Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T06:12:49.159Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

5 - Mesolithic and Neolithic interaction in southern France and northern Italy: new data and current hypotheses

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2009

T. Douglas Price
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin, Madison
Get access

Summary

Since the 1980s, the theories related to the emergence of agropastoral economies in Europe have witnessed a significant evolution. During the 1970s, researchers pursued a hypothesis of independent processes of Neolithization that might explain the variability seen in the European Neolithic. In other terms, this allowed them to consider the introduction of production processes as a natural phenomenon, induced by “global change” at the end of the Pleistocene. For many reasons developed below, this framework of investigation is now obsolete, and partisans of a polygenic model have become rarer (Olaria 1988). We must effectively agree with the idea that there is no explicit tendency through the Holocene hunting economies in western Europe to move toward more and more production. If we consider the entire Mediterranean area, we must note that true Neolithization processes are largely confined to the Near East.

In consequence, this chapter will focus on the different processes of interaction between Mesolithic and Neolithic groups in southern France and northern Italy (Fig. 5.1). These phenomena are the consequence of the spread of the Near Eastern Neolithic. Theoretically speaking, this spread goes through significant transformation along the way and these modifications are not at all clear. Several important themes come out in this examination.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2000

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×