Synthesis between demic and cultural diffusion in the Neolithic transition in Europe

Abstract

There is a long-standing controversy between two models of the Neolithic transition. The demic model assumes that the Neolithic range expansion was mainly due to the spread of populations, and the cultural model considers that it was essentially due to the spread of ideas. Here we integrate the demic and cultural models in a unified framework. We show that cultural diffusion explains ∼40% of the spread rate of the Neolithic transition in Europe, as implied by archaeological data. Thus, cultural diffusion cannot be neglected, but demic diffusion was the most important mechanism in this major historical process at the continental scale. This quantitative approach can be useful also in regional analysis, the description of Neolithic transitions in other continents, and models of many human spread phenomena.

Fig. 1.

Predicted Neolithic front speeds. The maximum speed (full curve) has been computed using Eq. 5, the maximum observed value for the growth rate of preindustrial farmers (a_N = 0.033 y⁻¹) and their minimum generation time ( y). The minimum speed (dashed curve) has been computed using Eq. 5, the minimum observed value for the growth rate of preindustrial farmers (a_N y⁻¹) and their maximum generation time (T = 35 y). The hatched horizontal rectangle corresponds to the observed speed of the Neolithic front in Europe (0.9<s<1.3 km/y). The hatched vertical rectangle corresponds to the observed range of the conversion intensity (1.0<C<10.9). Details on the observations leading to these observed ranges of a_N, T, s, and C, as well as to the dispersal kernels of preindustrial farmers, are given in Parameter Values and Observed Neolithic Front Speed Range. The symbols are the speeds obtained from numerical simulations of Eqs. 3 and 4 (Numerical Simulations).

Fig. 2.

Cultural effect on the Neolithic front speed, defined as the percent difference between the speed predicted by the demic-cultural model and that predicted by the purely demic model (), relative to the former. This figure shows that, for the range of consistent with the observed speed in Fig. 1 (hatched rectangle), the effect of cultural transmission on the spread rate of the Neolithic transition in Europe was 40 8%.