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In two treads at the same time Uwe Müller and
Philip Deitiker are discussing the neolithisation
of Europe and the special seemingly special
place of Scandinavia.
There were moments were I thought to throw
some information in, but I decided to put it
together in one seperate post. In that way it is
easier to access without disturbing the
discussion.
Below are links to four papers, with a short
abstract
Both Skak-Nielsen and Louwe Kooijmans are
also dealing with the interesting phenomenon of
partly neolithisation outside the LBK farmers
area, and an interesting question is also why the
mesolithic lowland fishers/hunters would change
their 'easy' life for agriculture.
Davison, K. et al (2005)
Environmental effects on the spread of the Neolithic
http://arxiv.org/abs/q-bio/0505013
Abstract
The causes and implications of the regional
variations in the spread of the incipient
agriculture in Europe remain poorly understood.
We apply population dynamics models to study
the dispersal of the Neolithic in Europe from a
localized area in the Near East, solving the two-
dimensional reaction-diffusion equation on a
spherical surface.
We focus on the role of major river paths and
coastlines in the advance of farming to model
the rapid advances of the Linear Pottery (LBK)
and the Impressed Ware traditions along the
Danube-Rhine corridor and the Mediterranean
coastline respectively. We argue that the
random walk of individuals, which results in
diffusion of the population, can be anisotropic in
those areas.
The standard reaction-diffusion equation is thus
supplemented with advection-like terms confined
to the proximity of major rivers and coastlines.
The model allows for the spatial variation in both
the human mobility (diffusivity) and the carrying
capacity of landscapes, reflecting the local
altitude and latitude.
This approach can easily be generalised to
include other environmental factors, such as the
bioproductivity of landscapes. Our model
successfully accounts for the regional variations
in the spread of the Neolithic, consistent with
the radiocarbon dated data, and reproduces a
time delay in the spread of farming to the
Eastern Europe and Scandinavia.
Joao Zilhao, J (2001)
Radiocarbon evidence for maritime pioneer
colonization at the origins of farming in
west Mediterranean Europe
http://www.pnas.org/cgi/reprint/98/24/14180.pdf
Most radiocarbon dates for the earliest Neolithic
cultures of west Mediterranean Europe are on
samples of unidentified charcoal. If only results
obtained on short lived samples (seeds, shells,
and bone) of diagnostic material (domesticates,
artifacts, and human remains) are considered,
then the dates for the first appearance of the
Neolithic package are indistinguishable
statistically from central Italy to Portugal and
cluster around 5400 calendar B.C. This rapidity
of spread, no more than six generations, can be
best explained in the framework of a maritime
pioneer colonization model.
Niels V. Skak-Nielsen (2004)
The neolithisation of Scandinavia
How did it happen?
http://tinyurl.com/kq9gs
Abstract
Since the early 1970s there has been a near-
consensus among archaeologists that agricul-
ture was introduced to southern Scandinavia
around 4000 cal BC without any immigration,
through a voluntary decision by the indigenous
hunter-fisher population. It has been surmised
that the necessary technology was adopted
through contact with Neolithic cultures on the
Continent.
In the present paper it is pointed out that these
views, as well as later models of an economic
shift without any immigration, are untenable. In
the absence of any immigration, there would
have been neither opportunity nor motive for the
shift to a new economic culture. The European
background to the shift is reviewed, taking into
accout new results in this field of research. It is
shown on the basis of published archaeological
research that there has been immigration into
southern Scandinavia.
The expansion of Neolithic cultures took c. two
centuries from Holstein into the peninsula of
Jutland and the Danish Isles, onward to Scania,
and then to Bornholm, the Lake Mälaren area,
Gotland and the Oslo Fiord. There is a strong
likelihood that a climate change at the time,
which caused the Danish straits and part of the
Baltic Sea to freeze over during the winters,
made this rapid spread of a new culture over
such a large area possible. It is shown that this
spread entailed immigration on a considerable
scale compared to the size of the area's
Mesolithic population.
Louwe Kooijmans. L.P (1993)
The Mesolithic/Neolithic Transformation in the
Lower Rhine Basin
https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/retrieve/1778/171_046.pd
"The major research problem is the transition
from a purely hunting and gathering to a fully
agrarian society: in what time trajectory and how
and why this transition took place."
"In the loess zone of the German Rhineland,
South Limburg, and Belgium, Neolithic occupa-
tion was well established, specifically the Early
Neolithic Linear Pottery culture or Linearband-
keramik, with radiocarbon dates of 6400 to 6000
b.p. (now known to be 5300 to 4900 B.C.).
Within South Limburg, these settlements
appeared to cluster in a microregion known äs
the Graetheide, an extensive area of almost flat
and low Middle Terrace, at the northern fringe of
the loess zone. Town development gave rise to a
series of large-scale rescue excavations at now
famous sites like Geleen (1953), Sittard (1953 to
1954), Elsloo and Stein (1958 to 1966), and it
was especially the work of Professor P. J. R.
Modderman (1958, 1970, 1975) that made this
cluster of sites in the extreme northwestern
corner of the culture area the most productive
region for our knowledge of the Bandkeramik at
that time."
--
p.a.
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