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Regional variations in the European Neolithic dispersal: the role of the coastlines

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 January 2015

Daniel A. Henderson ,
Andrew W. Baggaley ,
Anvar Shukurov ,
Richard J. Boys ,
Graeme R. Sarson  and
Andrew Golightly
Daniel A. Henderson
Affiliation:
School of Mathematics & Statistics, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU, UK (Email: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected])
Andrew W. Baggaley
Affiliation:
School of Mathematics & Statistics, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QW, UK (Email: [email protected])
Anvar Shukurov
Affiliation:
School of Mathematics & Statistics, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU, UK (Email: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected])
Richard J. Boys
Affiliation:
School of Mathematics & Statistics, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU, UK (Email: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected])
Graeme R. Sarson
Affiliation:
School of Mathematics & Statistics, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU, UK (Email: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected])
Andrew Golightly
Affiliation:
School of Mathematics & Statistics, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU, UK (Email: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected])
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Abstract

The mechanisms by which agriculture spread across Europe in the Neolithic, and the speed at which it happened, have long been debated. Attempts to quantify the process by constructing spatio-temporal models have given a diversity of results. In this paper, a new approach to the problem of modelling is advanced. Data from over 300 Neolithic sites from Asia Minor and Europe are used to produce a global picture of the emergence of farming across Europe which also allows for variable local conditions. Particular attention is paid to coastal enhancement: the more rapid advance of the Neolithic along coasts and rivers, as compared with inland or terrestrial domains. The key outcome of this model is hence to confirm the importance of waterways and coastal mobilities in the spread of farming in the early Neolithic, and to establish the extent to which this importance varied regionally.

Keywords

EuropeAsia MinorNeolithic dispersalmodellingwaterwayspropagating population frontwave of advance
Type
Method
Information
Antiquity , Volume 88 , Issue 342 , December 2014 , pp. 1291 - 1302
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2014

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