A team of international researchers discovered that Northern Europeans rejected farming at first, while other continents were embracing foraging and the New Stone Age transition. The findings were published in PLOS ONE by an international team of researchers. They offer a new wrinkle in the story of the major economic breakthrough that saw civilizations move away from gathering and hunting for survival in favor of agriculture. Researcher at CIRHUS in New York City, Dr. Solange Rigad said that the findings “also reveal two different cultural paths that occurred in Europe thousands of year ago with the southern and central regions of Europe advancing in many directions and the northern regions keeping their traditions.” These personal ornaments were used by the European foraging societies. Image: nyu.edu. Other co-authors were Marian Vanhaeren and Francesco d’Errico from France’s Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique. Professor d’Errico is also a researcher at the Institute for Archaeology, History, Cultural Studies and Religion, University of Bergen, Norway. The ornaments that people use to decorate their bodies. To understand how Northern European societies develop, researchers focused on whether ornaments were rejected or adopted by the different groups. Different ornaments were used by hunters-gatherers and farmers. This method has been useful in understanding how certain practices spread. Studies in the past have demonstrated a correlation between specific ornaments being adopted and survival techniques. The first time ornaments have been used to track the Early Neolithic period’s adoption of farming in Northern Europe, this is a new study. From 8 ,000 up to 5 ,000 BCE. (BC = BC). Anthropologists have known for a long time that first farmers arrived in Europe around eight thousand years ago. They started off in Greece, and marked the start of an economic revolution. This was the shift from farming to foraging over the following 3 ,000years. It is not clear how the paths of agriculture’s spread over the millennia are connected. The research team checked out more than 200 beads-types at more than 400 European sites over a three year period. Studies in the past have shown that foraging, farming and the creation of beads and bracelets can be linked to the creation of these types of jewelry. These are examples of ornaments that were personal to the founding European agricultural societies. Image: nyu.edu. Dr. Rigaud, along with his colleagues, studied the spread of ornaments that were associated with farmers to understand how Europe’s transition from hunting and foraging to farming happened. The spread of ornaments that were associated with farming was first seen in southern Europe. They discovered that human-shaped bead and bracelets of perforated shells, as well as ornaments that were tied to farmers, spanned from northern Spain to France to eastern Greece. These ornaments of the farmer type were not seen in northern Europe’s Baltic region. They appeared to retain the traditional decorative wear of hunter-gatherer communities, using perforated shells rather than beads and bracelets. Dr. Rigaud stated: “It is clear that hunters and foragers of the Baltic region resisted the acceptance by farmers ornaments during this period. This cultural border was interpreted as a barrier to farming’s advancement, at least in the Neolithic period. The Fyssen Foundation and Maria Sklodowska Curie COFUND Action funded the study. Citation: “Ornaments Show Resistance of North European Culturals to the Spreading of Farming”, Solange Rigaud and Francesco d’Errico. PLOS ONE. Published April 8, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone. 0121166.
Northern Europeans rejected farming in the New Stone Age.
