Zvelebil. Genes and culture at the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition
Noon-1pm. Thursday, 25 March, 2010
MFAC 352, Ellicott, University at Buffalo
Genes and culture at the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition
Marek Zvelebil. Archaeologist. Graduated from Sheffield, then from Cambridge in 1981.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
He has a really cool map about the expansion of Neolithic/Mesolithic stuff, diffusing from Anatolia
3 models about it:
1) Demic diffusion by wave of advanced model: fast and even dispersal, driven by rapid population rise. Uniform culturally and geographically
2) Indigenous adoption and cultural diffusion
3) Integration of demic and cultural diffusion view that Zvelebil espouses
Balkan Neolithic, LBK, and Cardial Ware cultures as farmer colonizations from southeast Europe and the near east
Rate of the spread of farming in Europe. Different. Eg:
1-2 km/year around Greece
3.8-4.5 km/year around Sardinia
.5 km/year around italia/Slovenia
<.1 km/yr around germany/Poland
4 km/year around Denmark/Scandinavia
5 km/year around Iberian peninsula
5.6 km/year around hungary
Comparing this rate with the modern male chromosome: genetic admixture from sources. 1) m170 gravettia;, 2) m173 aurignacian; 3) Tat, m178, Uralic; 4) M35, m172, m201 neolithic
Compare with mitochondrial DNA. Demic diffusion in the Paleolithic and Mesolithic - not in Neolithic. Pre-neolithic mitochondrial haplogroups in Europe: u, h, v, I, k. Neolithic: j, t, n.
Genetic evidence supports gene admixture at a continental scale.
75-90% of genes in modern European populations come from early farmers
~25% genes coming from immigrants from Near East in Neolithic
Deglaciation and recolonization of central Europe. Mesolithic, deglaciation, climate. Recolonizing central/north Europe. Trying to link this to certain genetic haplotype groups. M173 = magadalenian? M17 = swiderian? M170 = epigravettian?
The distribution of TAT C in northern Europe. Female and male DNA are different. Female ancestry is more local. Male ancestry over 30% circumpolar euroasian TAT.
A genetic determinism promotes the Neolithic demic diffusion. (but - Zvelebil is saying that you can’t compare apples/oranges or Mesolithic/Neolithic. He says it’s totally unacceptable)
The case of the LBK (linear pottery culture)
LBK - it represents the participation of several cultural groups in the constitution of a major cultural tradition. The LBK tradition, in order to be comprehensible to all constituent communities, and in order to co-opt their participation, had to be symbolically standardized, simplified, and not ambiguous. These qualities were the key features that underlie the cultural synthesis that have produced the LBK and contributed to its successful and rapid dispersal throughout Europe.
Emblemic material culture of the LBK - the symbolic code of recruitment into the Neolithic world. Longhouse: places for humans, animals, storage; very standardized. Place for making stone tools. Making longer blades. Very standardized pottery.
“A house is an icon of the cultural form or complex combination of forms of which it is a material expression” - goodenough. LBK houses are very standardized.
LBK burial code. Buried on left side, crouched position. Pots above the head.
LBK farming system as a social tradition. Cultural choices. Reinforced by strong conformist tradition within these communities that biased against innovation.
The question of milk tolerance. The lbk were supposed to have had lactose tolerance in adulthood.
Mesolithic hunter/gatherers have a role to play: processes of adoption and assimilation of and to the Neolithic.
Integrationist model.
Leapfrog colonization, frontier mobility and local adoption responsible
Pattern of the adoption of farming - regionally variable
Several different cultural groups involved
Example: vedrovice in southern Moravia.
Range of burials: 5000s in time (BC? Years ago?)
Darren is totally going to sleep.
Ancient lbk mtDNA indicates local female origin of lbk populations
Biochemical evidence supports gene admixture at a regional scale. Hunter-gatherer women who moved and joined the first farmers.
Most people stayed in the area where they were born. Only 15-20% of population were ‘foreigners’ who were not born in the local area. (based on strontium [early life] and sulphur [late life] isotopes)
Demography of vedrovice population.
Life expectancy = 26-29years. But the people were relatively healthy. People ages 15-25 are underrepresented. b/c vedrovice was a donor community; young vedrovice-ians left to find other communities.
Same pattern in other places in Europe. Coexistence btwn hunter/gatherer and farms. Neolithization of southern Baltic region. 5400-1200 BC
2200 BC - last evidence for independent hunter-gatherers
Next place for research: brzesc kujawski, kujava. 4000s BC
Instruments of conversion:
Agency by hunter gatherers: 1) trade/exchange; 2) infiltration of BK lengyel settlements; 3) subversion of BK lengyel cultural code
Conversion of the bk lengyel (danubian) tradition and transformation into TRB through agency, routine practice and structure
sventoji culture. hunter gatherers, around the area of modern-day lithuania. the only plant they cultivated was cannabis.
archaeologists need to learn that material culture =/= ethnicity, ethnos
MFAC 352, Ellicott, University at Buffalo
Genes and culture at the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition
Marek Zvelebil. Archaeologist. Graduated from Sheffield, then from Cambridge in 1981.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
He has a really cool map about the expansion of Neolithic/Mesolithic stuff, diffusing from Anatolia
3 models about it:
1) Demic diffusion by wave of advanced model: fast and even dispersal, driven by rapid population rise. Uniform culturally and geographically
2) Indigenous adoption and cultural diffusion
3) Integration of demic and cultural diffusion view that Zvelebil espouses
Balkan Neolithic, LBK, and Cardial Ware cultures as farmer colonizations from southeast Europe and the near east
Rate of the spread of farming in Europe. Different. Eg:
1-2 km/year around Greece
3.8-4.5 km/year around Sardinia
.5 km/year around italia/Slovenia
<.1 km/yr around germany/Poland
4 km/year around Denmark/Scandinavia
5 km/year around Iberian peninsula
5.6 km/year around hungary
Comparing this rate with the modern male chromosome: genetic admixture from sources. 1) m170 gravettia;, 2) m173 aurignacian; 3) Tat, m178, Uralic; 4) M35, m172, m201 neolithic
Compare with mitochondrial DNA. Demic diffusion in the Paleolithic and Mesolithic - not in Neolithic. Pre-neolithic mitochondrial haplogroups in Europe: u, h, v, I, k. Neolithic: j, t, n.
Genetic evidence supports gene admixture at a continental scale.
75-90% of genes in modern European populations come from early farmers
~25% genes coming from immigrants from Near East in Neolithic
Deglaciation and recolonization of central Europe. Mesolithic, deglaciation, climate. Recolonizing central/north Europe. Trying to link this to certain genetic haplotype groups. M173 = magadalenian? M17 = swiderian? M170 = epigravettian?
The distribution of TAT C in northern Europe. Female and male DNA are different. Female ancestry is more local. Male ancestry over 30% circumpolar euroasian TAT.
A genetic determinism promotes the Neolithic demic diffusion. (but - Zvelebil is saying that you can’t compare apples/oranges or Mesolithic/Neolithic. He says it’s totally unacceptable)
The case of the LBK (linear pottery culture)
LBK - it represents the participation of several cultural groups in the constitution of a major cultural tradition. The LBK tradition, in order to be comprehensible to all constituent communities, and in order to co-opt their participation, had to be symbolically standardized, simplified, and not ambiguous. These qualities were the key features that underlie the cultural synthesis that have produced the LBK and contributed to its successful and rapid dispersal throughout Europe.
Emblemic material culture of the LBK - the symbolic code of recruitment into the Neolithic world. Longhouse: places for humans, animals, storage; very standardized. Place for making stone tools. Making longer blades. Very standardized pottery.
“A house is an icon of the cultural form or complex combination of forms of which it is a material expression” - goodenough. LBK houses are very standardized.
LBK burial code. Buried on left side, crouched position. Pots above the head.
LBK farming system as a social tradition. Cultural choices. Reinforced by strong conformist tradition within these communities that biased against innovation.
The question of milk tolerance. The lbk were supposed to have had lactose tolerance in adulthood.
Mesolithic hunter/gatherers have a role to play: processes of adoption and assimilation of and to the Neolithic.
Integrationist model.
Leapfrog colonization, frontier mobility and local adoption responsible
Pattern of the adoption of farming - regionally variable
Several different cultural groups involved
Example: vedrovice in southern Moravia.
Range of burials: 5000s in time (BC? Years ago?)
Darren is totally going to sleep.
Ancient lbk mtDNA indicates local female origin of lbk populations
Biochemical evidence supports gene admixture at a regional scale. Hunter-gatherer women who moved and joined the first farmers.
Most people stayed in the area where they were born. Only 15-20% of population were ‘foreigners’ who were not born in the local area. (based on strontium [early life] and sulphur [late life] isotopes)
Demography of vedrovice population.
Life expectancy = 26-29years. But the people were relatively healthy. People ages 15-25 are underrepresented. b/c vedrovice was a donor community; young vedrovice-ians left to find other communities.
Same pattern in other places in Europe. Coexistence btwn hunter/gatherer and farms. Neolithization of southern Baltic region. 5400-1200 BC
2200 BC - last evidence for independent hunter-gatherers
Next place for research: brzesc kujawski, kujava. 4000s BC
Instruments of conversion:
Agency by hunter gatherers: 1) trade/exchange; 2) infiltration of BK lengyel settlements; 3) subversion of BK lengyel cultural code
Conversion of the bk lengyel (danubian) tradition and transformation into TRB through agency, routine practice and structure
sventoji culture. hunter gatherers, around the area of modern-day lithuania. the only plant they cultivated was cannabis.
archaeologists need to learn that material culture =/= ethnicity, ethnos