The origins of sedentism and farming communities in the Levant

Bar‐Yosef, Ofer; Belfer‐Cohen, Anna

doi:10.1007/bf00975111

Cited by 283 publications

(139 citation statements)

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“…This finding is evidenced by an abundance of wild barley in the Jordan Valley sites of Netiv Hagdud (56), Wadi Faynan, and Dhra (42). Settlement patterns in the PPNA indicate a return to permanent communities often larger than those settlements of the Early Natufian, with a greater investment in permanent architectural features (49,57).…”

Section: Tac Model Of Forager Resiliencementioning

confidence: 99%

Climate change, adaptive cycles, and the persistence of foraging economies during the late Pleistocene/Holocene transition in the Levant

Rosen

Rivera-Collazo

2012

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

172

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Climatic forcing during the Younger Dryas (∼12.9-11.5 ky B.P.) event has become the theoretical basis to explain the origins of agricultural lifestyles in the Levant by suggesting a failure of foraging societies to adjust. This explanation however, does not fit the scarcity of data for predomestication cultivation in the Natufian Period. The resilience of Younger Dryas foragers is better illustrated by a concept of adaptive cycles within a theory of adaptive change (resilience theory). Such cycles consist of four phases: release/collapse (Ω); reorganization (α), when the system restructures itself after a catastrophic stimulus through innovation and social memory-a period of greater resilience and less vulnerability; exploitation (r); and conservation (K), representing an increasingly rigid system that loses flexibility to change. The Kebarans and Late Natufians had similar responses to cold and dry conditions vs. Early Natufians and the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A responses to warm and wet climates. Kebarans and Late Natufians (α-phase) shifted to a broader-based diet and increased their mobility. Early Natufian and Pre-Pottery Neolithic A populations (r-and K-phases) had a growing investment in more narrowly focused, high-yield plant resources, but they maintained the broad range of hunted animals because of increased sedentism. These human adaptive cycles interlocked with plant and animal cycles. Forest and grassland vegetation responded to late Pleistocene and early Holocene climatic fluctuations, but prey animal cycles reflected the impact of human hunting pressure. The combination of these three adaptive cycles results in a model of human adaptation, showing potential for great sustainability of Levantine foraging systems even under adverse climatic conditions. agricultural origins | Epipaleolithic | hunter-gatherers | Israel S ocial collapse is a theme most often applied to complex societies, but the shift from foraging to fully farming lifestyles represents a profound social change that many researchers implicitly or explicitly attribute to a failure of forager economies in the wake of abrupt climate change. This belief is especially true for the Near East, the center of domestication of founder crops, including wheat and barley. In this paper, we argue that, in the context of climate change, foraging societies in the southern Levant were highly resilient and robust in terms of diversity of options and mobility and forager responses relied on solutions that recur in a broadly cyclical manner over the longue durée. This argument is in contrast to the perception of economic vulnerability and collapse of forager economies. We emphasize three main concepts that apply to foragers as well as more complex societies: cultural systems are resilient and do not collapse as a simple stimulus-response to climate change; a broad range of economic strategies enhances social resilience; and long-term social memory of accumulated experiences is an important resource for preparing and responding to economic challenges.The arc...

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Section: Tac Model Of Forager Resiliencementioning

confidence: 99%

Climate change, adaptive cycles, and the persistence of foraging economies during the late Pleistocene/Holocene transition in the Levant

Rosen

Rivera-Collazo

2012

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

172

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“…The introduction of agriculture to human society brought major changes, as animal husbandry and cultivation of plants led to a more sedentary way of life [1] associated with increasing population sizes and density [2], and increasing social complexity [3]. This process, the Neolithization, started some 12 000 years ago in the Near East [4,5], after which it spread north and west throughout Europe.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ancient mitochondrial DNA from the northern fringe of the Neolithic farming expansion in Europe sheds light on the dispersion process

Malmström

Linderholm

Skoglund

et al. 2015

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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The European Neolithization process started around 12 000 years ago in the Near East. The introduction of agriculture spread north and west throughout Europe and a key question has been if this was brought about by migrating individuals, by an exchange of ideas or a by a mixture of these. The earliest farming evidence in Scandinavia is found within the Funnel Beaker Culture complex (Trichterbecherkultur, TRB) which represents the northernmost extension of Neolithic farmers in Europe. The TRB coexisted for almost a millennium with hunter-gatherers of the Pitted Ware Cultural complex (PWC). If migration was a substantial part of the Neolithization, even the northerly TRB community would display a closer genetic affinity to other farmer populations than to hunter-gatherer populations. We deep-sequenced the mitochondrial hypervariable region 1 from seven farmers (six TRB and one Battle Axe complex, BAC) and 13 hunter-gatherers (PWC) and authenticated the sequences using postmortem DNA damage patterns. A comparison with 124 previously published sequences from prehistoric Europe shows that the TRB individuals share a close affinity to Central European farmer populations, and that they are distinct from hunter-gatherer groups, including the geographically close and partially contemporary PWC that show a close affinity to the European Mesolithic hunter-gatherers.

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“…The lack of subsequent change in relative bone strength indicates that increasing mechanization and urbanization had only relatively small effects on skeletal robusticity, suggesting that moderate changes in activity level are not sufficient stimuli for bone deposition or resorption. mobility | Europe | Neolithic | bone strength D eclining mobility levels since the Terminal Pleistocene contributed to fundamental changes in demography, health and disease, and social organization among many human populations (1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6). The Neolithic Demographic Transition, characterized by increased fertility, population size, and density, may be partially attributable to decreased energy expenditure associated with greater sedentism (2,7).…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Declines in mobility also had significant effects on sociopolitical organization, including sexual division of labor, social hierarchy, and territoriality (1,11,12). However, despite its broad evolutionary significance, the timing and patterning of declining mobility during the Holocene and its relationship to changing subsistence economies has proven difficult to characterize from material archaeological remains (1,5,7,13,14), leaving many unanswered questions. For example, were declines in mobility relatively abrupt at the onset of food production in the Early Neolithic, as suggested by some demographic studies (15), or did they begin earlier, during the Mesolithic (5, 16)?…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Gradual decline in mobility with the adoption of food production in Europe

Ruff

Holt

Niskanen

et al. 2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

145

149

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Increased sedentism during the Holocene has been proposed as a major cause of decreased skeletal robusticity (bone strength relative to body size) in modern humans. When and why declining mobility occurred has profound implications for reconstructing past population history and health, but it has proven difficult to characterize archaeologically. In this study we evaluate temporal trends in relative strength of the upper and lower limb bones in a sample of 1,842 individuals from across Europe extending from the Upper Paleolithic [11,000-33,000 calibrated years (Cal y) B.P.] through the 20th century. A large decline in anteroposterior bending strength of the femur and tibia occurs beginning in the Neolithic (∼4,000-7,000 Cal y B.P.) and continues through the Iron/Roman period (∼2,000 Cal y B.P.), with no subsequent directional change. Declines in mediolateral bending strength of the lower limb bones and strength of the humerus are much smaller and less consistent. Together these results strongly implicate declining mobility as the specific behavioral factor underlying these changes. Mobility levels first declined at the onset of food production, but the transition to a more sedentary lifestyle was gradual, extending through later agricultural intensification. This finding only partially supports models that tie increased sedentism to a relatively abrupt Neolithic Demographic Transition in Europe. The lack of subsequent change in relative bone strength indicates that increasing mechanization and urbanization had only relatively small effects on skeletal robusticity, suggesting that moderate changes in activity level are not sufficient stimuli for bone deposition or resorption. mobility | Europe | Neolithic | bone strength

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The origins of sedentism and farming communities in the Levant

Cited by 283 publications

References 56 publications

Climate change, adaptive cycles, and the persistence of foraging economies during the late Pleistocene/Holocene transition in the Levant

Climate change, adaptive cycles, and the persistence of foraging economies during the late Pleistocene/Holocene transition in the Levant

Ancient mitochondrial DNA from the northern fringe of the Neolithic farming expansion in Europe sheds light on the dispersion process

Gradual decline in mobility with the adoption of food production in Europe

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