The study of the Neolithic transition constitutes a major theme in
prehistoric research. The process of economic change, from foraging to
farming, involved one of the main transformations in human behavior
patterns. This volume focuses on investigating the neolithization
process at the periphery of one of the main routes in the expansion of
the Neolithic in Europe: the Western Mediterranean region. Recent
advances in radiocarbon dating, mathematical and computational models,
archaeometric analysis and biomolecular techniques, together with new
archaeological discoveries, provide novel insights into this topic.
This volume is organized into five sections:
- new discoveries and new ideas about the Mediterranean Neolithic
- reconstructing times and modeling processes
- landscape interaction: farming and herding
- dietary subsistence of early farming communities
- human dispersal mechanisms and cultural transmission
This volume will also provide new empirical data to help readers assess
different theoretical frameworks and narratives which underlie the
models proposed to explain the expansion of farming from the Middle East
into Europe.