Isern Neus, Zilhão João, Fort Joaquim, Ammerman Albert J
Complex Systems Laboratory and Physics Department, Universitat de Girona, 17003 Girona, Spain;
Departament d'Història i Arqueologia (Grup de Recerca SGR2014-00108), University of Barcelona, 08001 Barcelona, Spain.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2017 Jan 31;114(5):897-902. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1613413114. Epub 2017 Jan 17.
The earliest dates for the West Mediterranean Neolithic indicate that it expanded across 2,500 km in about 300 y. Such a fast spread is held to be mainly due to a demic process driven by dispersal along coastal routes. Here, we model the Neolithic spread in the region by focusing on the role of voyaging to understand better the core elements that produced the observed pattern of dates. We also explore the effect of cultural interaction with Mesolithic populations living along the coast. The simulation study shows that (i) sea travel is required to obtain reasonable predictions, with a minimum sea-travel range of 300 km per generation; (ii) leapfrog coastal dispersals yield the best results (quantitatively and qualitatively); and (iii) interaction with Mesolithic people can assist the spread, but long-range voyaging is still needed to explain the archaeological pattern.
西地中海新石器时代的最早年代表明，它在约300年的时间里扩张了2500公里。这种快速传播主要被认为是由沿着沿海路线扩散驱动的人口扩散过程所致。在此，我们通过关注航海的作用来模拟该地区新石器时代的传播，以便更好地理解产生观测到的年代模式的核心要素。我们还探讨了与沿海居住的中石器时代人群进行文化互动的影响。模拟研究表明：（i）需要海上航行才能获得合理的预测结果，每代人的最小海上航行范围为300公里；（ii）跨越式沿海扩散产生的结果最佳（在数量和质量上）；（iii）与中石器时代人群的互动有助于传播，但仍需要远距离航行来解释考古模式。
