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Northern hunters slowed down advance of Neolithic farmers
FECYT - Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology ^ | February 3, 2011 | Unknown

Posted on 02/03/2011 7:52:53 AM PST by decimon

One of the most significant socioeconomic changes in the history of humanity took place around 10,000 years ago, when the Near East went from an economy based on hunting and gathering (Mesolithic) to another kind on agriculture (Neolithic). Farmers rapidly entered the Balkan Peninsula and then advanced gradually throughout the rest of Europe.

Various theories have been proposed over recent years to explain this process, and now physicists from the University of Girona (UdG) have for the first time presented a new model to explain how the Neolithic front slowed down as it moved towards the north of the continent. The study has been published in the New Journal of Physics.

"The model shows that the farmers' dispersal and reproduction was limited by the high density of hunter-gatherers in northern Europe", Neus Isern, a physicist at the UdG and lead author of the study, tells SINC.

By between 8,000 and 9,000 years ago, the first farmers from Asia were already cultivating land in what is now Greece, but in the areas today occupied by the United Kingdom, Denmark and Northern Germany this did not happen until around 3,000 years later. This can be seen from archaeological remains.

Reaction-diffusion model

The "reaction-diffusion" model explains the archaeological data and the decline in the speed of progress of the Neolithic front. This is based on two mathematical effects relating to the availability of space for the incomers (dispersal of farmers dependent on spatial variation in the population density of hunter-gatherers, and a modified population growth equation).

"The density of hunter-gatherers was higher in northern latitudes, which enables the model to explain the deceleration in the Neolithic transition in Europe", explains Joaquim Fort, the other author of the study, who is also a physicist at the UdG.

The authors also stress that the same model "could be applied to many other examples of invasion fronts, in which indigenous populations and invaders compete for a space within a unique biological niche, both in terms of natural habitats and microbiological assays".

###

References: Neus Isern y Joaquim Fort. "Anisotropic dispersion, space competition and the slowdown of the Neolithic transition". New Journal of Physics 12: 123002, december 2010. Doi: 10.1088/1367-2630/12/12/123002.


TOPICS: History
KEYWORDS: godsgravesglyphs

1 posted on 02/03/2011 7:52:55 AM PST by decimon
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To: SunkenCiv

Your biological niche ping.

Dang, we’re microbes.


2 posted on 02/03/2011 7:54:02 AM PST by decimon
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To: decimon

Caption: This image shows the chronology of the Neolithic wave of advance in Europe. The arrow corresponds to the Y-direction in the model.

Credit: J. Fort y N. Isern.

Usage Restrictions: None

3 posted on 02/03/2011 7:57:43 AM PST by decimon
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To: decimon

Yeah, DAT’s da ticket!

Puh-leeze. There’s a reason it’s called “pre-historic”.

Colonel, USAFR


4 posted on 02/03/2011 8:37:53 AM PST by jagusafr ("We hold these truths to be self-evident...")
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To: decimon

Could the fact that agriculture faced shorter growing seasons in the north just possibly have anything to do with the issue at hand?

Sorry to introduce Occam, but ...


5 posted on 02/03/2011 8:42:47 AM PST by GladesGuru (In a society predicated upon freedom, it is essential to examine principles,)
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To: GladesGuru
Could the fact that agriculture faced shorter growing seasons in the north just possibly have anything to do with the issue at hand?

Yes. But I don't see what that has to do with this article.

6 posted on 02/03/2011 9:01:05 AM PST by decimon
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To: GladesGuru

Good point, but the northward move would have also found richer and more moist soils (and the shorter growing season is partly compensated for by longer hours of daylight).


7 posted on 02/03/2011 9:03:27 AM PST by pierrem15 (Claudius: "Let all the poisons that lurk in the mud hatch out.")
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To: pierrem15

Another factor is the antipathy of hunters to those who farm land and consider it theirs.

Interestingly, farms tend to provide wildlife with food.

Whether that made the farmers welcome is unknown.


8 posted on 02/03/2011 9:16:36 AM PST by GladesGuru (In a society predicated upon freedom, it is essential to examine principles,)
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To: decimon; StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; 1010RD; 21twelve; 24Karet; 2ndDivisionVet; ...

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Thanks decimon.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.
 

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9 posted on 02/04/2011 4:14:57 AM PST by SunkenCiv (The 2nd Amendment follows right behind the 1st because some people are hard of hearing.)
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To: SunkenCiv
Heimo Korth laments how far we’ve come from our roots as hunters and gatherers. He thinks the moment we became farmers, the world started in decline.


10 posted on 02/04/2011 4:26:04 AM PST by Daffynition ( Live EACH DAY as if it were your last, but EXPECT that there still may be a tomorrow.)
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To: decimon

???????????????

Agricultural societies are LARGER and more aggressive than hunter-gatherer societies.

Not having read the entire study, my first inclination is this is pure Hokum. It was probably more due to climate and geology.


11 posted on 02/04/2011 4:30:25 AM PST by ZULU (No nation which ever attempted to tolerate Islam, escaped total Islamization.)
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To: ZULU

Perhaps, but H-G societies tend to be healthier and with stronger people.


12 posted on 02/04/2011 7:26:32 AM PST by MetaThought
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To: MetaThought

Absolutely. But in battle, overwhelming numbers always pay off.


13 posted on 02/04/2011 9:33:08 AM PST by ZULU (No nation which ever attempted to tolerate Islam, escaped total Islamization.)
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To: SunkenCiv; decimon
The fact that hunter-gatherers resist encroachment by farmers is pretty obvious. Even pastoral herdsman resist encroachment on their grazing lands by farmers.

Oh, the farmer and the cowman should be friends . . . .

14 posted on 02/04/2011 12:26:29 PM PST by colorado tanker
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