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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.
Sommario
1. Introduction: population, resources and life histories; 2. The origins of agriculture in Southwest Asia; 3. The first westward expansion of farming; 4. The spread of farming into Central Europe; 5. Maritime expansion in the Central and West Mediterranean; 6. Continental temperate Europe 7000-5500 BP: internal expansion and adaptation; 7. First farmers in southern Scandinavia; 8. The farming colonisation of Britain and Ireland; 9. Conclusion: evolutionary patterns and processes.
Info autore
Stephen Shennan is Professor of Theoretical Archaeology at the University College London Institute of Archaeology, where he was Director 2005-2014. His main interest is explaining stability and change in prehistory in the light of evolutionary ideas. He has published over 120 papers and books, including Quantifying Archaeology (2nd edition, 1997), Genes, Memes and Human History (2002), and Pattern and Process in Cultural Evolution (edited, 2009). He is a Fellow of the British Academy and a member of the Academia Europaea. He received the Rivers Medal of the Royal Anthropological Institute in 2010 and a Shanghai Archaeological Forum Research Award for his EUROEVOL project in 2015.
Riassunto
The book presents the latest research on the spread of farming by archaeologists and geneticists. It shows that it resulted from a population expansion from present-day Turkey and explains how this took place. It will be of interest to advanced students and scholars in archaeology, anthropology and the evolutionary social sciences more generally.
