Peter Rowley-Conwy

Ancient DNA, pig domestication, and the spread of the Neolithic into Europe

The Neolithic Revolution began 11,000 years ago in the Near East and preceded a westward migration into Europe of distinctive cultural groups and their agricultural economies, including domesticated animals and plants. Despite decades of research, no consensus has emerged about the extent of admixture between the indigenous and exotic populations or the degree to which the appearance of specific components of the “Neolithic cultural package” in Europe reflects truly independent development. Here, through the use of mitochondrial DNA from 323 modern and 221 ancient pig specimens sampled across western Eurasia, we demonstrate that domestic pigs of Near Eastern ancestry were definitely introduced into Europe during the Neolithic (potentially along two separate routes), reaching the Paris Basin by at least the early 4th millennium B.C. Local European wild boar were also domesticated by this time, possibly as a direct consequence of the introduction of Near Eastern domestic pigs. Once domesticated, European pigs rapidly replaced the introduced domestic pigs of Near Eastern origin throughout Europe. Domestic pigs formed a key component of the Neolithic Revolution, and this detailed genetic record of their origins reveals a complex set of interactions and processes during the spread of early farmers into Europe.

The Significance of Food Storage Among Hunter-Gatherers: Residence Patterns, Population Densities, and Social Inequalities [and Comments and Reply]

Some hunter-gatherer societies (the Indians of California and of the Northwest Coast, for instance) depart significantly from the commonly accepted definition. This paper demonstrates that in such societies the economic structure is based on seasonal and intensive storage of major food resources. The societies presenting this type of economic structure are (1) sedentary, (2) high-density, and (3) prone to socioeconomic inequality. These three characteristics set California and Northwest Coast Indian societies well apart from the small, nomadic and egalitarian hunter-gatherer societies traditionally considered typical and challenge the hypothesis that the adoption of agriculture represents in itself a major milestone in the social history of humanity. The three features outlined above are found in both agricultural and hunter-gatherer societies in which resources are systematically accumulated. Thus it seems that the adoption of agriculture is less significant for social evolution than the emergence of an economic structure based on food storage.

Westward Ho!: The Spread of Agriculture from Central Europe to the Atlantic

Recent work on the four major areas of the spread of agriculture in Neolithic western Europe has revealed that they are both chronologically and economically much more abrupt than has hitherto been envisaged. Most claims of a little agriculture in Late Mesolithic communities are shown to be incorrect. In most places, full sedentary agriculture was introduced very rapidly at the start of the Neolithic. “Transitional” economies are virtually absent. Consequently, the long-term processes of internal development from forager to farmer, so often discussed in Mesolithic-Neolithic Europe, are increasingly hard to sustain. The spread of agriculture by immigration is thus an increasingly viable explanation. The crucial role of boats for transport and of dairying for the survival of new farming settlements are both highlighted. Farming migrations were punctuated and sporadic, not a single wave of advance. Consequently, there was much genetic mixing as farming spread, so that agricultural immigrants into any region carried a majority of native European Mesolithic genes, not Near Eastern ones.

Foraging and farming as niche construction: stable and unstable adaptations

All forager (or hunter–gatherer) societies construct niches, many of them actively by the concentration of wild plants into useful stands, small-scale cultivation, burning of natural vegetation to encourage useful species, and various forms of hunting, collectively termed ‘low-level food production’. Many such niches are stable and can continue indefinitely, because forager populations are usually stable. Some are unstable, but these usually transform into other foraging niches, not geographically expansive farming niches. The Epipalaeolithic (final hunter–gatherer) niche in the Near East was complex but stable, with a relatively high population density, until destabilized by an abrupt climatic change. The niche was unintentionally transformed into an agricultural one, due to chance genetic and behavioural attributes of some wild plant and animal species. The agricultural niche could be exported with modifications over much of the Old World. This was driven by massive population increase and had huge impacts on local people, animals and plants wherever the farming niche was carried. Farming niches in some areas may temporarily come close to stability, but the history of the last 11 000 years does not suggest that agriculture is an effective strategy for achieving demographic and political stability in the worlds farming populations.

Size and shape of the Eurasian wild boar (Sus scrofa), with a view to the reconstruction of its Holocene history

Abstract A large assortment of skulls and skeletons of recent wild boar (Sus scrofa) from across the world has been used to collect tooth and bone measurements that can be compared to those from archaeological specimens. The data provide useful information for a reconstruction of the Holocene history of the species. The evidence collected so far highlights the great variability of the species and provides a baseline to be used for the interpretation of ancient material. It is shown that not only the size, but also the shape of teeth and mandibles can help in highlighting patterns of variability in wild boar from different areas. A number of geographic trends are identified in the variation of S. scrofa across its range, mainly concerning the differentiation of insular forms, and the existence of South–North and West–East clines. Other factors such as hybridisation with domestic stock, feralisation and human-induced movement of animals may also play an important role. A comparison with ancient material emphasises the existence of similarities as well as differences between modern and ancient populations. Although some of the geographic trends identified on the basis of the analysis of modern material seem to date back to early Holocene times, the morphological history of the species appears to be complex, and in more than one area fluctuations in body size seem to have occurred.

The chronology and frequency of a stress marker (linear enamel hypoplasia) in recent and archaeological populations of Sus scrofa in north-west Europe, and the effects of early domestication

Linear enamel hypoplasia (LEH), a deficiency in enamel formation visible on mammal tooth crowns, can be used as a retrospective indicator of physiological stress and developmental health in humans and animals. In this first study, for north-western Europe, the condition has been recorded from prehistoric (mesolithic) and recent populations of wild boar, and from domestic pigs belonging to early farming (neolithic) communities. It was possible to show that LEH occurs in recent and ancient populations of wild boar from north-west Europe, and that the occurrence of the condition can be explained by the same events within the animals life (birth, weaning, winter starvation) as has been previously suggested for archaeological domestic pig samples. The frequency of LEH is consistently low within all ancient and recent populations of wild boar studied, a remarkable observation given the pronounced differences in the living conditions of these two diachronically well-separated groups, mainly linked with the increasing human pressure on recent populations of wild animals. Early domestic samples generally show high LEH frequencies, although considerable variation exists between the samples. It is suggested that these high frequencies are, in general, the result of domestication, while the variation could be related to differences in early husbandry. The observation of LEH, therefore, provides a valuable tool for studying the history of animal domestication.

Early Farming in Finland: Was there Cultivation before the Iron Age (500 BC)?

We review the evidence for the earliest agriculture in Finland. The claims are all based on pollen analysis. Some claims go back to the Neolithic period. We contest these claims critically and argue that the ‘early cereal-type’ pollen grains may in fact come from large-grained wild grasses, and cannot be taken as clear evidence for cultivation in the absence of other lines of evidence. Cultivation of cereals in Finland may have started as late as the start of the Iron Age in c. 500 BC.

Why didn't Westropp's 'Mesolithic' catch on in 1872 ?

A defined ‘Mesolithic’ era is a fixture in the cultural sequences of European prehistory — though not of other regions of the world. Why and how did the entity come to be invented, and to take just that form?

Postglacial foraging and early farming economies in Japan and Korea: A west European perspective

Abstract The article discusses the western‐language sources available for the economies of the Jomon and Yayoi cultures. Little detailed evidence is available, but the Jomon hunter‐gatherers were apparently sedentary and exploited various combinations of marine and terrestrial resources. Good evidence for agriculture is available only in the Final Jomon Period (1000–300 B.C.). The uneven dispersal of rice cultivation after this suggests that areas densely settled by foragers may not have been receptive to the spread of agriculture. This implies that agriculture spreads due to a series of particular, local causes, and not just as a result of a long period of general intensification and population growth among hunter‐gatherers.

Iron Age cultigen? Experimental return rates for fat hen (Chenopodium album L.).

Abstract Archaeological finds of fat hen (Chenopodium album L.) from later prehistoric sites in Europe indicate that the plant was deliberately collected, perhaps even cultivated. Experiments are described involving the collection and processing of the plant, allowing the return rate to be calculated. The return rate is probably similar to that of cultivated cereals, which may produce more seed per unit area but require much more processing. Chenopodium album was therefore a viable potential cultigen.