The Early Neolithic in the Iberian Peninsula and the Western Mediterranean: A Review of the Evidence on Migration

• Published in: Journal of world prehistory Vol. 25; no. 3/4; pp. 123 - 156
• Main Author: Berrocal, María Cruz
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston Springer 01.12.2012; Springer US
• Subjects: Agriculture; Ancestry; Anthropology; Archaeology; Chronology; Colonization; Crops; Diet; Europe; France; Human genetics; Hunter gatherers; Iberian Peninsula; Material culture; Mediterranean Region; Mediterranean Sea; Migrants; Migration; Mitochondrial DNA; Neolithic; Neolithic Age; Neolithic and chalcolithic; Population genetics; Pottery; Prehistory and protohistory; Social archaeology; Social Sciences; South West Europe; Western Mediterranean; Neolithic; Mediterranean; Iberian Peninsula; Europe; Spain; Archaeology; Iberian Peninsula; Western Mediterranean; Early Neolithic; Colonization; Migration; Domestication; Genetic; Biology; Plant; Animal; Material culture; Chronology; Diffusion
• ISSN: 0892-7537; 1573-7802
• DOI: 10.1007/s10963-012-9059-9

The first use of domestic plants and animals in the Western Mediterranean has been a matter of debate, since there are no native ancestors for these elements. The current paradigmatic position favors an introduction by human migrants who reached southern France and the Iberian Peninsula through seafaring. The settlers would have introduced the whole economic and cultural Neolithic background. This paper reviews some of the available archaeological, paleobiological and chronological evidence for the Early Neolithic in the Western Mediterranean, and specifically the Iberian Peninsula, and its use by those who support migration.