Agro-pastoralist colonization of Cyprus in the 10th millennium BP: initial assessments

Peltenburg, Edgar; Colledge, Sue; Croft, Paul; Jackson, Adam; McCartney, Carole; Murray, Mary Anne

doi:10.1017/s0003598x0006049x

Cited by 77 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…Bone measurements were taken according to international standards (39) National d'Histoire Naturelle using an acid-alkali-acid pretreatment, and measured at the Artemis accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) laboratory of Saclay. One charcoal sample from the 2009 campaign had previously been sent to the AMS laboratory in Tucson, AZ, for 14 C dating (16) and was added to the list. Raw dates are corrected for isotopic fractionation and calibrated at 1 and 2σ (standard error) using Intcal09 (40) (SI Appendix, Fig.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…By 10.5-9 cal kyBP, during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB), villages increased in size, and the subsistence strategy developed into an established mixed agropastoral economy based on domesticated crops and animals (sheep, goat, pig, and cattle) (11-13). Previous research indicates that the first farmers settled Cyprus during the Early PPNB, beginning ∼10.4 cal kyBP (14, 15), bringing with them domestic cereals, pulses, goat, cattle, sheep, and pig to the island (SI Appendix, SI Text S1) (14,16,17). Before these settlements, the only known human presence on Cyprus was limited to the small Aetokremnos rock shelter occupied by fisher-trappers dating to 12.5 cal kyBP (18).…”

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confidence: 99%

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First wave of cultivators spread to Cyprus at least 10,600 y ago

Vigne

Briois

Zazzo

et al. 2012

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

140

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Early Neolithic sedentary villagers started cultivating wild cereals in the Near East 11,500 y ago [Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA)]. Recent discoveries indicated that Cyprus was frequented by Late PPNA people, but the earliest evidence until now for both the use of cereals and Neolithic villages on the island dates to 10,400 y ago. Here we present the recent archaeological excavation at Klimonas, which demonstrates that established villagers were living on Cyprus between 11,100 and 10,600 y ago. Villagers had stone artifacts and buildings (including a remarkable 10-m diameter communal building) that were similar to those found on Late PPNA sites on the mainland. Cereals were introduced from the Levant, and meat was obtained by hunting the only ungulate living on the island, a small indigenous Cypriot wild boar. Cats and small domestic dogs were brought from the mainland. This colonization suggests well-developed maritime capabilities by the PPNA period, but also that migration from the mainland may have occurred shortly after the beginning of agriculture.domestication | Sus scrofa | food production | prehistoric seafaring | Neolithic mobility T he transition from hunting-gathering to food production is a major step in the history of humanity and the biosphere (1, 2). Humans begun to cultivate morphologically wild cereals and pulses over a wide area in the Near East by ∼11.5 cal kyBP (thousands of calibrated radiocarbon years before present), a period known as the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) (3-7). Early cultivators lived in small villages and continued to hunt and gather in the wild (8-10). By 10.5-9 cal kyBP, during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB), villages increased in size, and the subsistence strategy developed into an established mixed agropastoral economy based on domesticated crops and animals (sheep, goat, pig, and cattle) (11-13). Previous research indicates that the first farmers settled Cyprus during the Early PPNB, beginning ∼10.4 cal kyBP (14, 15), bringing with them domestic cereals, pulses, goat, cattle, sheep, and pig to the island (SI Appendix, SI Text S1) (14,16,17). Before these settlements, the only known human presence on Cyprus was limited to the small Aetokremnos rock shelter occupied by fisher-trappers dating to 12.5 cal kyBP (18). Recently, three sites dated to ∼11.1-10.6 cal kyBP have been discovered (19)(20)(21)(22). The extensive excavations at one of these sites, Klimonas (SI Appendix, Figs. S1 and S2), unearthed plant remains, abundant animal bones, thousands of artifacts, and the remains of several buildings, including one communal structure. These finds reveal previously unknown aspects of the social and economic organization of the inhabitants of Cyprus at this early date.Our analyses of these finds combined with a series of 11 radiocarbon dates demonstrate that Cyprus was settled by Neolithic villagers several centuries earlier than suspected, a phenomenon that has far-reaching implications for a fuller understanding of the Neolithic Revolution in the Near East. The inhabi...

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

First wave of cultivators spread to Cyprus at least 10,600 y ago

Vigne

Briois

Zazzo

et al. 2012

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

140

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…The earliest known evidence of water management in the Jordan Valley is the Pottery Neolithic well at Sha'ar Hagolan, Israel (Garfinkel et al 2006), dated to 6400-6200 BC, although pre-Pottery Neolithic B wells dating to c. 8000 BC and to c. 7000 BC are known from, respectively, Cyprus (Peltenburg et al 2000) and the coast of Israel at 'Atlit Yam (Galili et al 2002). Garfinkel et al (2006) believe that the Shar'ar Hagolan well had been used to provide water for human and animal consumption alone, rather than for the irrigation of crops.…”

Section: The Challenge Of Inferring Water Management From Structural mentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental crop growing in Jordan to develop methodology for the identification of ancient crop irrigation

Mithen¹,

Jenkins²,

Jamjoum³

et al. 2008

World Archaeology

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Crop irrigation has long been recognized as having been important for the evolution of social complexity in several parts of the world. Structural evidence for water management, as in the form of wells, ditches and dams, is often difficult to interpret and may be a poor indicator of past irrigation that may have had no need for such constructions. It would be of considerable value, therefore, to be able to infer past irrigation directly from archaeo-botanical remains, and especially the type of archaeo-botanical remains that are relatively abundant in the archaeological record, such as phytoliths. Building on the pioneering work of Rosen and Wiener (1994), this paper describes a cropgrowing experiment designed to explore the impact of irrigation on the formation of phytoliths within cereals. If it can be shown that a systemic and consistent relationship exists between phytolith size, structure and the intensity of irrigation, and if various taphonomic and palaeoenvironmental processes can be controlled for, then the presence of past irrigation can feasibly be inferred from the phytoliths recovered from the archaeological record.

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“…This is not the earliest known well. This comes from the west coast of Cyprus where three Neolithic wells have been dated to approximately 10 000 years old (Peltenberg et al 2000;Croft 2003). Three more Neolithic wells have been discovered from the underwater site of 'Atlit-Yam near the Mediterranean coast dating to around 9000 years ago (Galili & Nir 1993;.…”

Section: (E) Water Management In the Pottery Neolithicmentioning

confidence: 99%

The domestication of water: water management in the ancient world and its prehistoric origins in the Jordan Valley

Mithen

2010

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A.

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The ancient civilizations were dependent upon sophisticated systems of water management. The hydraulic engineering works found in ancient Angkor (ninth to thirteenth century AD), the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan (thirteenth to fifteenth century AD), Byzantine Constantinople (fourth to sixth century AD) and Nabatean Petra (sixth century BC to AD 106) are particularly striking because each of these is in localities of the world that are once again facing a water crisis. Without water management, such ancient cities would never have emerged, nor would the urban communities and towns from which they developed. Indeed, the 'domestication' of water marked a key turning point in the cultural trajectory of each region of the world where state societies developed. This is illustrated by examining the prehistory of water management in the Jordan Valley, identifying the later Neolithic (approx. 8300-6500 years ago) as a key period when significant investment in water management occurred, laying the foundation for the development of the first urban communities of the Early Bronze Age.

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Agro-pastoralist colonization of Cyprus in the 10th millennium BP: initial assessments

Cited by 77 publications

References 19 publications

First wave of cultivators spread to Cyprus at least 10,600 y ago

First wave of cultivators spread to Cyprus at least 10,600 y ago

Experimental crop growing in Jordan to develop methodology for the identification of ancient crop irrigation

The domestication of water: water management in the ancient world and its prehistoric origins in the Jordan Valley

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