Transition to Agriculture

Evidence from five Late Archaic/Early Agricultural period sites located in the middle and lower Santa Cruz River valley indicates that the local development of a ceramic container technology occurred over a relatively long period that extends back into "preceramic" times. Evidence for this development is reviewed and explanations for the emergence of pottery are evaluated with respect to the southeastern Arizona case.

The appearance of the rectilinear house form in the Irish Neolithic landscape was both unprecedented and short lived. Their appearance coincided with the definite appearance of arable agriculture on the island. Their disappearance also coincided with the disappearance of this form of agriculture. The island wide similarity in their form and probable functions is remarkable. They served as both functional and symbolic focal points in the landscape for their inhabitants, and they had a major influence on burial practice. Evidence for both deliberate deposition and deliberate destruction has been found at a number of sites, indicating their ritual significance to contemporaries. They also had an important role in the socialisation of successive generations of agriculturalists.

OBJECTIVES:
In Southeast (SE) Arabia, agriculture is supposed to expand around 3000 BC, but its tempo and its actual role in populations' subsistence is still debated by archaeologists. Here, we compare dental health conditions of 11 skeletal samples from coastal and inland sites, dated from the Late Neolithic (ca. 4500-3100 BC) to the Early Bronze Age (EBA), conventionally divided into Hafit (ca. 3100-2700 BC) and Umm an-Nar period (ca. 2700-2000 BC). The goal is to assess long-term trends in subsistence patterns and regional variability during the local transition to agriculture.
METHODS:
Seven indicators of oral health and childhood stress were analyzed, including dental wear, calculus, caries, alveolar resorption, periapical lesions, ante-mortem tooth loss (AMTL), and linear enamel hypoplasia (LEH).
RESULTS:
Neolithic coastal populations are globally characterized by high dental wear, high calculus frequency, high LEH frequency, and frequent periodontal disease, whereas they exhibit low abscesses and AMTL frequencies and a total absence of carious lesions. Samples from the Hafit period present high dental wear, low rates of calculus and LEH, frequent periodontal disease, combined with low abscess and AMTL frequencies and absence of caries. By contrast, samples from the Umm an-Nar period exhibit much lower dental wear, calculus and LEH rates, whereas caries, periapical lesions and AMTL frequencies increase significantly. Marked differences were observed between coastal and inland Umm an-Nar groups, the latter presenting significantly higher frequencies of caries, periapical lesions, alveolar resorption and AMTL.
DISCUSSION/CONCLUSION:
Oral conditions from the Neolithic coastal populations denote a diet mainly composed of unprocessed and abrasive food, with high protein and low carbohydrate intakes, and frequent stress episodes. Although Hafit populations display some changes in oral pathologies, which indicate modifications in their lifestyle and a diversification of the diet, no markers of high carbohydrate intakes were observed in our samples. The impact of agriculture on oral health appears clearly only from the Umm an-Nar period, and is more intense inland than on the coast, where marine resources are still a main component of the diet.

"The adoption of agriculture is one of the major developments in human history. Archaeological studies have demonstrated that the trajectories of Neolithisation in Northwest Europe were diverse. This book presents a study into the archaeology of the communities involved in the process of Neolithisation in the Lower Rhine Area (5500-2500 cal BC). It elucidates the role played by the indigenous communities in relation to their environmental context and in view of the changes that becoming Neolithic brought about.

This work brings together a comprehensive array of excavated archaeological sites in the Lower Rhine Area. Their analysis shows that the succession of Late Mesolithic, Swifterbant culture, Hazendonk group and Vlaardingen culture societies represents a continuous long-term tradition of inhabitation of the wetlands and wetland margins of this area, forming a culturally continuous record of communities in the transition to agriculture.

After demonstrating the existence of a diverse Mesolithic background to Neolithisation, the subsequent developments are studied from an indigenous perspective. Foregrounding the relationship between local communities and the dynamic wetland landscape, the study shows that the archaeological evidence of regional inhabitation points to long-term flexible behaviour and pragmatic choices in livelihood, food economy and mobility. This disposition also influenced how the novel elements of Neolithisation were negotiated. Animal husbandry, crop cultivation and sedentism were an addition to the existing broad spectrum economy but were incorporated within a set of integrative strategies.

For the interpretation of Neolithisation this study offers a complementary approach to existing research. Instead of arguing for a short transition based on the economic importance of domesticates and cultigens at sites, this study emphasises the persistent traditions of the communities involved. New elements, instead of bringing about radical changes, are shown to be attuned to existing hunter-gatherer practices. By documenting indications of the mentalité of the inhabitants of the wetlands, it is demonstrated that their mindset remains essentially ‘Mesolithic’ for millennia.

Luc Amkreutz was a member of the NWO (Malta Harvest) archaeological research project ‘From Hardinxveld to Noordhoorn -  From Forager to Farmer’ between 2004 and 2008. He is currently the curator of the Prehistory collections of the National Museum of Antiquities. His research interests include the Mesolithic and Neolithic archaeology of Northwest Europe, ethnoarchaeology and archaeological theory.
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The goal of this research is to understand the relevance of diet diversity during the transition to agriculture, in ancient populations from northern Chile, especially considering the significance of marine resources and crops in a lesser degree. A total of 14 human individuals were sampled from the Tarapacá 40 cemetery. Both bone and tooth samples were collected. Samples were studied from bone/dentine collagen for carbon and nitrogen isotopic analysis; and bone/enamel apatite for carbon isotope analysis. Inferential statistical analyses were performed in order to compare Tarapacá 40 stable carbon and nitrogen isotope values with other Formative and Late Intermediate Period groups. A nonparametrical hypothesis Kruskal-Wallis test was used. The results show that the individuals from Tarapacá 40 are intermediate to the values observed for terrestrial and marine fauna as well as C3 and C4 plants. A gradual transition to crop consumption, especially maize, is suggested. This complemented the earlier hunter-gatherer tradition of marine resources and wild fruit consumption. Contrarily to the predictions made by some archaeologists, the results obtained for northern Chile contrast with the classical perspective of a "Neolithic Revolution" in which transition to agriculture occurred more abruptly and linearly. Am J Phys Anthropol, 2015. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.