The Diversity of the European Neolithic Transition

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The advent of the Neolithic period in Europe, as elsewhere globally, represents a powerful transformation in human history. In spite of important contributions, neither global explanations nor single-site-based case studies have so far led to a general model for the history (histories) of the transformation. This is what our new project intends to challenge. We plan to investigate Neolithisation in Europe at large in five regional case studies, ‘Windows’, chosen by their differences in temporal terms and in their character of transformation, but also by already existing archaeological, palaeo-environmental and bioarchaeological data. In close cooperation with researchers active in each region, the still missing parts will be completed. Three approaches will be combined: 1. all archaeological data; 2. off-site, non-invasive landscape analyses; and 3. human osteological, DNA, stable isotope and pathogen investigations. The ultimate goal is to understand the Neolithic transformation as a major historic turn with many faces, but all ending with similar results: a sedentary and food producing Europe. In the presentation, I give a draft of the project initiated by the German Archaeological Institute, Romano Germanic Commission, Frankfurt am Main.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 23853