IEEE Journal of Emerging and Selected Topics in Power Electronics

Pérez-Jordà G., Peña-Chocarro L., Mateos J.M., Zapata L.

This paper summarizes results from the AGRIWESTMED project focusing on the characterization of the first agriculture through the study of the available archaeobotanical data and including information from new sites. Detailed information on the particular features of the crop assemblages studied for each period is followed by a thorough discussion on regional patterns. These are addressed within the context of crop diversity by exploring different issues that may have accounted for such variability. The paper draws attention to the different agricultural traditions encountered in the Iberian Peninsula during the Neolithic and explores contacts with other regions and possible routes of arrival. Finally, a model of agricultural evolution during the early phases of the Neolithic in Iberia is presented.

García-Puchol O., Diez Castillo A.A., Pardo-Gordó S.

The spread of domestic plants and animals from the Near East towards the Western Mediterranean region is analysed using the current radiocarbon dataset relating to the last hunter-gatherers and the first farmers in the area. In order to do this, we have selected radiocarbon dates and built summed probability distributions and density maps, as a means of investigating the processes involved in the expansion of food production economies throughout this wide territory, in a ‘longue durée’ view, in accordance with a multiscalar approach covering both the general and the regional scenarios. This approach allows us to visualise the time of the expansion in this broad area, starting at the beginning of the sixth millennium cal BC, and to discuss the implied mechanisms in what seems, at least along the coast, a very rapid process: reflecting a mix of demic and cultural models with regional nuances.

Aubán J.B., Manen C., Pardo-Gordó S.

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.

Guilaine J.

The spread of the economy of production in the Western Mediterranean occurred during a cultural context that was extremely different to the one existing in the zone where Neolithization was born, the Turco-Syrian borders, where PPNB, the truly founding culture of the Neolithic, seems to have emerged. Here, we focus our attention on the spread of the Neolithic from the Levant to the Central Mediterranean, paying special attention to recent studies carried out on the Anatolian diffusion and the spread towards the island of Cyprus, the Aegean area, and Southern Italy.

Salazar-García D.C., García-Puchol O.

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).

Salazar-García D.C., Pérez-Ripoll M., García-Borja P., Jordá Pardo J.F., Aura Tortosa J.E.

Here we present an evaluation of faunal studies and new isotopic results on human and faunal remains from the first farmers at Nerja Cave (Málaga, Spain), and assess the data obtained from a regional perspective and on the basis of the archaeological and archaeozoological context. The evidence shows that the Neolithic peoples who inhabited the cave had a mainly terrestrial diet, even if living on the coastline and in a region with a high marine productivity, as observed during previous periods at the same cave. This sharp dietary shift occurring at the onset of the Neolithic for this region supports the hypothesis that different modes of exploitation during distinct time periods are best explained in terms of cultural changes, rather than by slight changes in coastline and seawater temperature. Our conclusion has implications for the debate on the onset of the Neolithic for the entire Western Mediterranean.

Ibáñez-Estévez J.J., Bao J.F., Gassin B., Mazzucco N.

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.

Terradas X., Piqué R., Palomo A., Antolín F., López O., Revelles J., Buxó R.

La Draga is an open-air settlement located on the shoreline of Lake Banyoles in the Northeast of the Iberian Peninsula. To date, two occupation phases have been differentiated, both attributed to the Early Neolithic (5300–4900 cal BC). The proximity of the lake has meant that a large part of the site has been covered by the water table; as a consequence organic materials are well preserved. The preservation of wooden artefacts offers an excellent opportunity to study the techniques and crafts developed in the first Neolithic villages. This chapter presents the wooden tools related to agricultural practices. This assemblage consists of 45 pointed sticks, 24 of which can be interpreted as digging sticks according to ethnographic and archaeological parallels and the results of a specific experimental program, and 7 sickle handles, one of which holds a flint blade still inserted in its original position. The information these implements provide for the knowledge of the first agriculture is discussed and compared with data supplied by several archaeobotanical proxies. The two approaches are seen to contribute complementary data allowing a more comprehensive reconstruction of the farming practices of Early Neolithic communities in the Western Mediterranean.

Spiteri C., Muntoni I.M., Craig O.E.

Impressed/Cardial Wares are thought to have spread simultaneously with domesticates through the Western Mediterranean at the onset of the Neolithic. Their function is often associated with processing domestic animal and plant products, although this has never been investigated, thus excluding the possibility that a wider range of resources was used, including wild animals and marine foods. To test this, organic residue analysis (ORA) was carried out to characterise the content, hence function of a wide selection of Impressed/Cardial Ware vessels excavated from 14 early farming sites across the Western Mediterranean. The results obtained using chromatographic and isotopic techniques are hereby presented.

Fernández-Domínguez E., Reynolds L.

Recent advances in DNA genotyping techniques have made it possible to recover a substantial body of ancient DNA data from Mesolithic and Neolithic skeletons, improving our understanding of the biological mechanisms involved in the transition to farming. Overall, both mitochondrial and nuclear ancient DNA evidence suggest that hunter-gatherer and Early Neolithic European groups had a different genetic makeup. This has been interpreted as a signature of genetic replacement by genetically distinct Neolithic groups of Near Eastern origin. However, the scarceness of genetic data from the Mesolithic background and also from key areas within Europe—like the core and interim regions in the Near East, Greece, Italy, France, and Southern and Western Iberia—greatly limits our understanding of the genetic implications linked to the expansion of the Neolithic techno-complex at a local scale. With this in mind, in this chapter we will revise and discuss the contribution of ancient DNA analysis to the understanding of the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition and the spread of the Neolithic in Europe, focusing on the areas with publicly available ancient DNA data from these periods.

McClure S.B., Welker M.H.

The spread of farming into the Western Mediterranean is characterized by the appearance of domesticated plants and animals. This chapter summarizes the evidence for domesticated animals (cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, dogs) in the Cardial Neolithic of the Western Mediterranean. The management of these animals is tightly linked to economic, cultural, ecological, and spatial factors, and a variety of data sets such as herd composition, stable isotopic analyses, and culling practices are invoked to determine management strategies. However, the extent of data sets in the region varies, and interpretations span from small-scale household use to more spatially extensive transhumance practices. Comparability is limited due to contextual heterogeneity of samples (e.g., open-air villages or cave/rock shelter sites), differences in analytical procedures and reporting traditions, variation in sample sizes, and issues of taphonomy, chronological resolution, and final interpretations. This summary highlights some of the fundamental issues in assessing domesticated animal management and critically discusses our current understanding of domesticated animal use among the first farmers of the Western Mediterranean.

Juan-Cabanilles J., Martí Oliver B.

Any diffusionist perspective of the Neolithic, especially when population movements are involved, considers the prominence of two peoples: the Neolithic and the Mesolithic. Our attempts to discover the identity of these peoples depend on archaeology (stylistic analysis of common traits in cultural material, mainly from lithic industries) and biology (genetic analysis, especially of ancient DNA). This work focuses on the archaeological identity of the first Neolithic and last Mesolithic groups in the European Western Mediterranean, with special reference to the Iberian Mediterranean. In addition to the ‘material identity’ we analyse also the current view of population at the beginning of the Neolithic and the possibilities for Neolithic-Mesolithic contact. Population cartographies situate the last Mesolithic groups in specific areas, revealing wide ‘empty’ territories between them which appear to be those settled by the first Neolithic groups. The contemporaneity of and contact between Neolithic and Mesolithic peoples (observable through technological transfers) are highly probable but difficult to verify from current information. The cultural rift between Mesolithic and Neolithic seems evident in such areas as Mediterranean Iberia and Southeast France; and this ‘identity’ rift appears to be confirmed by paleogenetic studies, although revealing a more complex population panorama than is usually suggested in demo-cultural models.

García E.B., Marco Y.C., Chabal L., Figueiral I., Thiébault S.

An overview of woodland history in the north-western Mediterranean region, based on charcoal analysis (Anthracology) from Mesolithic and Neolithic sites, is proposed for the Mediterranean areas of France, Spain and Portugal. The taxonomic identification of charcoal fragments and the diachronic variations of taxa frequencies provide, for each settlement, an accurate image of the local vegetal cover. During the end of the last glaciation, beginning of the Holocene, vegetation dynamics reflects the evolution of climatic and geographic conditions. Any potential ecological impact by hunter-fisher-gatherer communities (Mesolithic) remains invisible; the same comment applies to the farming-herding communities from the beginning of the Neolithic. Charcoal data from the Preboreal onwards testify to the increasing diversity of the plant cover, with open formations dominated by conifers (Juniperus, Pinus type sylvestris), later replaced by temperate forests in association with Mediterranean species and light-demanding plants. Important regional variations, correlated with the bioclimatic conditions, pinpoint the dominance of deciduous Quercus in eastern Spain and southern France, Olea europaea in southern Spain and southern Portugal, Pinus halepensis in southern Catalonia, the Ebro valley and in the extreme south-east of France. From the Middle Neolithic onwards, farming/pastoral activities instigate important changes in woodland composition, with the development of mixed coppiced/pollarded woods, followed by open matorrals. Transformations identified in different sites were not synchronous and were still reversible; the rapidity of the process depended on the complex interaction between human activities and regional climatic characteristics.

Pardo-Gordó S., Bergin S.M., Aubán J.B., Barton C.M.

The spread of agriculture from the Near East to Europe has long been a subject of intense archaeological study and debate in light of the social and economic changes that occurred and were set in motion as a result of this transition. Despite the attention paid to this important process, a consensus is far from being reached. Perhaps for these reasons, new methods and theoretical approaches have often been applied to the questions surrounding the spread of agriculture first. Recently, computational modeling has emerged as a promising technique for the study of the origins of agriculture. Our approach employs an agent-based computational model of agricultural spread for the Iberian Peninsula and utilizes a substantial radiocarbon database. This method allows for us to test multiple hypotheses about the manner in which agriculture spread, where it may have spread from and to focus on the critical evaluation of the available chronological record and its effects upon our results.

Shennan S.

It has long been clear that farming spread into Europe along two different routes, a northern one through the Balkans and Central Europe and a southern one along the northern coast of the Mediterranean. Studies of the northern route represented by the Starčevo–Kőrös–Criș complex in the Balkans and then the Linearbandkeramik, from the western Carpathian Basin to the coast of the English Channel, have been well established for decades. Until recently, however, the Mediterranean expansion west of the Aegean was much less known. Far less work had been carried out and the chronological details, especially those concerning the relationship between the Mesolithic and the Neolithic, were very unclear, not least because the vast majority of radiocarbon dates came from cave and rockshelter sites with complex and often disturbed stratigraphies. In particular, the fact that both Mesolithic and Neolithic material were apparently found in the same layers led to the conclusion that the mechanism of the transition in the Mediterranean must have been the gradual and piecemeal adoption of elements of a farming way of life by local foragers. In the last 20 years our knowledge has been transformed. There has been a revolution in the understanding of the spread of farming in the West Mediterranean, especially in Iberia, thanks to the work of a new generation of archaeologists trained in the methods of modern scientific archaeology, from fieldwork to laboratory analysis and computer-based modelling.