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- Resilience, replacement and acculturation in the Mesolithic/Neolithic transition: The case of Muge, central PortugalPublication . Bicho, Nuno; Cascalheira, João; Gonçalves, Célia; Umbelino, Cláudia; García-Rivero, Daniel; André, LinoEvidence for the first Neolithic population in central Portugal dates to as early as c. 7600 cal BP. These first farmers were exogenous groups arriving to the Atlantic coast from the Mediterranean Sea. For a few centuries there seems to have occurred an overlap in the region between the Mesolithic Muge huntergatherers and the regional early Neolithic populations. While the trajectory of these first farmers seems to be well established, the fate of the Mesolithic populations is unknown and in generally assumed as resulting in extinction. The recent results from research in the Muge Mesolithic shellmounds (Tagus valley) with the new recovery of various loci with Neolithic occupations including human burials, human DNA, and Strontium analyses seem to indicate evidence of cultural and genetic integration between the Mesolithic and Neolithic populations. This paper will focus on the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in Portuguese Estremadura and examines the hypothesis that human resilience promoted the cultural and biological integration of the Mesolithic groups into the new exogenous Neolithic communities in central Portugal. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved.
- Territoriality and the organization of technology during the Last Glacial Maximum in southwestern EuropePublication . Cascalheira, JoãoClimate changes that occurred during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) had significant consequences in human eco-dynamics across Europe. Among the most striking impacts are the demographic contraction of modern humans into southern refugia and the potential formation of a population bottleneck. In Iberia and southern France transformations also included the occurrence of significant technological changes, mostly marked by the emergence of a diverse set of bifacially-shaped stone projectiles. The rapid dissemination of bifacial technologies and the geographical circumscription of specific projectile morphologies within these regions have been regarded as evidence for: (1) the existence of a system of long-distance exchange and social alliance networks; (2) the organization of human groups into cultural facies with well-defined stylistic territorial boundaries. However, the degree and modes in which cultural transmission have occurred within these territories, and how it may have influenced other domains of the adaptive systems, remains largely unknown. Using southern Iberia as a case-study, this paper presents the first quantitative approach to the organization of lithic technology and its relationship to hunter-gatherers' territorial organization during the LGM. Similarities and dissimilarities in the presence of morphological and metric data describing lithic technologies are used as a proxy to explore modes and degrees of cultural transmission. Statistical results show that similarities in technological options are dependent on the chronology and geographical distance between sites and corroborate previous arguments for the organization of LGM settlement in Southern Iberia into discrete eco-cultural facies.
- Late Glacial and Early Holocene human demographic responses to climatic and environmental change in Atlantic IberiaPublication . McLaughlin, T. Rowan; Gómez-Puche, Magdalena; Cascalheira, João; Bicho, Nuno; Fernández-López de Pablo, JavierSuccessive generations of hunter-gatherers of the Late Glacial and Early Holocene in Iberia had to contend with rapidly changing environments and climatic conditions. This constrained their economic resources and capacity for demographic growth. The Atlantic façade of Iberia was occupied throughout these times and witnessed very significant environmental transformations. Archaeology offers a perspective on how past human population ecologies changed in response to this scenario. Archaeological radiocarbon data are used here to reconstruct demographics of the region over the long term. We introduce various quantitative methods that allow us to develop palaeodemographic and spatio-temporal models of population growth and density, and compare our results to independent records of palaeoenvironmental and palaeodietary change, and growth rates derived from skeletal data. Our results demonstrate that late glacial population growth was stifled by the Younger Dryas stadial, but populations grew in size and density during the Early to Middle Holocene transition. This growth was fuelled in part by an increased dependence on marine and estuarine food sources, demonstrating how the environment was linked to demographic change via the resource base, and ultimately the carrying capacity of the environment. This article is part of the theme issue 'Cross-disciplinary approaches to prehistoric demography'.