The impact of population fluctuations on the spatial spread of Neolithic ceramic traditions in West Anatolia and South-East Europe

Abstract

This article explores the relationship between population fluctuations and the development of similarity patterns in Neolithic ceramic assemblages from West Anatolia and south-eastern Europe. Its aim is to contribute to discussions surrounding the factors influencing material culture variation in prehistory. It compares population growth and decline rates reflected by the summed probability of radiocarbon dates to diachronic changes in the 'Isolation-by-Distance' (IBD) of ceramic assemblage similarities. The results indicate that there is a positive correlation between long-term population fluctuations and IBD, measured as the correlation between inter-site spatial distance and Jaccard dissimilarity of ceramic assemblages. This suggests that population levels affected the spatial extent at which information regarding ceramic production and style was transmitted.These results are analyzed through discussing the influence of population size and density on cultural drift and on the spatial scales of cultural transmission. Population expansion is considered to have affected the spatial scales at which information as shared through networks and migration, while, population decline after 5900 BCE accelerated drift within regions as well as reducing the frequency of long-distance transmission, causing regional variation in ceramic traditions.

Tracing Interaction on Samos Island: Pottery Traditions and Connectivity at Kastro-Tigani and the Heraion During the Aegean Late–final Neolithic/Western Anatolian Middle–late Chalcolithic

“…The patterning in the distribution of the various wares characterising the spatial framework of this paper could shed light into the mechanisms of technical transmission, being either indirect by observation or direct by verbal guidance and experiential learning, which may allude to the establishment of visually uniform regional traditions. Such a study, in fact, addressing the impact of long-term population fluctuations that influence the sharing of ceramic similarities, was carried out for the MNL and LNL (de Groot 2020).…”