alors être perçue comme la tête stylisée d'un élan. La taille similaire de ces trois objets et la datation absolue, presque identique, des bâtons percés de Twedt-Buschau et Krzyż au début du Boréal renforcent cette hypothèse. Ces bâtons percés et sculptés, qui représentent un nouvel élément de l'art mésolithique des plaines de l'Europe septentrionale, sont ensuite intégrés dans l'évolution artistique du Paléolithique final au Mésolithique. The article discusses three perforated antler objects from Twedt-Buschau, Verchen (northern Germany) and Krzyż (Poland) which can be interpreted as zoomorphic representations. The roses of the antlers show cutmarks and the lower tines were modified into pin like stumps. The antlers are identified as abstract elk heads. This is supported by the very similar shape of the objects and the fact that the pieces from Twedt-Buschau and Krzyż date to the same early Boreal period. In the final chapter the meaning of the new evidence is discussed in the frame work of the development of Late Palaeolithic to Mesolithic art.

Abstract: This paper discusses the results of new research that has been carried out on the Early Mesolithic wetland landscape of the eastern Vale of Pickering. Environmental profiles have been recorded from two areas of Early Mesolithic activity close to the former shore of the palaeo-Lake Flixton. These have refined our understanding of the sequence of environmental change taking place around the edge of the lake, and its relationship to the pattern of Mesolithic activity that took place within these wetland areas. The results of this work are then used to discuss the depositional context of the artefact assemblages from Star Carr and the wider relationship between Mesolithic people and the wetlands of this area.

Abstract: In 2002 and 2004–2005 archaeological investigations were undertaken on middens exposed by coastal erosion at West Voe in the south of Mainland Shetland, UK. This work established that the site dated from c. 4000 cal BC to c. 3250 cal BC and was of major importance for two reasons: (1) as the first of Mesolithic date to be found on Shetland; (2) as the first site to be found in the Northern Isles that spanned the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition. This paper describes investigations into the origin of sands deposited around 3500 cal BC and their potential effect on human settlement. The sands in question lie between two midden deposits, the lower of which accumulated over the period 4000–3500 cal BC and the upper 3500–3250 cal BC. The sands, therefore, dated to the period shortly after the adoption of agriculture on the archipelago, represented in the lower midden by the appearance of domesticated species and ceramics at around 3700–3600 cal BC, and represented a disruption in human occupation at a critical point in the development of a changing use of the landscape.