Current Thoughts on the Neolithisation Process of the Western Mediterranean

The analysis of the Neolithisation process constitutes a recurrent theme in the scientific literature given the fundamental change for human populations implied in the transition from a hunting-fishing-gathering economy to one based on domestication and food production. Nonetheless, the majority of the regional syntheses on a European scale published to date have dealt mainly with the historical narrative of the process, focusing on discussing the Neolithisation process from a demographic and/or cultural perspective. In this respect, the work of Ammerman and Cavalli Sforza (1984) without doubt constituted a turning point in a number of aspects relevant to the study of the Neolithisation of Europe and the Mediterranean. Applying Fisher’s (1937) reaction/diffusion equation to the Neolithic expansion, they laid the foundation for current investigations of the expansion of livestock and agricultural farming on a continental scale. The absence of the principal wild progenitor species of domesticates (e.g., cereals and ovicaprines) in most of the European continent, and the available radiocarbon dates at the time, pointed to the Near East as their place of origin. Since then, and especially during the last 15 years, a growing number of interesting discoveries, surveys and excavations often carried out as a result of increasing urbanisation (a major issue in the Western European Mediterranean) have boosted a renewed interest in studying the Neolithic. This fieldwork has been complemented by an increasingly precise chronological framework, and provides a vital advance in accurately determining the timing of this process. The investigation of the Neolithic has been especially enriched through interpretative approaches, such as evolutionary theory, which go beyond a descriptive analysis of the data and concentrate on exploring the mechanisms and conditions involved in the framework of the cultural transition (Shennan 2008). At the same time, the development in other disciplines of new technologies has favoured the introduction of new methodologies in the study of territories, artefacts and ecofacts, giving rise to analyses that have enhanced investigation in this period. The genetic and isotopic analyses of ancient populations published in recent years deserve a special mention for their relevance to the consideration of demic impact and the coexistence of different socioeconomic traditions (e.g. Bollongino et al. 2013).