Human Bioarchaeology of the Transition to Agriculture

Human Bioarchaeology of the Transition to Agriculture provides a multidisciplinary account of the nature of the transition from hunting and gathering to pastoralism and farming in prehistory. It addresses for the first time important bioarchaeological aspects of the debate such as changes in growth; body size variation and adaptation; mobility, biomechanics and behaviour; and population dynamics. The volume also presents new research in molecular anthropology, including evidence for dietary change using isotope analysis, population history and adaptation using ancient DNA. The volume features: Up–to–date evidence for the impact of the transition to agriculture on human biology and behaviour The integration of different approaches to the analysis of ancient human remains A global approach with chapters dealing with Europe, Asia, Africa and North and South America Contributions from key researchers in the area The book will prove invaluable to specialists, practitioners or professionals in the fields of biological anthropology, bioarchaeology and prehistoric archaeology needing a global and multidisciplinary prospective on the transition to agriculture.

Foreword ( Clark Spencer Larsen ). List of Contributors. 1. Introduction: Changing Paradigms in Our Understanding of the Transition to Agriculture: Human Bioarchaeology, Behaviour and Adaption ( Jay T. Stock and Ron Pinhasi ). Section A: Subsistence Transitions. 2. Mesolithic–Neolithic Transitions: An Isotopic Tour through Europe ( Rick Schulting ). 3. The Mesolithic–Neolithic Transition in Eastern Europe: Integrating Stable Isotope Studies of Diet with Palaeopathology to Identify Subsistence Strategies and Economy ( Malcolm Lillie and Chelsea Budd ). 4. Climatic Conditions, Hunting Activities and Husbandry Practices in the Course of the Neolithic Transition: The Story Told by Stable Isotope Analyses of Human and Animal Skeletal Remains ( Gisela Grupe and Joris Peters ). 5. Health, Diet and Social Implications in Neolithic Greece from the Study of Human Osteological Material ( Anastasia Papathanasiou ). 6. Using a Bioarchaeological Approach to Explore Subsistence Transitions in the Eastern Cape, South Africa during the Mid– to Late Holocene ( Jaime K. Ginter ). Section B: Growth and Body Size Variation. 7. Long Bone Length, Stature and Time in the European Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene ( Christopher Mieklejohn and Jeff Babb ). 8. Variability in Long Bone Growth Patterns and Limb Proportions Within and Amongst Mesolithic and Neolithic Populations from Southeast Europe ( Ron Pinhasi, S. Stefanovi c, Anastasia Papathanasiou and Jay T. Stock ). 9. Reaching Great Heights: Changes in Indigenous Stature, Body Size and Body Shape with Agricultural Intensification in North America ( Benjamin M. Auerbach ). 10. Evolution of Postcranial Morphology during the Agricultural Transition in Prehistoric Japan ( Daniel H. Temple ). Section C: Biomechanics and Indicators of Habitual Activity. 11. The Bioarchaeology of Habitual Activity and Dietary Change in the Siberian Middle Holocene ( A.R. Lieverse, Jay T. Stock, M.A. Katzenberg and C.M. Haverkort ). 12. ′An External Agency of Considerable Importance′: The Stresses of Agriculture in the Foraging–to–Farming Transition in Eastern North America ( Clark Spencer Larsen and Christopher Ruff ). 13. Mobility and Lower Limb Robusticity of a Pastoralist Neolithic Population from North–Western Italy ( Damiano Marchi, Vitale Sparacello and Colin Shaw ). 14. Body Size, Skeletal Biomechanics, Mobility and Habitual Activity from the Late Palaeolithic to the Mid–Dynastic Nile Valley ( Jay T. Stock, Matthew C. O′Neill, Christopher B. Ruff, Melissa Zabecki, Laura Shackelford and Jerome C. Rose ). Section D: Archaeogenetics, Palaeodemography, Cranial and Dental Morphology. 15. The Palaeopopulationgenetics of Humans, Cattle and Dairying in Neolithic Europe ( Joachim Burger and Mark G. Thomas ). 16. The Genetics of the Neolithic Transition: New Light on Differences Between Hunter–Gatherers and Farmers in Southern Sweden ( Anna Linderholm ). 17. Palaeodemography of Southern Levantine Pre–Pottery Neolithic Populations: Regional and Temporal Perspectives ( Vered Eshed and Ehud Galili ). 18. Skeletal Differentiation at the Southernmost Frontier of Andean Agriculture ( Marina L. Sardi and Marien Beguelin ). 19. Dental Reduction and the Transition to Agriculture in Europe ( Ron Pinhasi and Christopher Meiklejohn ). Index.

“The book comprises numerous excellent case studies incorporating traditional osteometric methods with newer approaches such as stable isotopes, biomechanics, and paleogenetics, casting a much broader net than Cohen and Armelagos’ volume, which focused explicitly on paleopathological indicators of health.”  ( American Journal of Physical Anthropology , 5 October 2012)