Lecture1

Anthropology 3 - Lecture 16

Early Farmers in Europe

Introduction

nThe new farming way of life spread quickly from southwest Asia into neighboring areas.

nIn order to understand early agriculture in Europe, we have to remember the context of the Mesolithic.

nThe transition to farming was a complex phenomenon that followed a different sequence of events in different parts of Europe.

The Discovery

nA drought in the 1850’s lowered water levels in Swiss lakes and revealed numerous wood pilings.

nFerdinand Keller recovered many objects from Lake Zurich.

nInterpretations of these houses have changed over time.

How was farming introduced to Europe?

n1.      Migration - people moved out of the Near East and brought domesticated             plants and animals with them.

n2.      Indigenous adoption - Mesolithic             people were in contact with early                         farmers and gradually adopted an agricultural lifestyle.

mtDNA Evidence

nmtDNA studies have compared populations of early farmers to modern Europeans.

n20% of the modern population has mtDNA sequences related to those of people living in the Near East.

nThis evidence suggests a scenario involving some limited migration.

Southeastern Europe

nBy 8,000 years ago there were farmers living in Greece.

nMost scholars believe that this is the result of diffusion from the Near East.

nEarly farming was adopted as a package.

–Along with the domesticates, there are similarities in building styles, stone tools, and pottery.

How might this process have happened?

nThree phases

n1.  Climatic conditions in the early Holocene favored more plant growth.

n2.      The spread of forests decreased the amount of wild grasses available to     foragers.

n3.      Domesticated cereal crops were introduced from the Near East and                         cultivation of these crops replaced the use of wild grasses.

Implications of this model

nThe new mode of farming involved the integration of plant cultivation and animal husbandry into a carefully balanced subsistence strategy.

nThis model assumes that the development of food production in southeast Europe was stimulated by the immigration of some plants and animals from the Near East.

Indigenous development?

nRecent excavations have raised the possibility that some animals and plants were actually domesticated in southeast Europe and not introduced.

nOnly emmer wheat was certainly not native to Europe.

nMesolithic foragers in Greece may have adopted food production as a response to population pressure or climate change.

What about farther north?

nIn order to spread out of southeastern Europe, early farmers faced a number of new problems:

–Year-round rainfall.

–More contrasts between seasons.

–Heavier soils.

–Forests had to be cleared.

nThe early expansion of farming must have involved trial and error.

The Linearbandkeramik (LBK)

nThe expansion of farming into central and western Europe is associated with distinctive ceramics.

nThe spread of LBK began around 7,500 years ago and by 6,000 years ago covered much of central Europe.

The Spread of LBK

LBK Features

nLBK spread rapidly along the major river valleys of the Danube and the Rhein

nThey chose light loess soils that were left behind by the retreat of the glaciers

nThey avoided areas where Mesolithic people were thriving

nThey cultivated barley, einkorn, emmer wheat, and flax and herded cattle, sheep, and goats.

LBK Villages

nThey lived in long, rectangular timber and thatch houses.

nThe houses served as shelter for people and animals and were used to store grain.

An Efficient Package

nLoess soils were fertile and easily cultivated.

nAfter the harvest, cattle and pigs would be penned in the fields and their manure served as fertilizer.

nThis allowed some villages to remain in the same place for up to 500 years.

nVillages were widely spaced and population growth was slow.

Regional Variability

Frontiers

nThe LBK expansion created a frontier in many parts of Europe between farming communities and Mesolithic groups.

nFarming does not appear in Scandinavia until around 5,500 years ago, some 2,000 years after the initial spread of LBK.

nThis suggests contact between foragers and farmers.

Advantages for foragers

nClay vessels appear in some areas and are used for cooking and storage.

nCereal crops and sheep were useful to hunter-gatherers because they solved problems associated with getting enough food during the winter.

How did the transition happen?

n1.      Availability - Farming is known to Mesolithic people and there is some     exchange.

n2.      Substitution - Foragers begin to add cultivation or animal husbandry to                 their subsistence practices.

n3.      Consolidation - Food production becomes extensive and widespread.

Enculturating the landscape

nBeginning around 6,000 years ago, farmers began to build monumental stone structures.

nThese are common in Spain, France, Britain, Ireland, and Denmark.

Megaliths

What were they for?

nWere they built by druids?  Or the wizard Merlin?

nEarly mention of Stonehenge was made in 1135 by chronicler Geoffrey of Monmouth, who claimed that it was brought by a tribe of giants from Africa to Ireland, and from there flown by the wizard Merlin across the sea.

nOne common idea is that the monuments were astronomical observatories.

nIt is likely that they had some religious significance.

Early structures

nThe earliest structures are burial chambers or tombs constructed of earth and sometimes covering stone crypts.

nThey begin to appear about 6,000 years ago and are built for about 2,000 years.

Megalithic tombs

nThe mounds contained collective burials.

nNot everyone was buried in these tombs, and some graves contained pottery and jewelry.

Why were these tombs built?

nThey might have been monuments to the lineage that was buried inside.

nThey might have marked a group’s connection to territory.

nIn time, the tombs likely became powerful symbols associated with status and religion.

Change of tombs through time

A hierarchy of monuments

nLater in time, the tombs are associated with other kinds of structures including “causewayed enclosures” and stone circles.

nThese may have been central gathering places for people from several neighboring communities.

Causewayed enclosures

An area enclosed by a ring of ditches and earthworks.

How were they built?

nConsiderable labor was spent on the construction of these monuments.

nA typical burial mound might have taken 20 people 50 days to build.

nCircular earthworks might have taken 250 people many days.

nProjects like Stonehenge were built in many phases over hundreds of years.

Stonehenge

Phase I - About 4,900 years ago

Phase III 4,500 to 3,600

Constructing Stonehenge

nStone was transported over considerable distances.

nThe large stones came from a quarry about 20 miles to the north.  Each weighed about 25 tons.

nThe bluestones came from a quarry in Wales, on the west coast of England.

What did it look like?

Stonehenge today

What were they used for?

nThese monuments were probably built as an extension of the burial rituals associated with the tombs.

nSome causewayed enclosures may have been areas where bodies were left exposed.

Tombs for the living?

nSome scholars have called these megalithic structures “tombs for the living.”

nThey might have been built as lasting symbols of the continuity of human life and of the lasting connection to the land and to the ancestors.

nEven today, these monuments connect us to the past.

Conclusions

nAgriculture and animal husbandry spread to Europe as a result of a combination of diffusion and indigenous adoption.

nThe spread of the Linearbandkeramik culture documents the first appearance of agriculture in central and western Europe.

nNew religious ideologies spread across Europe after 6,500 years ago associated with megalithic monuments.