Climate change and population dynamics during the late Mesolithic and the Neolithic transition in Iberia

Abstract

This paper explores how Early Holocene climate changes in the Western Mediterranean would have affected Late Mesolithic settlement distribution and subsistence strategies in Iberian Peninsula, thereby giving rise to various adaptive scenarios. The current radiocarbon data set concerning the Neolithisation process has revealed the rapidity of the spread of farming in Iberia. Considering both the implications of the last hunter-gatherers’ adaptation strategies and the population dynamics of agro-pastoral communities, we address the migration patterns underlying the Mesolithic- Neolithic transition. In conclusion, we propose that the initial colonization process was the result of two successive and spatially heterogeneous migrations: Maritime Pioneer Colonization and targeted migration to places favorable to the new economic system.

Understanding the rates of expansion of the farming system in Europe

“…12). It is considered to express a corresponding demographic density (Fernandez Lopez de Pablo and Gomez Puche, 2009;Zilhão, 2000), except in estuaries. However, contemporaneous late Mesolithic and early Neolithic groups are documented in several neighbouring regions, although direct evidence of contact is rare (e.g.…”

Late Mesolithic burials at Casa Corona (Villena, Spain): direct radiocarbon and palaeodietary evidence of the last forager populations in Eastern Iberia

“…Malacological assemblages are clearly dominated by a medium-sized edible species, Sphincterochila candidissima, and Iberus alonensis. Biometric analysis points to a gathering strategy centred on adult individuals from the immediate vicinity of the site that took place during the spring and/or autumn (Fernández-López de Pablo et al, 2011).…”

“…The second Final Mesolithic site is Lagrimal cave, a disturbed archaeological deposit that contains some Late Mesolithic materials such as trapezes, microburins and C. rustica shell beads (Soler García, 1991). Radiocarbon dating of an ulna bone of an ibex with anthropogenic fractures and cut marks from level IV of this cave has yielded the most advanced Late Mesolithic date in this area (Fernández-López de Pablo and Gómez-Puche, 2009). …”

New insights into the neolithisation process in southwest Europe according to spatial density analysis from calibrated radiocarbon dates

“…If we analyse the moments prior to neolithisation, a number of works have explored the territorial patterns of the last huntergatherers and their relationship to climatic fluctuations, in particular the 8.2 event (6200 cal BC) (Weninger et al 2006;Berger and Guilaine 2009;Fernández López de Pablo and Gómez Puche 2009;González-Sampériz et al 2009;Gronenborn 2009;Cortés Sánchez et al 2012;García Puchol et al 2015). Our cartography does not reflect significant differences regarding this climatic event, and, as some of us have mentioned elsewhere , only a regional and sub-regional analysis would permit a more suitable evaluation of any possible population-climate connection.…”