Marek Zvelebil

Transition to Farming in Northern Europe : A Hunter-Gatherer Perspective

The transition to settled farming communities in northern Europe was a far more gradual process than elsewhere in Europe: this makes it possible to study the transition to farming archaeologically at a finer level of resolution. In this paper we trace the shift to cultivation in two areas: Denmark and Finland. Despite the difference in the time scale of agricultural evolution, and despite other chronological and environmental differences, we can, in both cases, isolate three distinct stages in the transition to fanning, thus extending the process well beyond the conventional date for the shift to cultivation. Both the case studies emphasize the long continuation of foraging adaptations, and the long delay before the appearance of a predominantly agricultural economy. This delay has been caused by the development of successful maritime adaptations, which acted as a viable alternative to farming until a specific trigger—a decline in marine resources—occurred and initiated the substitution phase of the trans...

Plant Use in the Mesolithic and its Role in the Transition to Farming

The purpose of this paper is to review the current evidence for plant use in Mesolithic Europe and to summarize its implications. In order to do so, four sources of data are examined: macrobotanical remains, palynological data, artefactual evidence, and the human biological record. A prelimary survey of palaeobotanical evidence for plant use in the Mesolithic indicates that the evidence is far more extensive than expected hitherto and that accumulations of plant food, especially of nuts, point to their regular and extensive use. In those areas such as Britain, where a large number of fine-resolution palynological studies have been carried out, the incidence of clearance and burning phases seems to be too high to be explained by acts of nature alone. A good case can be made for deliberate forest clearance and the maintenance of a more open landscape by Late Mesolithic groups as part of a promotional strategy to increase the productivity of nut and fruit trees and shrubs, wetland plants, and possibly native grasses. Artefactual evidence points to a widespread distribution of soil-working tools (hoes and antler mattocks), especially in temperate Europe, and to a greater than expected presence of reaping and grinding equipment, lending conditional support for the existence of a specialized plant processing tool kit for digging, reaping, and plant processing. Palaeopathological evidence indicates the existence of a dietary pattern in the west Mediterranean making extensive use of starchy and carbohydrate foods which resulted in a high caries rate among the Mesolithic population of that area. In discussing the signiftcanse of these four lines of evidence, it is argued that, by the Late Mesolithic, the patterns of plant use support the notion of wild plant food husbandry instead of the incidental and opportunistic use of plants for food which has implicitly been accepted as a norm for the Mesolithic in Europe. Three geographical areas can be identified with their specific pattern of plant use: temperate Europe, Mediterranean Europe, and the south-eastern Balkans/Pontic Steppe. The patterns of plant use suggested in this paper emphasize the additive nature of the adoption of the agro-pastoral Neolithic farming practices in Europe.

The transition to farming in Eastern and Northern Europe

This paper presents a general survey of the transition to farming in Eastern and Northern Europe, approached within the framework of the availability model and treated from the perspective of local (Mesolithic) hunting and gathering communities. We argue that in Eastern and Northern Europe, the transition to farming was a slow process, which occurred through the adoption of exogenous cultigens and domesticates by the local hunter-gatherer populations, who may have been already engaged in some form of husbandry of the local resources. Contact and exchange with the Neolithic and later Bronze Age of Central Europe had a profound and prolonged influence on the process of the adoption of farming in Eastern and Northern Europe. During the slow process of transition, mixed hunting-farming societies emerged, which could be regarded as having a characteristic social and economic organization of their own (i.e., neither “Mesolithic” nor “Neolithic”). In conclusion, we argue for continuity in population and in social and economic traditions from the hunter-gatherer past until recent antiquity and, in some areas, into the historical period.

On the transition to farming in Europe, or what was spreading with the Neolithic: a reply to Ammerman (1989)

Zvelebil here rejoins to Ammermans criticisms, published in the March issue, of his earlier paper on Indo-European languages and the dispersal of agriculture into Europe, and takes the opportunity to make a broader statement about the character of Neolithic settlement on the full continental scale.

Oleneostrovski mogilnik: Reconstructing the social and economic organization of prehistoric foragers in Northern Russia

Oleneostrovski mogilnik (Red Deer Island cemetery) in Karelia, USSR, is the largest known Mesolithic-age cemetery in the Boreal zone, containing the remains of at least 170 individual interments. An analysis of mortuary patterning, demographic structure, and regional interaction was performed in order to elucidate the nature of Boreal zone forager society during the late Mesolithic. These analyses suggest that the society which produced Oleneostrovski mogilnik was larger and more internally differentiated than previously believed, with a complex system of social differentiation that included hereditary social positions and economic ranking. It also participated in an extensive regional exchange network which moved exotic goods and raw materials over considerable distances. It is concluded that the climax of forager occupation in the Boreal zone occurred during late Mesolithic times, with a maximum density of population and maximum social complexity, and that more recent hunter-fisher-gatherer occupations represent only a pale reflection of this peak.

Some Major Problems in the Social Anthropology of Hunter-Gatherers [and Comments and Reply]

What is the relationship between the present-day hunter-gatherer studied by anthropologists and the societies of the Palaeolithic? And how is the articulation between the economy of these societies and their other aspects to be conceived? In attempting to answer these questions, this article takes into account a further problem, that of the uniqueness of Australian Aboriginal social organization.

Archaeological Landscapes, Lithic Scatters, and Human Behavior

Within the last 20 years or so, the traditional unit of archaeological investigations—the site—has come under increasing criticism. Through the work of Clarke (1972), Schiffer (1972, 1976, 1983), Foley (1981a), Dunnell and Dancey (1983), Binford (1983) and others, it has become clear that structuring of archaeological evidence in terms of such discrete spatiotemporal units is conceptually unsatisfactory, often inapplicable, and highly selective as a record of human behavior.

Ex Oriente Lux: the prehistory of hunter-gatherer ceramic dispersals

Book description: A long-overdue advancement in ceramic studies, this volume sheds new light on the adoption and dispersal of pottery by non-agricultural societies of prehistoric Eurasia. Major contributions from Western Europe, Eastern Europe and Asia make this a truly international work that brings together different theories and material for the first time. Researchers and scholars studying the origins and dispersal of pottery, the prehistoric peoples or Eurasia, and flow of ancient technologies will all benefit from this book.

The Mesolithic Colonization and Agricultural Transition of South-east Ireland

This paper presents the first systematic archaeological evidence from the early prehistory of south-east Ireland. The research is designed to investigate the colonization of the area during the Mesolithic period and the subsequent transition to agriculture. From a theoretical perspective, we offer a view of indigenous development. That is, we look for continuities between Mesolithic and Neolithic Ireland in terms of technology and settlement. The data, we are gathering include surface and excavated materials. Lithic assemblages were systematically collected from ploughsoils surrounding the Waterford Harbour area during the years 1983 through 1987. These materials are analyzed from the point of view of geography, raw material, reduction sequences, manufacturing technology, and chronological typology to yield an initial glimpse into the rich prehistory of the region and its pattern of settlement. Excavations during 1986, 1987 and 1989 have begun to fill in some detail including the regions first prehistoric barley, a Neolithic radiocarbon date, prehistoric pottery, a rhyolite quarry and several rich lithic assemblages.

Stone Age Settlement in South-Eastern Ireland

Archaeological and geomorphological fieldwork was conducted in the midreaches of the River Barrow in southeastern Ireland (fig. i) between November i990 and April I992 as part of an attempt to trace the development of Stone Age (Mesolithic and Neolithic) settlement and land use, to reconstruct he evolution of the Stone Age landscape and evaluate its influence on human activity, and to gain an understanding of the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in this part of Ireland. Prior to the survey, aerial photographs were used to outline palaeochannels and river terraces, which were marked on i: 6 inch maps of the area. These were then examined, together with other features of interest, by systematic field walking. In total, 82 fields, covering approximately 42o hectares, were surveyed, and i,250 lithic artefacts were collected (fig. 2). In broad terms, this section of the Barrow Valley consists of upstanding late Pleistocene glacial and glaciofluvial sediments outlining a low-lying alluvial floodplain. Major differences in sediment, slope, and drainage between these two broad zones make it virtually certain that they would have presented starkly contrasting ecological characteristics throughout the valleys history. Therefore the boundary between the two zones is likely to have been a significant feature for prehistoric settlement. People using such locations would have had easy access to two major resource zones: the wet, seasonally flooded valley floor and the relatively dry wooded terraces bordering the alluvial plain. In fact, surveys in other parts of Ireland have confirmed that huntergatherer sites are located close to this boundary (Woodman I978, I985; Woodman and Anderson I99I; PeMONASTEREVIN Edge of Barrow River Valley