Spatial and Temporal Diversity During the Neolithic Spread in the Western Mediterranean: The First Pottery Productions

Actual research into the neolithization process and the development of farming communities in the Western Mediterranean reveals a diverse and complex cultural landscape. Dispersal routes and rhythm of diffusion of the agro-pastoral economy, Mesolithic inheritance, regional interactions between communities, and functional adaptations all have to be explored to trace how Mediterranean societies were reshaped during this period. The different pottery traditions that accompany the Neolithic spread and its economic development are of course interconnected (the “impressed ware”), but they also show some degree of polymorphism. This variability has been variously interpreted, but rarely quantified and evaluated. We propose in this chapter to focus on the very first step of neolithization in the Western Mediterranean (c. 6000–5400 cal. BC), and to consider the variability observed in pottery decoration, along with some technical aspects, from Southern Italy to Southern Spain. Then we discuss these results in an attempt to understand if the observed variability in time and space could be explained as a result of the combined effects of cultural drift and hitchhiking hypothesis, within the framework of a demic expansion.