Early Farmers

The View from Archaeology and Science

Edited by Alasdair Whittle and Penny Bickle

OUP/British Academy

Proceedings of the British Academy

Covers many features of the Neolithic way of life - a much debated period of history
Introduces varied scientific analyses used by archaeologists - helpful for non-specialists
Up-to-date debate about how best to interpret archaeological evidence - broad application to archaeology as a whole

Early Farmers

The View from Archaeology and Science

Edited by Alasdair Whittle and Penny Bickle

OUP/British Academy

Proceedings of the British Academy

Description

The Neolithic period was one of the great transformations in human history with profound, long-term consequences. In Europe, there were no farmers at 7000 cal BC, but very few hunter-gatherers after about 4000 cal BC. Although we understand the broad chronological structure of this shift, many pressing research questions remain. Archaeologists are still vigorously debating the identity of those principally involved in initiating change, the detail of everyday lives during the Neolithic, including basic questions about settlement, the operation of the farming economy and the varied roles of material culture, and the character of large-scale and long-term transformations. They face the task not only of working at different scales, but of integrating ever-expanding amounts of evidence.

As well as the data coming from larger and more intensive excavations, there has been a radical increase in the information released by many kinds of scientific analysis of archaeological remains. These now include, alongside longer established methods of looking at food remains and material, the isotopic analysis of the diet and lifetime movement of people, isotopic analysis of cereal remains for indications of manuring, a DNA analysis of genetic signatures, detailed micromorphological analysis of deposits where people lived, and the close examination of the origin and production of varying materials and artefacts.

The 21 chapters by leading experts in the field demonstrate how the combination of archaeological and scientific evidence now provides opportunities for new and creative understandings of Europe's early farmers. They make an important contribution to the debate over how best to integrate these multiple lines of evidence, scientific and more traditionally archaeological, while keeping in central focus the principal questions that we want to ask of our data.

Early Farmers

The View from Archaeology and Science

Edited by Alasdair Whittle and Penny Bickle

OUP/British Academy

Proceedings of the British Academy

1: Introduction: integrated and multi-scalar approaches to early farmers in Europe, Penny Bickle and Alasdair Whittle
2: The future Neolithic: a new research agenda, John Robb
3: Some possible conditions necessary for the colonisation of Europe by domesticates, John C. Barrett
4: Multi-agent modeling of the trajectory of the LBK Neolithic: a study in progress, Jean-Pierre Bocquet-Appel, Jérôme Dubouloz, Richard Moussa, Jean-François Berger, Anne Tresset, Elena Ortu, Jean-Denis Vigne, Robin Bendrey, Stéphanie Bréhard, Dominique Schwartz, Aurélie Salavert, Maria Fernanda Sanchez-Goñi, Damien Ertlen, Yoan Gauvry, Gourguen Davtian, Marc Vander Linden, Eva Lenneis, Lorette Noiret, Agnès Guillaumont and Martin O'Connor
5: Ancient DNA evidence for a homogeneous maternal gene pool in sixth millennium cal BC Hungary and the central European LBK, Anna Szécsényi-Nagy, Victoria Keerl, János Jakucs, Guido Brandt, Eszter Bánffy and Kurt W. Alt
6: Settlement burials at the Karsdorf LBK site, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany: biological ties and residential mobility, Guido Brandt, Corina Knipper, Nicole Nicklisch, Robert Ganslmeier, Mechthild Klamm, Kurt W. Alt
7: Cattle and sheep herding at Cheia, Romania, at the turn of the fifth millennium cal BC: a view from stable isotope analysis, Marie Balasse, Carlos Tornero, Stéphanie Brehard, Joël Ughetto-Monfrin, Valentina Voinea and Adrian Balasescu
8: Herding practices in the ditched villages of the Neolithic Tavoliere (Apulia, SE Italy): a vicious circle? The isotopic evidence., Mary Anne Tafuri, John Robb, Maria Giovanna Belcastro, Valentina Mariotti, Paola Iacumin, Antonietta Di Matteo and Tamsin O'Connell
9: Linear Pottery culture household organisation: an economic model, Lamys Hachem and Caroline Hamon
10: Framing farming: a multi-stranded approach to early agricultural practice in Europe, Amy Boggard
11: Stewing on a theme of cuisine: biomolecular and interpretative approaches to culinary changes at the transition to agriculture, Hayley Saul, Aikaterini Glykou and Oliver E. Craig
12: Life conditions and health in early farmers: a global perspective on costs and consequences of a fundamental transition, Clark Spencer Larsen
13: Biographical bodies: flesh and food at Çatalhöyük, Jessica Pearson and Lynn Meskell
14: Neolithic lifeways: microstratigraphic traces within houses, animal pens and settlements, Wendy Matthews, Lisa-Marie Shillito and Sarah Elliott
15: Violence in the Neolithic: a population perspective, Rick Schulting and Linda Fibiger
16: Mass graves of the LBK: patterns and peculiarities, Christian Meyer, Christian Lohr, Olaf Kürbis, Veit Dresely, Wolfgang Haak, Christina J. Adler, Detlef Gronenborn and Kurt W. Alt
17: Revealing our vibrant past: science, materiality and the Neolithic, Oliver J.T. Harris
18: Pottery, Archaeology and Chemistry: contents and context, Jessica Smyth and Richard Evershed
19: Constructing a narrative for the Neolithisation of Britain and Ireland: the use of 'hard science' and archaeological reasoning, Alison Sheridan and Pierre Pétrequin
20: Doing science in the Mesolithic, Neolithic and Copper Age: an insider's perspective, John Chapman
21: Archaeological science and the Neolithic: the power and perils of proxy measures, Paul Halstead

Early Farmers

The View from Archaeology and Science

Edited by Alasdair Whittle and Penny Bickle

OUP/British Academy

Proceedings of the British Academy

Author Information

Edited by Alasdair Whittle, Distinguished Research Professor, Cardiff University, and Penny Bickle, Research Associate, University of Bristol

Contributors:

Adrian Balasescu
Agnes Guillaumont
Aikaterini Glykou
Alasdair Whittle
Alison Sheridan
Amy Bogaard
Anna Szécsényi-Nagy
Anne Tresset
Antonietta Di Matteo
Aurélie Salavert
Carlos Tornero
Caroline Hamon
Christian Lohr
Christian Meyer
Christina J. Adler
Clark Spencer Larsen
Corina Knipper
Damien Ertlen
Detlef Gronenborn
Dominique Schwartz
Elena Ortu
Eszter Bánffy
Eva Lenneis
Gourguen Davtian
Guido Brandt
Hayley Saul
János Jakucs
Jean-Denis Vigne
Jean-François Berger
Jean-Pierre Bocquet-Appel
Jérôme Dubouloz
Jessica Pearson
Jessica Smyth
Joël Ughetto-Monfrin
John C. Barrett
John Chapman
John Robb
Maria Giovanna Belcastro
Kurt W. Alt
Lamys Hachem
Linda Fibiger
Lisa-Marie Shillito
Lorette Noiret
Lynn Meskell
Marc Vander Linden
Maria Fernanda Sanchez-Goñi
Marie Balasse
Martin O'Connor
Mary Anne Tafuri
Mechthild Klamm
Nicole Nicklisch
Olaf Kürbis
Oliver E. Craig
Oliver J.T. Harris
Paola Iacumin
Paul Halstead
Penny Bickle
Pierre Pétrequin
Richard Evershed
Richard Moussa
Rick Schulting
Robert Ganslmeier
Robin Bendrey
Sarah Elliott
Stéphanie Brehard
Tamsin O'Connell
Valentina Mariotti
Valentina Voinea
Veit Dresely
Victoria Keerl
Wendy Matthews
Wolfgang Haak
Yoan Gauvry

Early Farmers

The View from Archaeology and Science

Edited by Alasdair Whittle and Penny Bickle

OUP/British Academy

Proceedings of the British Academy

Reviews and Awards

"this book will be of keen interest to prehistorians rethinking the way they understand one of the most innovative periods of human history." - Current World Archaeology

"Early Farmers is an important landmark to understand the changes at play within the discipline ... a very impressive selection of articles, covering almost all aspects of the Neolithic as it appears today. In terms of readership, Early Farmers will be of use to any specialist of the Neolithic in Europe interested in new approaches and material to compare his/her own results. The compact format of the book and its specific research focus also make it an ideal resource to train archaeology students and make them aware of the different methods of reconstructing the past." - Maxime Brami, European Journal of Archaeology