Modelling the Diffusion of Pottery Technologies across Afro-Eurasia: Emerging Insights and Future Research

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-2016

Publication Title

Antiquity

Volume

90

Issue

351

First page number:

590

Last page number:

603

Abstract

Where did pottery first appear in the Old World? Statistical modelling of radiocarbon dates suggests that ceramic vessel technology had independent origins in two different hunter-gatherer societies. Regression models were used to estimate average rates of spread and geographic dispersal of the new technology. The models confirm independent origins in East Asia (c. 16000 cal BP) and North Africa (c. 12000 cal BP). The North African tradition may have later influenced the emergence of Near Eastern pottery, which then flowed west into Mediterranean Europe as part of a Western Neolithic, closely associated with the uptake of farming. Copyright © 2016 Antiquity Publications Ltd.

Keywords

agriculture; diffusion; hunter-gatherers; Neolithic transition; pottery; radiocarbon dating; statistical model

Language

English

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