Showing papers by "Stephen Shennan published in 2004"

Random drift and culture change

Abstract: We show that the frequency distributions of cultural variants, in three different real–world examples—first names, archaeological pottery and applications for technology patents—follow power laws that can be explained by a simple model of random drift. We conclude that cultural and economic choices often reflect a decision process that is value–neutral; this result has far–reaching testable implications for social–science research.

Archaeobotanical evidence for the spread of farming in the eastern Mediterranean. Commentaries. Authors' reply

Abstract: A major topic of debate in Old World prehistory is the relative importance of population movement versus cultural diffusion in explaining the spread of agriculture into and across Europe following its inception in southwestern Asia. An important set of data that has surprisingly been largely absent from this debate is the preserved crops and associated weeds of the earliest farmers. An analysis of archaeobotanical data from 40 aceramic Neolithic sites in southwestern Asia and southeastern Europe shows that there are vegetational signatures that characterize the different geographical regions occupied by the Early Neolithic farmers. On this basis it is argued that the compositional similarities of the crop package between the Levantine core, Cyprus, and Greece are indicative of both the routes of migration of early farming groups and the early agricultural practices of Europe's first farmers.

Archaeobotanical evidence for the spread of farming in the eastern Mediterranean

Abstract: A major topic of debate in Old World prehistory is the relative importance of population movement versus cultural diffusion in explaining the spread of agriculture into and across Europe following its inception in southwestern Asia. An important set of data that has surprisingly been largely absent from this debate is the preserved crops and associated weeds of the earliest farmers. An analysis of archaeobotanical data from 40 aceramic Neolithic sites in southwestern Asia and southeastern Europe shows that there are vegetational signatures that characterize the different geographical regions occupied by the Early Neolithic farmers. On this basis it is argued that the compositional similarities of the crop package between the Levantine core, Cyprus, and Greece are indicative of both the routes of migration of early farming groups and the early agricultural practices of Europes first farmers.

Explaining Social Change: Studies in honour of Colin Renfrew

Abstract: Beliefs about Death, Behaviour, and Mortuary Practices among Hunter-gatherers: a Search for Causal Structure (Lewis R. Binford) Social Archaeology and the Unfinished Business of the Palaeolithic (Clive Gamble) Stage 3 Climate and the Upper Palaeolithic Revolution in Europe: Evolutionary Perspectives (Paul Mellars) Neo-thingness (Ian Hodder) Fractal Farmers: Patterns of Neolithic Origin and Dispersal (Andrew Sherratt) An Overview of Neolithic Settlement Patterns in Eastern Thessaly (Mats Johnson & Catherine PerlesErnestine S. Elster) Towards an Island of Mind (Caroline Malone & Simon Stoddart) A Choreography of Construction: Monuments, Mobilization and Social Organization in Neolithic Orkney (Colin Richards) Now You See It, Now You Don't: Changing Obsidian Source Use in the Willaumez Peninsula, Papua New Guinea (Robin Torrence) Island Prehistories: a View of Orkney from South Uist (Mike Parker Pearson) Hail to the Chiefdom The Quest for Social Archaeology (Andrew Fleming) The Development of an Island Centre: Urbanization at Phylakopion Melos (Todd Whitelaw) Stating Identities: the Use of Objects in Rich Bronze Age Graves (Marie Louise Stig Ssrensen) The Role of Exchange Relations in the Origins of Mesopotamian Civilization (Joan Oates & David Oates) Cycles of Collapse in Greek Prehistory: the House of the Tiles at Lerna and the Heroon at Lefkandi (James Whitley) Before Devanika: Social Change and State Formation in the Mekong Valley (Charles Higham) Aegean Islands and Islanders (Christos Doumas) Aphrodite Observed: Insularity and Antiquities on Kythera through Outsiders Eyes (Cyprian Broodbank, John Bennet & Jack L. Davis).

The Neolithic transition and European population history - a response

Abstract: We thank Crombe and Van Strydonck for their comments on our earlier paper (Gkiasta et al. 2003). They kindly draw attention to recent surveys of radiocarbon data from Belgium, most of which were published subsequent to our own work, which was carried out in 1999. Even at the time we were under no illusion that our compilation was complete: “It became clear in the course of the project that, despite the large sums of money which have been spent over the years on radiocarbon dating in Europe, the state of public availability of the dates, their context and associations and details which enable users to judge the reliability of dates is in general very poor. Thus, no claim is made that the database is in any sense complete” (Gkiasta et al. 2003: 48). It would probably also be as well to correct the impression that the dates we used were mainly derived from Gob (1990). Over half those finally included were extracted from the University of Lyon Banadora database; the remainder came from a wide range of other sources. The new dates from Belgium may well shed new light on the chronology of the transition in that region. New discoveries frequently do cause old interpretations to be modified or revised; we look forward to their analysis and demonstration of the implications of the new data to which they refer.