Periodic Reporting for period 1 - QUANT (A Quantitative Approach to Neolithic Plant-working Techniques: From Assessing Tool Use to Modelling Human Dispersals)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2018-11-01 al 2020-10-31
Human migrations have been shaping our world since prehistoric times. The study of past migrations can help society understanding how human past mobility shaped the present-day world, affecting not only the genetic heritage of populations, but as well the environment, the distribution of vegetal and animal species, the formation and propagation of cultures, the diffusion of technological innovations. The relevance of migrations in the present-day world is in the public eye and, at a time when there is a prevailing negative perception and misunderstanding of migration in public discourse, one way to avoid simplifications and manipulations is to promote the idea that migrations are a fundamental part of human life, and that they actively participated in shaping European society, culture, since historical times or even prior to that, since prehistory. In this sense, one of the most revolutionary migration phenomena of human history is represented by the spread of Neolithic. Between the 7th and the 6th millennium cal BC, Neolithic colonists from the Eastern Mediterranean moved to Europe, introducing a broad range of new plants.
The QUANT project was designed to study the spread of the Neolithic in the Central and Western Mediterranean through an innovative and multidisciplinary approach to the stone tools used for plant harvesting and processing tasks. Those tools represent an important part of the Neolithic package and were essential for developing different economic practices, such as agriculture and basketry. The assumption of QUANT project was that the study of the techniques used for plant harvesting and processing could be useful to reconstruct the pathways of Neolithic migrations.
The method employed for the analysis of these tools is the Use-Wear Analysis, a scientific discipline that allows reconstructing how ancient tools were used by analysing the wear traces left on the tools’ surface by ancient uses. Wear patterns can be highlighted and recognized thanks to the microscopic observation of the stone tools surfaces through stereoscopic and metallographic microscopy. The novelty of the QUANT project is to associate to the qualitative, visual, observation of use-wear traces, a quantitative methodology: Confocal Scanning Microscopy (CSM) and software designed for surface metrology. This cutting-edge technique allows to objectively distinguishing different types of micro-polishes, overcoming a qualitative assessment of stone tool function.
The obtained results allowed gaining a better understanding of the Neolithic migration process itself, but as well of the emergence of agricultural way-of-life in Europe. Migrations, local adaptations, and the spread of technological innovations played a major role in shaping the Mediterranean and European Neolithic.
The QUANT project was designed to study the spread of the Neolithic in the Central and Western Mediterranean through an innovative and multidisciplinary approach to the stone tools used for plant harvesting and processing tasks. Those tools represent an important part of the Neolithic package and were essential for developing different economic practices, such as agriculture and basketry. The assumption of QUANT project was that the study of the techniques used for plant harvesting and processing could be useful to reconstruct the pathways of Neolithic migrations.
The method employed for the analysis of these tools is the Use-Wear Analysis, a scientific discipline that allows reconstructing how ancient tools were used by analysing the wear traces left on the tools’ surface by ancient uses. Wear patterns can be highlighted and recognized thanks to the microscopic observation of the stone tools surfaces through stereoscopic and metallographic microscopy. The novelty of the QUANT project is to associate to the qualitative, visual, observation of use-wear traces, a quantitative methodology: Confocal Scanning Microscopy (CSM) and software designed for surface metrology. This cutting-edge technique allows to objectively distinguishing different types of micro-polishes, overcoming a qualitative assessment of stone tool function.
The obtained results allowed gaining a better understanding of the Neolithic migration process itself, but as well of the emergence of agricultural way-of-life in Europe. Migrations, local adaptations, and the spread of technological innovations played a major role in shaping the Mediterranean and European Neolithic.
The QUANT project has been developed along four main work packages. The first package concerned the development of a quantitative methodology to study plant-working related wears. This methodology has been based on the realization of several experimental sessions in order to create a robust reference framework for the interpretation of the archaeological items. Use-wear traces from experimental tools have been recorded using Confocal Scanning Microscopy (CSM) and software designed for surface metrology and an experimental framework has been created. The second and third packages regarded the analysis of archaeological collections. Artefacts have been analysed in order to create a map with all the attestations of the different techniques of plant-harvesting and -processing in the Mediterranean Basin. This allowed creating a geospatial database, associating all evidence connected with plant-working techniques, with archaeological, geographical and radiocarbon data. The fourth package has concerned the modelling of the data in order to reconstruct routes and rhythms of population dispersal.
As result of this extensive study at a Mediterranean scale, the QUANT project demonstrated that human migrations, local adaptations, and the spread of technological innovations played a major role in shaping the Mediterranean Neolithic. The analysis of the harvesting toolkit has revealed paths of migrations that would otherwise be difficult to detect through the analysis of other elements of the Neolithic material culture.
Early seafaring farming groups shared a common plant-harvesting technology, which they rapidly spread across the entire Mediterranean Basin. Their route passed across Greece and the Adriatic Sea, further proceeding through the Tyrrhenian Sea and the Gulf of Lion, until reaching the southern façade of the Iberian Peninsula. During successive migrations, new types of plant-harvesting tools were spread. Tools with parallel-hafted inserts appear in the Neolithic sites of the north-western Mediterranean arc: in the southern and eastern Balkans, in North Italy, Southern France and in the north-east of the Iberian Peninsula. The diffusion of tools with parallel-hafted inserts took place corresponded to a broader phase of change, including diffusion of new groups, technical transfers, and the establishment of new interaction networks.
The project has contributed notably to European excellence and competitiveness, enhancing public awareness of European history and past migrations. Results obtained in the framework of the QUANT project were published on international peer-reviewed journals and presented in international conferences dedicated to Neolithic and European Archaeology. Invited lectures have been presented in Spain, Italy, Austria and France in order to present the QUANT project to other research groups. Results connected with the QUANT project have been disseminated by different media such as national newspapers and television programs. In addition, project results were diffused within local festivals dedicated to traditional agriculture, creating collaborations and bridges between the academic sector and no-profit organizations involved in local history and sustainable agriculture.
As result of this extensive study at a Mediterranean scale, the QUANT project demonstrated that human migrations, local adaptations, and the spread of technological innovations played a major role in shaping the Mediterranean Neolithic. The analysis of the harvesting toolkit has revealed paths of migrations that would otherwise be difficult to detect through the analysis of other elements of the Neolithic material culture.
Early seafaring farming groups shared a common plant-harvesting technology, which they rapidly spread across the entire Mediterranean Basin. Their route passed across Greece and the Adriatic Sea, further proceeding through the Tyrrhenian Sea and the Gulf of Lion, until reaching the southern façade of the Iberian Peninsula. During successive migrations, new types of plant-harvesting tools were spread. Tools with parallel-hafted inserts appear in the Neolithic sites of the north-western Mediterranean arc: in the southern and eastern Balkans, in North Italy, Southern France and in the north-east of the Iberian Peninsula. The diffusion of tools with parallel-hafted inserts took place corresponded to a broader phase of change, including diffusion of new groups, technical transfers, and the establishment of new interaction networks.
The project has contributed notably to European excellence and competitiveness, enhancing public awareness of European history and past migrations. Results obtained in the framework of the QUANT project were published on international peer-reviewed journals and presented in international conferences dedicated to Neolithic and European Archaeology. Invited lectures have been presented in Spain, Italy, Austria and France in order to present the QUANT project to other research groups. Results connected with the QUANT project have been disseminated by different media such as national newspapers and television programs. In addition, project results were diffused within local festivals dedicated to traditional agriculture, creating collaborations and bridges between the academic sector and no-profit organizations involved in local history and sustainable agriculture.
The QUANT project aimed at going beyond the state-of-art in Neolithic Archaeology and in Use-Wear studies. The project has allowed identifying different routes of expansion of Neolithic immigrants across the Mediterranean that were previously unknown. All relevant data about the occurrence of the different plant-working toolkit has been published in Open Access (doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0232455) and the database is freely available online for all interested scholars. The groundbreaking research carried out within QUANT project has not only developed and established new archaeological datasets, but has also provided exceptional experimental datasets for comparative purposes and for the development of an Open Access use-wear library, establishing a major foundation for further research on this key interdisciplinary research area. A new methodological framework for the study of stone tools function has been created and improved by applying Confocal Scanning Microscopy and surface metrology. As publications are ongoing, or under peer review, and a number of these still in preparation, a full evaluation of the exploitable results and current impact will be apparent in the next few years, and in citation indexes and use of the datasets in open repositories.