Maria Saña Seguí

Regional asynchronicity in dairy production and processing in early farming communities of the northern Mediterranean

Significance This unique research combines the analyses of lipid residues in pottery vessels with slaughter profiles for domesticated ruminants to provide compelling evidence for diverse subsistence strategies in the northern Mediterranean basin during the Neolithic. Our findings show that the exploitation and processing of milk varied across the region, although most communities began to exploit milk as soon as domesticates were introduced between 9,000 and 7,000 y ago. This discovery is especially noteworthy as the shift in human subsistence toward milk production reshaped prehistoric European culture, biology, and economy in ways that are still visible today. In the absence of any direct evidence, the relative importance of meat and dairy productions to Neolithic prehistoric Mediterranean communities has been extensively debated. Here, we combine lipid residue analysis of ceramic vessels with osteo-archaeological age-at-death analysis from 82 northern Mediterranean and Near Eastern sites dating from the seventh to fifth millennia BC to address this question. The findings show variable intensities in dairy and nondairy activities in the Mediterranean region with the slaughter profiles of domesticated ruminants mirroring the results of the organic residue analyses. The finding of milk residues in very early Neolithic pottery (seventh millennium BC) from both the east and west of the region contrasts with much lower intensities in sites of northern Greece, where pig bones are present in higher frequencies compared with other locations. In this region, the slaughter profiles of all domesticated ruminants suggest meat production predominated. Overall, it appears that milk or the by-products of milk was an important foodstuff, which may have contributed significantly to the spread of these cultural groups by providing a nourishing and sustainable product for early farming communities.

Paleoparasitological investigations on the Neolithic lakeside settlement of La Draga (Lake Banyoles, Spain)

Paleoparasitological analyses were conducted on samples from the Neolithic lakeside settlement of La Draga in Spain (5320–4980 BC). Conventional microscopic analysis revealed the presence of tapeworms (genus Taenia/Echinoccocus and Diphyllobothrium), roundworms (genus Trichuris, Capillaria, and Ascaris), rumen fluke (genus Paramphistomum), and Acanthocephalan (genus Macracanthorhynchus). In addition, genetic analysis demonstrated the presence of the lancet liver fluke (Dicrocoelium dendriticum) and the human pinworm (Enterobius vermicularis) at the site. These results represent the first parasitological data from a Neolithic lakeside settlement related to the Cardial Pottery Culture. Some parasites are comparable with those retrieved from Neolithic lakeside sites studied in France, Germany, and Switzerland, which stem from and are posterior to the Linear Band Keramic Culture. However, some taxa were identified here for the first time during the Neolithic period, or represent the oldest mention of these parasites. This new paleoparasitological contribution reinforces our knowledge of intestinal parasites in Neolithic populations and provides new data on their history.

Size changes in wild and domestic pig populations between 10,000 and 800 cal. BC in the Iberian Peninsula: Evaluation of natural versus social impacts in animal populations during the first domestication stages:

In the early-Holocene, animal domestication processes entailed important changes to the subsistence strategies of Neolithic populations. Among the first domestic species, pigs played a key role as they soon came to be one of the main sources of meat. Several methodological approaches have been followed in archaeology to differentiate between wild and domestic forms in the faunal remains found at early Neolithic sites. Among these, biometry is essential. The biometric analysis applied to a significant sample of Sus domesticus and Sus scrofa remains from 53 sites in the Iberian Peninsula dated between 10,000 and 800 cal. BC reveals differential dynamics between the wild and domestic forms resulting from changes in the climate during that time and the increasingly systematic selective pressure of husbandry. Whereas the wild animals increased in size, the inverse tendency is documented in the domestic population, which gradually decreased in size after the early Neolithic. The point of greatest divergence is seen in the Bronze Age. Significant differences are also documented in different geographic areas, which corroborates the influence of climate on the physical characteristics of wild populations. The range of variability in each population also differs chronologically as it is relatively greater in the Neolithic, which may be connected with the existence of different ways of adopting and breeding domestic pig among the first Neolithic communities, some of which may have involved continuous cross-breeding between the two populations. The results are an initial point of reference for the classification of archaeological remains of prehistoric pig in the Iberian Peninsula, a key area for the study of the dynamics of neolithisation.In the early-Holocene, animal domestication processes entailed important changes to the subsistence strategies of Neolithic populations. Among the first domestic species, pigs played a key role as ...