A comparative perspective on the ‘western’ and ‘eastern’ Neolithics of Eurasia: Ceramics; agriculture and sedentism

Abstract

The Neolithic is a key topic in the study of Old World prehistory but how the Neolithic is defined varies between regions. In East Asia the invention of pottery is often seen as marking the start of the Neolithic. In contrast to this 'eastern' perspective, in western parts of Eurasia it is the presence of agriculture that usually defines the onset of a Neolithic way of life. This paper adopts a comparative perspective, examining the origins and development of pottery, agriculture and sedentary life in East Asia and Southwest Asia. We suggest that a comparative perspective indicates that some of the most enduring themes of Neolithic studies need to be reconsidered, namely: (1) the idea of a Neolithic package consisting of a number of associated traits (including, among other things, agriculture, sedentary sites, and pottery) that developed and spread together, (2) the notion of the Neolithic as a revolutionary event marking a sharp break from the preceding Palaeolithic period, and (3) the enduring impact of the Neolithic on later periods.

Exploring the emergence of an ‘Aquatic’ Neolithic in the Russian Far East: organic residue analysis of early hunter-gatherer pottery from Sakhalin Island

“…2013; Luquin et al . 2016). More work, however, is needed in adjacent areas to understand the factors that encouraged the wider uptake of early pottery traditions in surrounding regions.…”

“…The Neolithic was marked by major shifts in economy, technology and settlement, making it one of the most important periods of development in human prehistory (Uchiyama et al 2014: 197). Archaeologists working across Eurasia are now highlighting two contrasting Neolithic ‘trajectories’ (Gibbs & Jordan 2016). The classic ‘Western’ Neolithic witnessed the emergence of farming economies in the Near East and their dispersal into north-west Europe, along with a package of other innovations including pottery, ground-stone tools and village life.…”

Neolithisation in the southern Lesser Khingan Mountains: lithic technologies and ecological adaptation

“…The long-term and historically contingent transition from Palaeolithic to Neolithic lifeways—or Neolithisation—has long been a key issue in archaeological studies, and it remains the subject of ongoing debate (e.g. Kuzmin & Orlova 2000; Kuzmin 2013; Uchiyama et al 2014; Gibbs & Jordan 2016). The emergence of pottery is often used to define the beginning of the Neolithic period, especially in Russia and Japan (Kuzmin 2013).…”

Sedentism, pottery and inland fishing in Late Glacial Japan: a reassessment of the Maedakochi site

“…Well-known examples include developments in the hunting-and-gathering strategies in South-east Europe (Straus 2018) and the transition from hunting, gathering and pre-domestication cultivation to cereal cultivation in the Levant (Rosen & Rivera-Collazo 2012). In East Asia, the Palaeolithic–Neolithic transition is characterised not by the adoption of settled village life based on farming, but by the transformation of hunter-gatherer lifestyles from mobile to sedentary (Kuzmin 2013; Gibbs & Jordan 2016; Gibbs et al . 2017), although some studies in south China have claimed that the occurrence of wild rice and semi-domesticated or domesticated rice phytoliths associated with early pottery pre-dates c .…”