Download or read book The First Farmers of Europe written by Stephen Shennan and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018-05-03 with total page 613 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Knowledge of the origin and spread of farming has been revolutionised in recent years by the application of new scientific techniques, especially the analysis of ancient DNA from human genomes. In this book, Stephen Shennan presents the latest research on the spread of farming by archaeologists, geneticists and other archaeological scientists. He shows that it resulted from a population expansion from present-day Turkey. Using ideas from the disciplines of human behavioural ecology and cultural evolution, he explains how this process took place. The expansion was not the result of 'population pressure' but of the opportunities for increased fertility by colonising new regions that farming offered. The knowledge and resources for the farming 'niche' were passed on from parents to their children. However, Shennan demonstrates that the demographic patterns associated with the spread of farming resulted in population booms and busts, not continuous expansion.
Download or read book Europe s First Farmers written by T. Douglas Price and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2000-09-14 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Essays by leading specialists on a central issue of European history: the transition to farming.
Download or read book Farmers at the Frontier written by Kurt J Gron and published by Oxbow Books. This book was released on 2020-02-15 with total page 705 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: All farming in prehistoric Europe ultimately came from elsewhere in one way or another, unlike the growing numbers of primary centers of domestication and agricultural origins worldwide. This fact affects every aspect of our understanding of the start of farming on the continent because it means that ultimately, domesticated plants and animals came from somewhere else, and from someone else. In an area as vast as Europe, the process by which food production becomes the predominant subsistence strategy is of course highly variable, but in a sense the outcome is the same, and has the potential for addressing more large-scale questions regarding agricultural origins. Therefore, a detailed understanding of all aspects of farming in its absolute earliest form in various regions of Europe can potentially provide a new perspective on the mechanisms by which this monumental change comes to human societies and regions. In this volume, we aim to collect various perspectives regarding the earliest farming from across Europe. Methodological approaches, archaeological cultures, and geographic locations in Europe are variable, but all papers engage with the simple question: What was the earliest farming like? This volume opens a conversation about agriculture just after the transition in order to address the role incoming people, technologies, and adaptations have in secondary adoptions. The book starts with an introduction by the editors which will serve to contextualize the theme of the volume. The broad arguments concerning the process of neolithisation are addressed, and the rationale for the volume discussed. Contributions are ordered geographically and chronologically, given the progression of the Neolithic across Europe. The editors conclude the volume with a short commentary paper regarding the theme of the volume.
Download or read book European Prehistory written by Sarunas Milisauskas and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 454 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sarunas Milisauskas· 1.1 INTRODUCTION The purpose of this book is four-fold: to introduce English-speaking students and scholars to some of the outstanding archaeological research that has been done in Europe in recent years; to integrate this research into an anthropological frame of reference; to address episodes of culture change such as the transition to farming; the origin of complex societies, and the origin of urbanism, and to provide an overview of European prehistory from the earliest appearance of humans to the rise of the Roman empire. In 1978, the Academic Press published my book European Prehistory which, typically for that period, emphasized cultural evolution, culture process, technology, environment, and economy. To produce a new version and an up- to-date prehistory of Europe, I have invited contributions from specialists in the Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, Bronze and Iron Ages. Thus while this version of European Prehistory is a new book, however, it still incorporates some data from the 1978 version, particularly in The Present Environment and Neolithic chapters. Like its predecessor, this edition is structured around selected general topics, such as technology, trade, settlement, warfare, and ritual.
Download or read book First Kings of Europe Set written by Attila Gyucha and published by Cotsen Institute of Archaeology. This book was released on 2023-04 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contains the Essay volume and the Exhibit Catalogue volume. The catalogue accompanies an international exhibition, "First Kings of Europe," and the essay volume, First Kings of Europe: From Farmers to Rulers in Prehistoric Southeastern Europe, that examine the artifacts and cultures of this area from the Neolithic to the Iron Age. Over several millennia, early agricultural villages gave rise to tribal kingdoms and monarchies, replacing smaller, more egalitarian social structures with complex state organizations led by royal individuals invested with power. Several hundred objects and artifacts in the exhibition are portrayed in the catalog, accompanied by introductory text and detailed entries for each item. The spectacular and highly detailed color photographs introduce us to the gold and silver ornaments, bronze and iron weaponry, rich metal hoards and magnificent ceremonial vessels that are masterpieces from this period of history. Many of them have never left their countries of origin, making this exhibition and these two volumes documenting it an opportunity not to miss.
Download or read book War Agriculture and Food written by Paul Brassley and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2012 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume of essays examines one of the crucial periods in the evolution of the European rural economy and society, assessing the effects of the Second World War on the European countryside, and the impact of food and agricultural problems on the outcome of the war.
Download or read book First Farmers written by Peter Bellwood and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2004-11-30 with total page 331 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First Farmers: the Origins of Agricultural Societies offers readers an understanding of the origins and histories of early agricultural populations in all parts of the world. Uses data from archaeology, comparative linguistics, and biological anthropology to cover developments over the past 12,000 years Examines the reasons for the multiple primary origins of agriculture Focuses on agricultural origins in and dispersals out of the Middle East, central Africa, China, New Guinea, Mesoamerica and the northern Andes Covers the origins and dispersals of major language families such as Indo-European, Austronesian, Sino-Tibetan, Niger-Congo and Uto-Aztecan
Download or read book The First Farmers of Central Europe written by Penny Bickle and published by Oxbow Books. This book was released on 2013-07-09 with total page 561 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From about 5500 cal BC to soon after 5000 cal BC, the lifeways of the first farmers of central Europe, the LBK culture (Linearbandkeramik), are seen in distinctive practices of longhouse use, settlement forms, landscape choice, subsistence, material culture and mortuary rites. Within the five or more centuries of LBK existence a dynamic sequence of changes can be seen in, for instance, the expansion and increasing density of settlement, progressive regionalisation in pottery decoration, and at the end some signs of stress or even localised crisis. Although showing many features in common across its very broad distribution, however, the LBK phenomenon was not everywhere the same, and there is a complicated mixture of uniformity and diversity. This major study takes a strikingly large regional sample, from northern Hungary westwards along the Danube to Alsace in the upper Rhine valley, and addresses the question of the extent of diversity in the lifeways of developed and late LBK communities, through a wide-ranging study of diet, lifetime mobility, health and physical condition, the presentation of the bodies of the deceased in mortuary ritual. It uses an innovative combination of isotopic (principally carbon, nitrogen and strontium, with some oxygen), osteological and archaeological analysis to address difference and change across the LBK, and to reflect on cultural change in general.
Download or read book Neolithic Farming in Central Europe written by Amy Bogaard and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book evaluates competing models of early crop husbandry in Central Europe using available archaeobotanical evidence.
Download or read book The Early Neolithic in Greece written by Catherine Perlès and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2001-10-04 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Farmers made a sudden and dramatic appearance in Greece around 7000 BC, bringing with them new ceramics and crafts, and establishing settled villages. Their settlements provide the link between the first agricultural Near Eastern communities and the subsequent spread of the new technologies to the Balkans and Western Europe. Drawing on evidence from a wide range of archaeological sources, including often neglected "small finds", the author introduces daring new perspectives on funerary rituals and the distribution of figurines, and constructs a complex and subtle picture of early Neolithic societies.
Download or read book Hunters Fishers and Farmers of Eastern Europe 6000 3000 B C written by Ruth Tringham and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-11-13 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Eastern Europe, in this book, embraces the area formally referred to as the ‘Marchlands of Europe’, sometimes as Eastern Central Europe, and which included, when this book was originally published in 1971, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Rumania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, East Germany and Poland. This book presented for the first time the archaeological material related to the prehistory of Central and West Europe, describing the evidence for the earlier prehistory – settlement patterns, means of subsistence and material culture – in the various natural environments of this area. It looks at the Baltic coast, the north and east European plains, the Carpathian mountain ring, the Danube basin and the Adriatic and Black Sea coasts. The evidence for late Mesolithic hunting-fishing groups is examined, their techniques and their reaction to the introduction and spread of agriculturalists, as well as the development and activities of both food-gatherers and food-producers until the early use and manufacture of metal objects. 3000 years of prehistory are covered in a way which is designed to be intelligible and useful to all those who are interested in prehistory and in eastern Europe.
Download or read book Europe before Rome written by T. Douglas Price and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2013-01-09 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Werner Herzog's 2011 film Cave of Forgotten Dreams, about the painted caves at Chauvet, France brought a glimpse of Europe's extraordinary prehistory to a popular audience. But paleolithic cave paintings, stunning as they are, form just a part of a story that begins with the arrival of the first humans to Europe 1.3 million years ago, and culminates in the achievements of Greece and Rome. In Europe before Rome, T. Douglas Price takes readers on a guided tour through dozens of the most important prehistoric sites on the continent, from very recent discoveries to some of the most famous and puzzling places in the world, like Chauvet, Stonehenge, and Knossos. This volume focuses on more than 60 sites, organized chronologically according to their archaeological time period and accompanied by 200 illustrations, including numerous color photographs, maps, and drawings. Our understanding of prehistoric European archaeology has been almost completely rewritten in the last 25 years with a series of major findings from virtually every time period, such as Ötzi the Iceman, the discoveries at Atapuerca, and evidence of a much earlier eruption at Mt. Vesuvius. Many of the sites explored in the book offer the earliest European evidence we have of the typical features of human society--tool making, hunting, cooking, burial practices, agriculture, and warfare. Introductory prologues to each chapter provide context for the wider changes in human behavior and society in the time period, while the author's concluding remarks offer expert reflections on the enduring significance of these places. Tracing the evolution of human society in Europe across more than a million years, Europe before Rome gives readers a vivid portrait of life for prehistoric man and woman.
Download or read book The Domestication of Europe written by Ian Hodder and published by Wiley-Blackwell. This book was released on 1991-01-08 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Neolithic saw the spread of the first farmers, and the formation of settled villages throughout Europe. Traditional archaeology has interpreted these changes in terms of population growth, economic pressures and social competition, but in "The Domestication of Europe" Ian Hodder works from a new, controversial theory focusing instead on the enormous expansion of symbolic evidence from the homes, settlements and burials of the period. Why do the figurines, decorated pottery, elaborate houses and burial rituals appear and what is their significance? The author argues that the symbolism of the Neolithic must be interpreted if we are to understand adequately the associated social and economic changes. He suggests that both in Europe and the Near East a particular set of concepts was central to the origins of farming and a settled mode of life. These concepts relate to the house and home - termed "domus" - and they provided a metaphor and a mechanism for social and economic transformation. As the wild was brought in and domesticated through ideas and practices surrounding the domus, people were brought in and settled into the social and economic group of the village. Over the following millennia cultural practices relating to the domus continued to change and develop, until finally overtaken by a new set of concepts which became socially central, based on the warrior, the hunter and the wild.
Download or read book The Western European Loess Belt written by Corrie C. Bakels and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2009-07-29 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book deals with the early history of agriculture in a defined part of Western Europe: the loess belt west of the river Rhine. It is a well-illustrated book that integrates existing and new information, starting with the first farmers and ending when food production was no longer the chief source of livelihood for the entire population. The loess belt was chosen because it is a region with only one type of soil and climate as these are all-important factors where farming is concerned. Subjects covered are crops, crop cultivation, livestock and livestock handling, the farm and its yard, and the farm in connection with other farms. Crop plants and animals are described, together with their origin. New tools such as the plough, wheen, wagon and scythe are introduced. Groundplans of farm buildings, the history of the outhouse and the presence or absence of hamlets are presented as well, and the impact of farming on the landscape is not forgotten. The loess belt was not an island and the world beyond its boundaries was important for new ideas, new materials and new people. Summarising six millennia of agriculture, the thinking in terms of the Western European loess belt as one agricultural-cultural unit seems justified.
Download or read book Prehistoric Ukraine written by Malcolm C. Lillie and published by Oxbow Books. This book was released on 2020-09-30 with total page 925 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume covers the Prehistory of Ukraine from the Lower Palaeolithic through to the end of the Neolithic periods. This is the first comprehensive synthesis of Ukrainian Prehistory from earliest times through until the Neolithic Period undertaken by researchers who are currently investigating the Prehistory of Ukraine. At present there are no other English language books on this subject that provide a current synthesis for these periods. The chapters in this volume provide up-to-date overviews of all aspects of prehistoric culture development in Ukraine and present details of the key sites and finds for the periods studied. The book includes the most recent research from all areas of prehistory up to the Neolithic period, and, in addition, areas such as recent radiocarbon dating and its implications for culture chronology are considered; as is a consideration of aDNA and the new insights into culture history this area of research affords; alongside recent macrofossil studies of plant use, and anthropological and stable isotope studies of diet, which all combine to allow greater insights into the nature of human subsistence and cultural developments across the Palaeolithic to Neolithic periods in Ukraine. It is anticipated that this book will be an invaluable resource for students of prehistory throughout Europe in providing an English-language text that is written by researchers who are active in their respective fields and who possess an intimate knowledge of Ukrainian prehistory.
Download or read book Archaeobotanical studies of past plant cultivation in northern Europe written by Santeri Vanhanen and published by Barkhuis. This book was released on 2021-06-09 with total page 187 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Plant cultivation has a long and successful history that is tightly linked to environmental and climate change, social development and to cultural traditions and diversity. This is true also for the high latitudes of northern Europe, where cultivation started thousands of years before the earliest written records. The long history of cultivation can be studied by archaeobotany, which is the study of ancient seeds, pollen and other plant remains found on archaeological sites. This book presents recent advances in North-European archaeobotany. It focuses on plant cultivation and brings together studies from different countries and research environments, both at universities and within contract archaeology. The studies cover the Nordic countries and adjacent parts of the Baltic countries and Russia, and they span more than 5,000 years of agricultural history, from the Neolithic to the Middle Ages. They highlight and discuss many different aspects of early agriculture, from the first introduction of cultivation, to crop choices, expansions and declines, climatic adaptation, and vegetable gardening.
Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Neolithic Europe written by Chris Fowler and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2015-03-26 with total page 856 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Neolithic —a period in which the first sedentary agrarian communities were established across much of Europe—has been a key topic of archaeological research for over a century. However, the variety of evidence across Europe, the range of languages in which research is carried out, and the way research traditions in different countries have developed makes it very difficult for both students and specialists to gain an overview of continent-wide trends. The Oxford Handbook of Neolithic Europe provides the first comprehensive, geographically extensive, thematic overview of the European Neolithic —from Iberia to Russia and from Norway to Malta —offering both a general introduction and a clear exploration of key issues and current debates surrounding evidence and interpretation. Chapters written by leading experts in the field examine topics such as the movement of plants, animals, ideas, and people (including recent trends in the application of genetics and isotope analyses); cultural change (from the first appearance of farming to the first metal artefacts); domestic architecture; subsistence; material culture; monuments; and burial and other treatments of the dead. In doing so, the volume also considers the history of research and sets out agendas and themes for future work in the field.
