Agriculture in Europe and Paleoethnobotany Agriculture in Europe Spread from Middle East to Europe o No indigenous plants cultivated Dramatic reorganization of local societies 8 500 ya Southeastern Europe 7 500 ya Central and Western Europe 6 000 ya the rest of Western Europe How did it Spead to Europe Language Dispersal hypothesis o Only formal hypothesis o Farming package introduced by Indo European speakers Romance Slavic and Baltic languages o Hunter gatherers were completely replaced by farmers Hunter gatherers were passive compared to agriculturalists Agriculture resulted from the interactions between migrating people and local communities pre disposed to domestication o More widely accepted because of more evidence for less passive than with language dispersal states Pre agricultural Europe Mesolithic cultures 11 000 ya o Manipulating environment Offshore fishing Burning the landscape More resources plants and animals o Lepenski Vir Siberia 7 400 7 600 ya overlap with farmers Fishing and hunting deer Large structures Mesolithic Cultures Complex societies o Not passive cultures No need to farm o No population increase or food shortage o But 6 000 ya selective domestication Why switch o Reflection of changing social organization Adoption of Agriculture Linear Band Keramik LBK o First farming cultures in Europe o 7 200 ya o Farmed Middle Eastern plants and animals o Long houses made of timber Largest buildings in Europe LBK culture spread o Uniform through Central and Western Europe o Rapid spread o Interconnections between local populations and migrating ones Trade with Mesolithic cultures LBK Culture Violence o Talheim Germany Mass burial o Otzi the iceman Blunt force and projectile trauma Found in 1991 on Austrian Italian boarder Lived 5 000 ya Clothing tools medicinal plants canteen birch bark tattoos Arrowhead in his left shoulder and cut on his hands Might have been escaping a village attack Paleoethnobotany Studying past cultures through analysis of their interaction with plants Based on preservation o Best for preservation Dry climates Waterlogged conditions bogs Absence of oxygen Methods Macro botanicals o Not usually preserves Unless burned o Bound within soil Floatation Botanicals float soil sinks Analysis Identify seed species Wild vs domesticated o Seed and rachis size Distribution of number and type of seeds o Spatial organization of activities Food storage food preparation
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