Douglas Baird

Mitochondrial DNA Signals of Late Glacial Recolonization of Europe from Near Eastern Refugia

Human populations, along with those of many other species, are thought to have contracted into a number of refuge areas at the height of the last Ice Age. European populations are believed to be, to a large extent, the descendants of the inhabitants of these refugia, and some extant mtDNA lineages can be traced to refugia in Franco-Cantabria (haplogroups H1, H3, V, and U5b1), the Italian Peninsula (U5b3), and the East European Plain (U4 and U5a). Parts of the Near East, such as the Levant, were also continuously inhabited throughout the Last Glacial Maximum, but unlike western and eastern Europe, no archaeological or genetic evidence for Late Glacial expansions into Europe from the Near East has hitherto been discovered. Here we report, on the basis of an enlarged whole-genome mitochondrial database, that a substantial, perhaps predominant, signal from mitochondrial haplogroups J and T, previously thought to have spread primarily from the Near East into Europe with the Neolithic population, may in fact reflect dispersals during the Late Glacial period, ∼19-12 thousand years (ka) ago.

Prehistoric Environment and Settlement in the Azraq Basin: an Interim Report on the 1987 and 1988 Excavation Seasons

AbstractThe Azraq Project was begun in 1975 in order to learn more of the history of environment, settlement and subsistence in the presently arid zone of South-West Asia during the late Glacial and early Holocene—the period crucial to the beginnings of food production. In 1975 a survey was made of fifteen localitites around the Azraq Basin and the area was found to be rich in sites of late Acheulian to Neolithic date. Evidence was also found for a large Pleistocene lake at the centre of the depression (Garrard et al. 1975, 1977). In 1982 a more detailed archaeological and geomorphological survey was made of the area of the former lake and of two of its western tributary wadis–Wadis el-Jilat and Kharaneh (Garrard et al. 1985a,b). A range of Epipalaeolithic and Neolithic sites were found associated with the expansion and retreat of the last major lake. Similarly dated, as well as earlier. Upper Palaeolithic, sites were also found in the western tributary wadis, at the present steppe–desert boundary. The Up...

The Demographic Development of the First Farmers in Anatolia

Summary The archaeological documentation of the development of sedentary farming societies in Anatolia is not yet mirrored by a genetic understanding of the human populations involved, in contrast to the spread of farming in Europe [1, 2, 3]. Sedentary farming communities emerged in parts of the Fertile Crescent during the tenth millennium and early ninth millennium calibrated (cal) BC and had appeared in central Anatolia by 8300 cal BC [4]. Farming spread into west Anatolia by the early seventh millennium cal BC and quasi-synchronously into Europe, although the timing and process of this movement remain unclear. Using genome sequence data that we generated from nine central Anatolian Neolithic individuals, we studied the transition period from early Aceramic (Pre-Pottery) to the later Pottery Neolithic, when farming expanded west of the Fertile Crescent. We find that genetic diversity in the earliest farmers was conspicuously low, on a par with European foraging groups. With the advent of the Pottery Neolithic, genetic variation within societies reached levels later found in early European farmers. Our results confirm that the earliest Neolithic central Anatolians belonged to the same gene pool as the first Neolithic migrants spreading into Europe. Further, genetic affinities between later Anatolian farmers and fourth to third millennium BC Chalcolithic south Europeans suggest an additional wave of Anatolian migrants, after the initial Neolithic spread but before the Yamnaya-related migrations. We propose that the earliest farming societies demographically resembled foragers and that only after regional gene flow and rising heterogeneity did the farming population expansions into Europe occur.

Juniper smoke, skulls and wolves' tails. The Epipalaeolithic of the Anatolian plateau in its South-west Asian context; insights from Pinarbaşi

Abstract This paper discusses the only substantive evidence for the Epipalaeolithic of central Anatolia. This evidence allows revised understandings of phenomena often proposed as characteristic of the Epipalaeolithic of South-west Asia including the appearance of sedentism, a putative Broad Spectrum Revolution, intensive plant exploitation and the emergence of distinctive ritual and symbolic practices. It also allows further evaluation of the effect of Late Glacial climate change on human behaviours.

Ritual in the landscape. Evidence from Pinarbasi in the seventh-millennium cal BC Konya Plain

Excavations in the rockshelter at Pınarbaşı, 24.5km south-east of Çatalhöyük, have brought to light a sequence of structures and a rich assemblage of animal bones, with some of the bones embedded in plaster objects. The authors argue for a strong link with Çatalhöyük, and propose a hunter-herder site operated by a close-knit group from that settlement, supplying meat to it, but practising their own up-country rituals — so providing a glimpse of the ‘lived landscape’.

The animate house, the institutionalization of the household in Neolithic central Anatolia

ABSTRACT This paper explores the effectiveness of a domestic mode of production model in explaining the development of Neolithic households in South-west Asia, using evidence from the site of Boncuklu in central Anatolia. We present evidence that Boncuklu households were institutionalized through repetitive practice, highly structured and symbolically charged domestic activity, ritual and symbolism stressing the animate and transcendental nature of the house, relating to continuity and idiosyncratic identity display. The Boncuklu evidence also suggests supra-household groups, possibly bound together by certain landscape exploitation activities, were reinforced by their own distinctive ritual practices and symbolism in parallel with and probably in a certain tension with the cohesive tendencies of individual households, even in the absence of evidence of monumental non-domestic communal structures seen at some Neolithic sites. This suggests the domestic mode of production model does not apply well to Neolithic South-west Asia, certainly for long time periods and in certain regions.

Preliminary Report on the Third (1993) Season of Excavations at Tell esh-Shuna North

Abstract The 1993 season at Tell esh-Shuna completed excavation of Chalcolithic levels in Area D. These consisted of at least two major occupation phases, possibly early Chalcolithic in date. Early and late EB I levels were excavated in Area A. A significant distinction exists between early and late EB I ceramic assemblages. Important differences may also exist in the nature of craft production, some subsistence practices and possibly in architecture, between early and late EB I at Shuna. Further work on Building 1 has shown that it is a monumental structure of 2 phases. The later phase is Hellenistic. The initial phase could be of first millennium date, or may represent the Hellenistic reuse of an Early Bronze Age structure. At present, we lack conclusive evidence either way. The function of Building 1 is not clear at present.

Early ceramics in Anatolia: implications for the production and Use of the earliest pottery. The evidence from Boncuklu Höyük

Fragments of possible fired clay found at Boncuklu Hoyuk, central Turkey, appear to derive from rudimentary vessels, despite the later ninth- and early eighth-millennium cal. bc and thus ‘Aceramic’ dates for the site. This paper will examine the evidence for such fired clay vessels at Boncuklu and consider their implications as examples of some of the earliest pottery in Anatolia. The discussion will examine contextual evidence for the role of these fragments and consider their relative rarity at the site and the implications for the marked widespread adoption of pottery in southwest Asia c. 7000–6700 cal. bc .

Agricultural origins on the Anatolian plateau

Significance We demonstrate that the initial spread of farming outside of the area of its first appearance in the Fertile Crescent of Southwest Asia, into Central Anatolia, involved adoption of cultivars by indigenous foragers and contemporary experimentation in animal herding of local species. This represents a rare clear-cut instance of forager adoption and sustained low-level food production. We have also demonstrated that farming uptake was not uniform, with some forager communities rejecting it despite proximity to early farming communities. We also show that adoption of small-scale cultivation could still have significant social consequences for the communities concerned. The evidence suggests forager adoption of cultivation and initiation of herding was not necessarily motivated by simple economic concerns of increasing levels of food production and security. This paper explores the explanations for, and consequences of, the early appearance of food production outside the Fertile Crescent of Southwest Asia, where it originated in the 10th/9th millennia cal BC. We present evidence that cultivation appeared in Central Anatolia through adoption by indigenous foragers in the mid ninth millennium cal BC, but also demonstrate that uptake was not uniform, and that some communities chose to actively disregard cultivation. Adoption of cultivation was accompanied by experimentation with sheep/goat herding in a system of low-level food production that was integrated into foraging practices rather than used to replace them. Furthermore, rather than being a short-lived transitional state, low-level food production formed part of a subsistence strategy that lasted for several centuries, although its adoption had significant long-term social consequences for the adopting community at Boncuklu. Material continuities suggest that Boncuklu’s community was ancestral to that seen at the much larger settlement of Çatalhöyük East from 7100 cal BC, by which time a modest involvement with food production had been transformed into a major commitment to mixed farming, allowing the sustenance of a very large sedentary community. This evidence from Central Anatolia illustrates that polarized positions explaining the early spread of farming, opposing indigenous adoption to farmer colonization, are unsuited to understanding local sequences of subsistence and related social change. We go beyond identifying the mechanisms for the spread of farming by investigating the shorter- and longer-term implications of rejecting or adopting farming practices.

Archaeogenomic analysis of the first steps of Neolithization in Anatolia and the Aegean

The Neolithic transition in west Eurasia occurred in two main steps: the gradual development of sedentism and plant cultivation in the Near East and the subsequent spread of Neolithic cultures into the Aegean and across Europe after 7000 cal BCE. Here, we use published ancient genomes to investigate gene flow events in west Eurasia during the Neolithic transition. We confirm that the Early Neolithic central Anatolians in the ninth millennium BCE were probably descendants of local hunter–gatherers, rather than immigrants from the Levant or Iran. We further study the emergence of post-7000 cal BCE north Aegean Neolithic communities. Although Aegean farmers have frequently been assumed to be colonists originating from either central Anatolia or from the Levant, our findings raise alternative possibilities: north Aegean Neolithic populations may have been the product of multiple westward migrations, including south Anatolian emigrants, or they may have been descendants of local Aegean Mesolithic groups who adopted farming. These scenarios are consistent with the diversity of material cultures among Aegean Neolithic communities and the inheritance of local forager know-how. The demographic and cultural dynamics behind the earliest spread of Neolithic culture in the Aegean could therefore be distinct from the subsequent Neolithization of mainland Europe.