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Domestication and early agriculture in the Mediterranean Basin: Origins, diffusion, and impact

Table 1.

The extinction of Late Pleistocene large endemic mammals and human colonization of Mediterranean islands

Time period Island/mammal
Gymnesic Islands/Myotragus balearicus Tyrrhenian Islands/Megaloceros cazioti Crete/Candiacervus sp. Cyprus/Phanourios minutus
Most recent endemic 5,000* 10,000† > 9,000 11,500*,†
Earliest human presence 7,000 10,000 None 11,500
Neolithic colonization 4,000 7,600 9,000 10,500

  • All dates in calibrated years B.P. References are as follows: Gymnesic Islands (69), Tyrrhenian Islands (57), Crete (62), and Cyprus (39, 61).

  • ↵*Directly dated skeletal element.

  • ↵†Radiocarbon-dated stratigraphic context.

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