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Research Article

Modeling the role of voyaging in the coastal spread of the Early Neolithic in the West Mediterranean

View ORCID ProfileNeus Isern, View ORCID ProfileJoão Zilhão, Joaquim Fort, and Albert J. Ammerman
PNAS January 31, 2017 114 (5) 897-902; first published January 17, 2017; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1613413114
Neus Isern
aComplex Systems Laboratory and Physics Department, Universitat de Girona, 17003 Girona, Spain;
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  • ORCID record for Neus Isern
  • For correspondence: neus.isern@udg.edu
João Zilhão
bDepartament d’Història i Arqueologia (Grup de Recerca SGR2014-00108), University of Barcelona, 08001 Barcelona, Spain;
cCatalan Institute for Research and Advanced Studies, 08010 Barcelona, Spain;
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  • ORCID record for João Zilhão
Joaquim Fort
aComplex Systems Laboratory and Physics Department, Universitat de Girona, 17003 Girona, Spain;
cCatalan Institute for Research and Advanced Studies, 08010 Barcelona, Spain;
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Albert J. Ammerman
dDepartment of Classics, Colgate University, Hamilton, NY 13346
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  1. Edited by Melinda A. Zeder, National Museum of Natural History, Santa Fe, NM, and approved December 5, 2016 (received for review August 12, 2016)

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Significance

The Neolithic expansion in Europe took place at an average rate of 1 km⋅y−1. In the West Mediterranean, the archaeological record yields a much faster rate of spread, one that cannot be explained by classical overland models. Voyaging has been put forward as an alternative line of explanation. Here, we develop a computational model to identify the key elements and mechanisms and to estimate the values that yield outcomes that fit the observations. The results show that voyaging is indeed required to explain the pattern. We have also found that interactions with local hunter-gatherers played a lesser part in the fast rate of spread.

Abstract

The earliest dates for the West Mediterranean Neolithic indicate that it expanded across 2,500 km in about 300 y. Such a fast spread is held to be mainly due to a demic process driven by dispersal along coastal routes. Here, we model the Neolithic spread in the region by focusing on the role of voyaging to understand better the core elements that produced the observed pattern of dates. We also explore the effect of cultural interaction with Mesolithic populations living along the coast. The simulation study shows that (i) sea travel is required to obtain reasonable predictions, with a minimum sea-travel range of 300 km per generation; (ii) leapfrog coastal dispersals yield the best results (quantitatively and qualitatively); and (iii) interaction with Mesolithic people can assist the spread, but long-range voyaging is still needed to explain the archaeological pattern.

  • Neolithic
  • coastal spread
  • computational model
  • voyaging
  • cultural transmission

Footnotes

  • ↵1To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: neus.isern{at}udg.edu.
  • Author contributions: J.Z., J.F., and A.J.A. designed research; N.I. performed research; N.I. and J.F. contributed new reagents/analytic tools; J.Z. prepared the database; N.I. and J.F. analyzed data; and N.I., J.Z., J.F., and A.J.A. wrote the paper.

  • The authors declare no conflict of interest.

  • This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.

  • This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1613413114/-/DCSupplemental.

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Modeling the West Mediterranean Neolithic spread
Neus Isern, João Zilhão, Joaquim Fort, Albert J. Ammerman
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Jan 2017, 114 (5) 897-902; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1613413114

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Modeling the West Mediterranean Neolithic spread
Neus Isern, João Zilhão, Joaquim Fort, Albert J. Ammerman
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Jan 2017, 114 (5) 897-902; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1613413114
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