Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T10:08:44.871Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Neolithic transition in Europe: comparing broad scale genetic and local scale isotopic evidence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

R. Alexander Bentley
Affiliation:
Centre for the Evolutionary Analysis of Cultural Behaviour, University College London, 31–34 Gordon Square, London WC1H OPY UK. ([email protected])
Lounès Chikhi
Affiliation:
UMR Evolution et Diversité Biologique, CESAC UMR C 5576 – Bat. IV R3, Université Paul Sabatier, 118 Route de Narbonne, 31062- Toulouse cédex 4 France. ([email protected])
T. Douglas Price
Affiliation:
Laboratory for Archaeological Chemistry, University of Wisconsin, 1180 Observatory Dr., Madison, WI 53705 USA. ([email protected])

Abstract

Genetic studies of modern populations are raising many interesting questions about how far the modern gene pool is owed to incoming populations during the agricultural revolution in Neolithic Europe. But, as the authors show, studies of isotopic data from cemeteries reveal a picture of increasing subtlety at local level. While early farmers may have been initially newcomers in the upper Rhine they may also have soon intermarried with contemporary hunter-gatherers in the uplands.

Type
Research
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2003

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ammerman, A. J. & Cavalli-Svorza, L. L.. 1984. The Neolithic Transition and the Genetics of Populations in Europe. Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barbujani, G., Bertorelle, G. & Chikhi, L.. 1998. Evidence for Palaeolithic and Neolithic gene flow in Europe. American Journal Human Genetics 62, 48891.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bentley, R. A., Price, T. D., Lüning, J., Gronenborn, D., Wahl, J. & Fullagar, P. D.. 2002. Human migration in early Neolithic Europe. Current Anthropology 43: 799804 Google Scholar
Bentley, R. A., Krause, R., Price, T. D. & Kaufmann, B.. 2003. Human mobility at the early Neolithic settlement of Vaihingen, Germany: evidence from strontium isotope analysis. Archaeometry, in press.Google Scholar
Chikhi, L., Nichols, R., Barbujani, G. & Beaumont, M. A.. 2002. Y genetic data support the Neolithic diffusion model. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 99: 1100811013.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Diamond, J. 2001. Tree trail to Chaco Canyon. Nature 413: 687690.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ericson, J. E. 1985. Strontium isotope characterization in the study of prehistoric human ecology. Journal of Human Evolution 14: 503514.Google Scholar
Gkiasta, M., Russell, T., Shennan, S. & J. Steele. 2003. Origins of European agriculture: the radiocarbon record revisited. Antiquity, this issue.Google Scholar
Goldstein, D. B. & Chikhi, L. 2002. Human migrations and population structure: what we know and why it matters. Annual Review of Genomics and Human Genetics 3: 129152.Google Scholar
Gregg, S. A. 1988. Foragers and farmers. Population interaction and agricultural expansion in prehistoric Europe. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Gronenborn, D. 1999. A variation on a basic theme: the transition to farming in Southern Central Europe. Journal of World Prehistory 2: 23210.Google Scholar
Price, T. D., editor. 2000. Europe’ First Farmers. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Price, T. Douglas, Grupe, Gisela, & Schröter, Peter. 1998. Migration and mobility in the Bell Beaker period in Central Europe. Antiquity 72:405—411.Google Scholar
Price, T. D., Bentley, R. A., Gronenborn, D., J. Lüning & J. Wahl 2001. Human migration in the Linearbandkeramik of Central Europe. Antiquity 75: 593603.Google Scholar
Price, T. Douglas , Burton, James H., & Bentley, R. A. 2002. Characterization of Biologically Available Strontium Isotope Ratios for the Study of Prehistoric Migration. Archaeometry 44: 117135.Google Scholar
Richards, M., Macaulay, V., Hickey, E. et al. 2000. Tracing European founder lineages in the Near Eastern mtDNA pool. American Journal of Human Genetics 67: 12511276.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Seielstad, M. T., Minch E, E. & Cavalli-Sforza, L. L.. 1998. Genetic evidence for a higher female migration rate in humans. Nature Genetics 20: 278280.Google Scholar
Simoni, L., Calafell, F., Pettener, D., Bertranpetit, J. & Barbujani, G.. 2000. Geographic patterns of mtDNA diversity in Europe. American Journal of Human Genetics 66: 26278.Google Scholar
Spielmann, K. A. & Eder, J. F.. 1994. Hunters and farmers: then and now. Annual Review of Anthropology 23: 303323.Google Scholar
Tillmann, A. 1993. Kontinuitat oder Diskontinuitat? Zur Frage einer bandkeramischen Landnahme im sudlichen Mitteleuropa. Archaologische Informationen 16: 157187.Google Scholar
Tricca, A., Stille, P., Steinmann, M., Kiefel, B., Samuel, J. & Eikenberg, J.. 1999. Rare earth elements and Sr and Nd isotopic compositions of dissolved and suspended loads from small river systems in the Vosges mountains (France), the river Rhine and groundwater. Chemical Geology 160: 139—58.Google Scholar
Whittle, A. W. R. 1996. Europe in the Neolithic: The Creation of New Worlds. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar