Climate shaped how Neolithic farmers and European hunter-gatherers interacted after a major slowdown from 6,100 BCE to 4,500 BCE.

Autor: Betti L; Centre for Research in Evolutionary, Social and Inter-Disciplinary Anthropology, Department of Life Sciences, University of Roehampton, London, UK. lia.betti@roehampton.ac.uk., Beyer RM; Evolutionary Ecology Group, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK. rb792@cam.ac.uk.; PAVE Research Group, Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK. rb792@cam.ac.uk., Jones ER; Evolutionary Ecology Group, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK., Eriksson A; Evolutionary Ecology Group, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.; Department of Medical and Molecular Genetics, King's College London, Guys Hospital, London, UK.; cGEM, Institute of Genomics, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia., Tassi F; Department of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, University of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy., Siska V; Evolutionary Ecology Group, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK., Leonardi M; Evolutionary Ecology Group, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK., Maisano Delser P; Evolutionary Ecology Group, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.; Smurfit Institute of Genetics, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland., Bentley LK; Evolutionary Ecology Group, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK., Nigst PR; Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK., Stock JT; PAVE Research Group, Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.; Department of Anthropology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.; Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany., Pinhasi R; Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria., Manica A; Evolutionary Ecology Group, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK. am315@cam.ac.uk.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Nature human behaviour [Nat Hum Behav] 2020 Oct; Vol. 4 (10), pp. 1004-1010. Date of Electronic Publication: 2020 Jul 06.
DOI: 10.1038/s41562-020-0897-7
Abstrakt: The Neolithic transition in Europe was driven by the rapid dispersal of Near Eastern farmers who, over a period of 3,500 years, brought food production to the furthest corners of the continent. However, this wave of expansion was far from homogeneous, and climatic factors may have driven a marked slowdown observed at higher latitudes. Here, we test this hypothesis by assembling a large database of archaeological dates of first arrival of farming to quantify the expansion dynamics. We identify four axes of expansion and observe a slowdown along three axes when crossing the same climatic threshold. This threshold reflects the quality of the growing season, suggesting that Near Eastern crops might have struggled under more challenging climatic conditions. This same threshold also predicts the mixing of farmers and hunter-gatherers as estimated from ancient DNA, suggesting that unreliable yields in these regions might have favoured the contact between the two groups.
Databáze: MEDLINE
Externí odkaz: