Paths and Rhythms in the Spread of Agriculture in the Western Mediterranean: The Contribution of the Analysis of Harvesting Technology

The debate on the spread of agriculture from the Near East into Europe is largely centered on the mechanisms of the expansion, while the paths of this expansion are still poorly understood. This chapter compares the harvesting techniques in several Early Neolithic sites in Italy, southern France, and the Iberian Peninsula as these offer information on the paths and rhythms followed by human groups possessing different harvesting technology traditions in their expansion across the Western Mediterranean. Preliminary data suggest that a third terrestrial path of Neolithic expansion (associated with La Draga-type sickles) would have taken place along the northern Mediterranean, and is therefore geographically intermediate between the two acknowledged waves, the Linearbandkeramik one (associated with Karanovo-type sickles), in the North, and the maritime pioneers with impressed pottery (associated with La Marmotta-type sickles) in the south.