Long-term trends and the sustainability of early agriculture in Neolithic Europe

Summary

The domestication of plants and animals facilitated major changes in human ecology, demography, and social organization. Despite the seeming advantages of domestication, however, new analysis reveals major episodes of collapse in the early agricultural systems in Neolithic Europe. In this paper we present evidence for a progressive deterioration in arable farming conditions, alongside a reversion to wild resource exploitation across different regions in Europe. These apparent failures in the agricultural system correspond with other socio-economic phenomena, such as increasing population pressures and social conflict. These results shed new light on the origins of sustainable subsistence, and provide an historic context to the debate concerning Malthusian limits of the planet.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• IHOPE (Integrated History and Future of People on Earth) - International and interdisciplinary projects working to make the past better serve the future.   •
• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

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