This wide-ranging collection of essays covers the transformation from Mesolithic hunter-gatherers to Neolithic farmers. Providing an overview of this fundamental change in human society, it offers a comprehensive and authoritative treatment by leading specialists.

"This wide-ranging collection of essays covers the transformation from Mesolithic hunter-gatherers to Neolithic farmers. This comprehensive and authoritative treatment provides the best available overview of this fundamental change in human society."--BOOK JACKET.

This book developed from discussions following the 2012 In Dialogue: Tradition and Interaction in the Mesolithic-Neolithic Transition conference held in Manchester, UK. This conference provided a forum to compare not only the processes through which material innovations were adopted and elaborated during the Early Neolithic, but also the ways in which these processes have been understood and represented within the respective archaeological research traditions. The book examines the developments that followed the introduction of farming into Britain and Southern Scandinavia (Denmark and Southern Sweden). Contributors to the volume discuss the idiosyncratic social and cultural patterns that emerged at this pivotal period. An overarching narrative is woven by scholars from both regions who seamlessly integrate material culture, dwelling practices, controversial theory and ritual activities into a detailed image of the changing world of the early Neolithic in North-West Europe. Through a theoretically informed approach, the relationship between material culture, subsistence regimes, monumentality, ceremonial activity and social relations is explored. The process in which people became 'Neolithic' is complex and required changes not just in subsistence but in every facet of their lives; this is what this book wishes to investigate. By leaving the traditional colonization and adoption debate for a more nuanced approached, an intricate cultural tapestry can be woven. From their organisation of the landscape to their place in the world, things were fundamentally altered: this is where the authors of this book focus their attention. This is a regionally focused, theoretically and methodologically complementary set of papers by specialists who offer a comprehensive and authoritative overview of different aspects of this fundamental transition. With contributions by Anna-Karin Andersson, Jolene Debert, Irene Garcia-Rovira, Frances Healy, Sven Isaksson, Lutz Klassen, Mats Larsson, Anders Lindahl, Ellen McInnes, Ludvig Papmehl-Dufay, T. Douglas Price, Ole Stilborg and Julian Thomas.

Since its development in 1949, radiocarbon dating has increasingly been used in prehistoric research in order to get a better grip on the chronology of sites, cultures and environmental changes. Refinement of the dating, sampling and calibration methods has continuously created new and challenging perspectives for absolute dating. In these proceedings the focus lies on the contribution of carbon-14 dates in current Mesolithic research in North-West Europe. Altogether 40 papers dealing with radiocarbon dates from 15 different countries are presented. Major themes are the typo-technological evolution of lithic and bone industries, changes in settlement patterns, burial practices, demography and subsistence, human impact on the Mesolithic environment and the neolithisation process. Some papers also deal with more methodological aspects of carbon-14 dating (e.g. calculation of various reservoir effects, the use of cumulative calibrated probability distributions), and related techniques (e.g. stable isotope analysis for palaeodiet reconstruction).

The transition from hunting and gathering to farming – the Neolithic Revolution – was one of the most signi cant cultural processes in human history that forever changed the face of humanity. Natu an communities (15,100–12,000Cal BP) (all dates in this chapter are calibrated before present) planted the seeds of change, and the Pre-Pottery Neolithic (PPN) (ca. 12,000–ca. 8,350Cal BP) people, were the rst to establish farming communities. The revolution was not fully realized until quite late in the PPN and later in the Pottery Neolithic (PN) period. We would like to ask some questions and comment on a few aspects emphas- ing the linkage between biological and cultural developments during the Neolithic Revolution. The biological issues addressed in this chapter are as follows: × Is there a demographic change from the Natu an to the Neolithic? × Is there a change in the overall health of the Neolithic populations compared to the Natu an? × Is there a change in the diet and how is it expressed? × Is there a change in the physical burden/stress people had to bear with? × Is there a change in intra- and inter-community rates of violent encounters? From the cultural perspective the leading questions will be: × What was the change in the economy and when was it fully realized? × Is there a change in settlement patterns and site nature and organization from Natu an to Neolithic? × Is there a change in human activities and division of labor?