Expected palaeoanthropological and archaeological signal from a Neolithic demographic transition on a worldwide scale

Bibliographic Data

ID2958563
AuthorsJean-Pierre Bocquet-Appel, Jean‐pierre Bocquet‐appel (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, corresponding author), Jérôme Dubouloz (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)
Year2004
Volume31
Pages25-33
Publication date2004-12-31
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueDocumenta Praehistorica (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1408-967X • E-ISSN: 1854-2492
PublisherUniversity of Ljubljana (PUBLISHER • SI)
DOI10.4312/dp.31.2
OpenAlexW2012471152
LanguageEN
Citations received20
References cited4

A s signal of major demographic change was detected from a palaeoanthropologicaldatabase of 68 Meso-Neolithic cemeteries in Europe (reduced to 36 due to a sampling bias). The signal is characteriyed by a relatively abrupt change in the proportion of immature skeletons (aged 5-19 years), relative to all buried skeletons (5 years +). From the Meso to the Neolithic, the proportion rose from approximately 20% to 30%. This change reflects a noticeable increase in the birth rate over a duration of about 500-700 years, and is referred to as the Neolithic Demographic Transition (NDT). Another category of independent archaeological data, on enclosures (N =694), which are interpreted as a response to population growth within the social area, reveals a similar signal at the same tempo. If this is a true signal, we should expect it to be detected also in all the independent centresof agricultural invention worldwide. The NDT is at the historical root of the pre-industrial populations that would gradually spread across the Earthand which are now rapidly disappearing

Agriculture · Archaeology · Cartography · Geography · Population · Sociology · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Demography · Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology