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This paper provides a current understanding of human population history in the Pleistocene Japanese Archipelago, particularly with respect to the routes and timing of hunter-gatherer migrations, by incorporating multiple lines of evidence from the records of archaeology, human paleontology, and genetic studies. The human fossil remains are concentrated on the Ryukyu Islands in southwestern Japan, suggesting that there may have been a northward migration via the Ryukyu Islands. In contrast, studies of ancient mitochondrial DNA demonstrate genetic continuity among Holocene hunter-gatherer populations in the Paleo-Sakhalin-Hokkaido-Kurile Peninsula, whereas the Pleistocene genetic history is little explored. Although it is largely supported, the assumed population continuity from the Pleistocene to the Holocene inside the Japanese Archipelago is also challenged by an examination of the Paleolithic record and a comparison of the short-and long-term chronologies of the Japanese Paleolithic, implying that the Japanese Paleolithic record was created by hunter-gatherer population migrations from the north and south with substantial time lag and endemic technological invention and transformation during the Late Pleistocene.

Since the 1970s, the quest for finding the origins of domesticated sorghum in Africa has remained elusive despite the fact that sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench. sensu stricto) is one of the world’s most important cereals. Recognized as originating from wild populations in Africa (Sorghum arundinaceum (Desv.) Stapf), however, the date and cultural context of its domestication has been controversial, with many scholars inferring an early Holocene origin in parallel with better-known cereal domestications. This paper presents firm evidence that the process of domesticating sorghum was present in the far eastern Sahel in the southern Atbai at an archaeological site associated with the Butana Group. Ceramic sherds recovered from excavations undertaken by the Southern Methodist University Butana Project during the 1980s from the largest Butana Group site, KG23, near Kassala, eastern Sudan, were analyzed, and examination of the plant impressions in the pottery revealed diagnostic chaff in which both domesti...

Botanical evidence suggests that North Gujarat (India) was a primary center of plant domestication during the mid-Holocene. However, lack of systematic archaeobotanical research and significant taphonomic processes have so far hampered the possibility of substantiating this hypothesis. This paper explores the role of plants in the subsistence strategies of early-middle Holocene populations in this semiarid region and the processes leading to plant cultivation. To do so, we carry out a multiproxy archaeobotanical study —integrating macro and microbotanical remains— at two hunter-gatherer and agropastoral occupations. The results show that the progressive weakening of the Indian summer monsoon ca. 7,000 years ago compelled human populations to adopt seminomadic pastoralism and plant cultivation, which resulted in the domestication of several small millet species, pulses, and sesame.

Recent archaeological investigations on Cyprus have unveiled unsuspected Late Glacial and Early Holocene (twelfth–tenth millennia cal BP) pieces of the island’s human history. Based on a review of the archaeological data and of the final results of the archaeozoological analyses of Sector 1 of the prepottery site at Shillourokambos, this paper examines how Cyprus improves our understanding of the process of mammal domestication in the Near East. Early introduction of controlled wild animals and then of early domestic lineages provides information about the modalities of the domestication process on the mainland. This information emphasizes the importance of technical skills, of local opportunities and adaptations, and of long-distance and increasing exchanges in the larger Near East area. Cyprus was a recipient of wild or domestic taxa from the continent through recurrent introductions, but it was fully part of the wider area of incipient farming, as seen in local innovations such as the intensive hunting...

This paper presents a Levantine model for the origins of cultivation of various wild plants as motivated by the vagaries of the climatic fluctuation of the Younger Dryas within the context of the mosaic ecology of the region that affected communities that were already sedentary or semisedentary. In addition to holding to their territories, these communities found ways to intensify their food procurement strategy by adopting intentional growth of previously known annuals, such as a variety of cereals. The Levantine sequence, where Terminal Pleistocene and Early Holocene Neolithic archaeology is well known, is employed as a model for speculating on the origins of millet cultivation in northern China, where both the archaeological data and the dates are yet insufficient to document the evolution of socioeconomic changes that resulted in the establishment of an agricultural system.

Little is known about the final Upper Paleolithic from west of Gibraltar and south of the Tagus Valley. In contrast, data from Boreal and Atlantic times are fairly common and suggest highly diverse cultural, economic, and technological systems. Thus, there is an important hiatus for the Tardiglacial phase of human occupation in southwestern Iberia. This paper will focus on two main aspects of the Early Holocene in Iberia: the settlement and subsistence dynamics during the Mesolithic and early Neolithic of southwestern Portugal, and explanatory models for the occupational hiatus and lack of sites in the Tardiglacial and early Holocene.

Using the behavioral ecological model of ideal free distribution (IFD), McClure, Jochim, and Barton (2006) identified the tight linkage between agricultural subsistence strategies, herd management, and long-term dynamics of human land use. Missing from their discussion, however, was placing these changes into a broader environmental context. The IFD provides a useful heuristic device to illustrate cost-benefit decisions within a spatial context. This paper compares the previous interpretations of land use during the Neolithic with climatic data from the Holocene. Two main arid periods have been identified during the early and middle Holocene that correspond chronologically to Neolithic cultural horizons. Climate models recently generated for the area further suggest shifts in precipitation cycles may have exacerbated the impacts of broader climatic fluctuations on agricultural production.

In this paper we illustrate how different internal and external forcings conditioned postglacial vegetation in southern Mediterranean areas. By comparing seven Holocene sequences, we emphasize the role of glacial refugia as postglacial vegetation dispersal centers. We also identify the importance of the system's inertia in the time lags observed for vegetation response to climate change and human pressure. Finally, we explore the cascade of effects triggered by the human-climate interface, specifically the vegetation and the environmental feedbacks implicated in the collapse of the Argaric culture that emerged in arid southeastern Spain about 4,000 years before the present.

A series of marked environmental changes took place during the transition from Pleistocene to Holocene, to which the hunter-gatherers adapted by modifying their technology and subsistence practices. In parallel with these changes, territoriality increased and significant transformations in artistic expression occurred. This paper assesses the archaeological record of the Iberian Mediterranean watershed to analyze various aspects of this adaptive process, which unfolded gradually from the end of the Magdalenian to the beginning of the Neolithic.

This paper summarizes early Holocene cultural sequences, economic strategies, and social dynamics on the Mediterranean coast of the Iberian Peninsula. Recent research in the central-southern regions of Valencia provides important diachronic information, particularly for discerning the nature of the shift from a hunter-gatherer lisfestyle to agricultura. If biogeographic conditions played a leading role in determining exploitation strategies, the recognizing distinctive social responses is crucial for understanding the impact of the changes that occurred.

This paper presents the results obtained by analysis of Upper Paleolithic occupation levels in Vinidija Cave, northwestern Croatia. Typological analyses of stone and bone tools have been carried out. Vindija provides direct evidence on the transition from the Middle Paleolithic to the Upper Paleolithic, as well as on fossil hominids (probably Neandertals) associated with a 33, 000-year-old Upper Paleolithic (Aurignacian) industry. The Upper Paleolithic of this site starts with the Aurignacian and continues with the Gravettian industry, which is divided into several phases (Gravettian, Late Gravettian, and final Gravettian / Epigravettian). The topmost levels pertain to the Holocene. These industries at Vindija display both some similarities to, but also some differences from, concurrent industries found in Central European sites. There are notable differences between the Upper Paleolithic at Vindija and Paleolithic sites in the Adriatic-Mediterranean region.

This paper consists of a stable carbon isotopic assessment of the diets of the Holocene human inhabitants of the southwestern Cape, South Africa. Samples of the foods these people ate were collected from each of the four major physiographic zones in the area and their 13C/12C rations measured. A total of more than 200 such analyses enabled the estimation of the average 13C values of prehistoric human diets in each zone. This information is used to interpret 13C measurements on a series of archaeological human skeletons. The results are consistent with a model of prehistoric subsistence behaviour in which a number of people living at the coast made intensive use of marine food resources throughout the Holocene, consuming such a large proportion of these foods that they must have spent much if not all of their time at the coast. Most inland skeletons reflect an almost entirely terrestrial diet. These results contradict hypotheses about seasonal population movements between the coast and the interior generat...