Barbara Horejs

Early farmers from across Europe directly descended from Neolithic Aegeans

Significance One of the most enduring and widely debated questions in prehistoric archaeology concerns the origins of Europe’s earliest farmers: Were they the descendants of local hunter-gatherers, or did they migrate from southwestern Asia, where farming began? We recover genome-wide DNA sequences from early farmers on both the European and Asian sides of the Aegean to reveal an unbroken chain of ancestry leading from central and southwestern Europe back to Greece and northwestern Anatolia. Our study provides the coup de grâce to the notion that farming spread into and across Europe via the dissemination of ideas but without, or with only a limited, migration of people. Farming and sedentism first appeared in southwestern Asia during the early Holocene and later spread to neighboring regions, including Europe, along multiple dispersal routes. Conspicuous uncertainties remain about the relative roles of migration, cultural diffusion, and admixture with local foragers in the early Neolithization of Europe. Here we present paleogenomic data for five Neolithic individuals from northern Greece and northwestern Turkey spanning the time and region of the earliest spread of farming into Europe. We use a novel approach to recalibrate raw reads and call genotypes from ancient DNA and observe striking genetic similarity both among Aegean early farmers and with those from across Europe. Our study demonstrates a direct genetic link between Mediterranean and Central European early farmers and those of Greece and Anatolia, extending the European Neolithic migratory chain all the way back to southwestern Asia.

The Aegean in the Early 7th Millennium BC: Maritime Networks and Colonization

The process of Near Eastern neolithization and its westward expansion from the core zone in the Levant and upper Mesopotamia has been broadly discussed in recent decades, and many models have been developed to describe the spread of early farming in terms of its timing, structure, geography and sociocultural impact. Until now, based on recent intensive investigations in northwestern and western Anatolia, the discussion has mainly centred on the importance of Anatolian inland routes for the westward spread of neolithization. This contribution focuses on the potential impact of east Mediterranean and Aegean maritime networks on the spread of the Neolithic lifestyle to the western edge of the Anatolian subcontinent in the earliest phases of sedentism. Employing the longue durée model and the concept of ‘social memory’, we will discuss the arrival of new groups via established maritime routes. The existence of maritime networks prior to the spread of farming is already indicated by the high mobility of Epipalaeolithic/Mesolithic groups exploring the Aegean and east Mediterranean seas, and reaching, for example, the Cyclades and Cyprus. Successful navigation by these early mobile groups across the open sea is attested by the distribution of Melian obsidian. The potential existence of an additional Pre-Pottery Neolithic (PPN) obsidian network that operated between Cappadocia/Cilicia and Cyprus further hints at the importance of maritime coastal trade. Since both the coastal and the high seas networks were apparently already well established in this early period, we may further assume appropriate knowledge of geographic routes, navigational technology and other aspects of successful seafaring. This Mesolithic/PPN maritime know-how package appears to have been used by later groups, in the early 7th millennium calBC, exploring the centre of the Anatolian Aegean coast, and in time establishing some of the first permanent settlements in that region. In the present paper, we link this background of newcomers to the western edge of Anatolia with new excavation results from Çukuriçi Höyük, which we have analysed in terms of subsistence strategies, materiality, technology and symbolism. Additionally, further detailed studies of nutrition and obsidian procurement shed light on the distinct maritime affinity of the early settlers in our case study, something that, in our view, can hardly be attributed to inland farming societies. We propose a maritime colonization in the 7th millennium via routes from the eastern Mediterranean to the eastern Aegean, based on previously developed sea networks. The pronounced maritime affinity of these farming and herding societies allows us to identify traces of earlier PPN concepts still embedded in the social-cultural memories of the newcomers and incorporated in a new local and regional Neolithic identity.

The ground beneath their feet: building continuity at Neolithic Çukuriçi Höyük

Abstract A Neolithic structure was rebuilt three times at Çukuriçi Höyük, on the central Anatolian Aegean coast, despite its unfavourable location on unsettled fill. We draw upon this seemingly incongruous case to make inference about the siting of buildings in Neolithic times. Through detailed cross-comparison with other sequences of vertically superimposed buildings in Anatolia and the Aegean region, we retrace the contours of a Neolithic practice aimed at maintaining occupation in one place. Over time, building continuity transformed into a strategy by some households to claim authority over a place and appropriate it for their own benefit. With regard to the location of Neolithic buildings, we conclude that choices about location dominated over practical considerations. Once a commitment to place was made, there was no turning back, even when this meant living in an unstable house that needed to be rebuilt repeatedly. Özet Anadolu Ege kıyılarının merkezinde yer alan Çukuriçi Höyük’te, oturmamış dolgu toprak üzerindeki olumsuz konumuna rağmen, Neolitik yerleşim üç kez yeniden inşa edilmiştir. Neolitik dönemde binaların konumlandırılması konusunda bir çıkarım yapmak için bu aykırı görünen örnek üzerinde durmaktayız. Anadolu ve Ege’de dikey konumlandırılmış diğer yapı dizileriyle detaylı çapraz karşılaştırma sayesinde tek bir yerde yerleşimi sürdürmeyi amaçlayan Neolitik dönem uygulamalarının izini sürmekteyiz. Zamanla, yapı sürekliliği bazı haneler tarafından bir yer üzerinde hakimiyet iddia etmek ve kendi yararına uygun hale getirmek için bir stratejiye dönüşmüştür. Neolitik binaların konumu ile ilgili olarak, seçimlerin pratik hususlar üzerinde hakim olduğu sonucuna varmaktayız. Konum konusunda bir karar verildiği zaman, bu art arda inşa edilmesi gereken sağlam olmayan bir evde yaşamak anlamına gelse bile, bundan geri dönüş yoktu.

Der nächtliche Jäger als Beute. Studien zur prähistorischen Leopardenjagd

Abstract: Leopardenknochen vom Çukuriçi Höyük in Westanatolien bilden den Ausgangspunkt dieser Studie zur Bedeutung dieser Raubkatze für den urgeschichtlichen Menschen. Ihre pleistozäne und holozäne Verbreitung, die überlieferten Knochenfunde in archäologischen Kontexten, die Entwicklung unterschiedlicher bildlicher Darstellungsformen von Leoparden, schriftliche Zeugnisse sowie verschiedene ethnologische Untersuchungen erlauben uns ein chronologisch differenziertes Modell zur Deutung der Leopardenknochen des Çukuriçi Höyük zu postulieren. So schlagen wir für den Leopardenrest in einer Grube des späten 7. Jahrtausends eine Deponierung vor, die den Schlussakt eines rituellen Prozesses einer frühen bäuerlichen Gesellschaft darstellt. Die sehr häufigen Darstellungen in dieser Periode stehen auffallend wenig erbeuteten Tieren gegenüber und lassen einen kultischen Hintergrund in verschiedenen Facetten erkennen. Die für Çatalhüyük diskutierte These einer bewusst konstruierten Bezugnahme einer neolithischen Gesellschaft auf diese besonders gefährlichen und möglicherweise tabuisierten Tiere meinen wir auch im Befund des Çukuriçi Höyük zu erkennen, wenn auch in eine andere Form transformiert. Für die Leopardenknochen des frühen 3. Jahrtausends schlagen wir eine profane Deutung vor, die sich auch an der veränderten Symbolik seiner Darstellung mit Bezug zu besonderen Personengruppen in anderen Kulturräumen erahnen lässt. Die für den Vorderen Orient und Mesopotamien rekonstruierte elitäre Leopardenjagd ließe sich nach dieser Deutung auch mit anderen fremden Elementen auf dem Çukuriçi Höyük in der beginnenden Bronzezeit verbinden, die damit ein weiteres Glied in einer längeren Indizienkette zum Einfluss des orientalisch-mesopotamischen Kreises bis zur westanatolischen Ägäisküste darstellen. Abstract: Les ossements de léopards de Çukuriçi Höyük en Anatolie occidentale constituent le point de départ de cette étude sur la signification de ce félin pour l’homme préhistorique. Sa distribution au Pléistocène et à l’Holocène, les ossements conservés en contexte archéologique, l’élaboration de différentes formes de représentation figurée du léopard, les témoignages écrits ainsi que différentes études ethnologiques permettent de postuler un modèle d’interprétation des ossements de léopards de Çukuriçi Höyük différencié dans le temps. Ainsi, nous voyons dans les restes d’un léopard trouvés dans une fosse de la fin du 7e millénaire un dépôt effectué par les membres d’une des premières sociétés paysannes à la fin d’un processus rituel. A cette époque, la fréquence très élevée de représentations face aux bêtes tuées permet d’identifier un contexte cultuel comportant différentes facettes. La thèse débattue dans le cas de Çatal Höyük, selon laquelle une société néolithique établit consciemment une relation avec ces animaux particulièrement dangereux, et peut-être tabous, nous semble aussi être valable dans le contexte de Çukuriçi Höyük, mais réadaptée. Pour les ossements d’un léopard du début du 3e millénaire, nous proposons une interprétation profane que l’on peut deviner à travers la nouvelle symbolique des représentations de ce félin en rapport à certaines communautés appartenant à d’autres zones culturelles. La chasse du léopard reconstituée pour le Proche-Orient et la Mésopotamie, réservée à une élite, pourrait selon cette interprétation se rattacher à d’autres éléments étrangers de Çukuriçi Höyük au début de l’âge du Bronze, qui formeraient ainsi un maillon supplémentaire dans la chaîne d’indices d’une influence des traditions orientale et mésopotamienne atteignant la côte orientale de la mer Égée. Abstract: The leopard bones of Çukuriçi Höyük in Western Anatolia are the point of departure for this study on this big cat’s significance to prehistoric man. The Pleistocene and Holocene distribution of the bones as well as their archaeological context, the development of different ways of depicting leopards, written evidence and various ethnological investigations all allow us to postulate a chronologically differentiated model for interpreting the leopard bones of Çukuriçi Höyük. Hence, in the case of the leopard remains in a late 7th millennium pit, we suggest this was the final act in a ritual by an early farming society. The very frequent depictions in this period are starkly contrasted by the very few animals captured, suggesting a cultic background in various facets. We believe that the thesis which has been discussed for Çatalhüyük – that of a Neolithic society’s consciously constructed reference to an especially dangerous and possibly taboo animal – may also apply to the find at Çukuriçi Höyük, though in a different form. We propose a profane interpretation for the leopard bones of the early 3rd millennium, suggested also by the changed symbolism of the leopard’s depiction with reference to special groups of people in other cultural regions. According to this interpretation, the elite leopard hunt which has been reconstructed for the Near East and Mesopotamia may also be connected with other foreign elements at Çukuriçi Höyük in the Early Bronze Age, which represent a further link in a long chain of indications that the influence of the Oriental-Mesopotamian region reached as far as the Aegean coast in Western Anatolia.