New Research Sheds Light on Near Eastern Neolithic Migrations

There are two factors that have always influenced human history: the availability of food and the proximity of water. Water is not only vital for sustaining life, it has served as barriers to protect isolated populations and as roadways for transportation and communication. Researchers have uncovered evidence that shows the Neolithic revolution may have been impacted by both food and water.

Research coming from Universidad de Barcelona suggests that crop domestication lasted for several thousand years. Probably beginning around 11,000 BCE or 10,000 BCE Neolithic farmers selected kernels based on size, gradually picking larger and larger sizes.

We know that as the glaciers melted around the world during the millennia from about 15,000 BCE to 6,000 BCE that local climatology changed considerably in many parts of the world. The Barcelona data shows that the availability of fresh water increased gradually until around 6,000 BCE before gradually declining to present-day levels.

6,000 BCE is a critical marker point in Neolithic chronology because this is the approximate time when major inundations occurred in the Black Sea and the Persian Gulf, forcing a dislocation of cultures. About this same time the last itereation of the Green Sahara began to die out, no doubt because rain patterns changed.

Another study coming from the University of Guelph confirms the slow domestication hypothesis by suggesting that cultural disruptions contributed to the slow development of domesticated crops. Cultural disruption can include anything from war to migration to famine to outbreaks of disease. All we can be sure of is that people were not idly sitting around their hearths for several thousand years waiting for a change in the world. The Neolithic cultures appear to have been well-connected and may have engaged in both trade and warfare.

A more recent study from the Universidad de Barcelona group establishes a new genetic baseline for early Neolithic farmers, whose genetic identity until now has been unknown. Researchers have substituted modern populations for ancient populations in comparative studies. But as mitochondrial DNA studies zoom in on the Neolithic period’s groupings, researchers can track who lived where much better.

The Barcelona group’s data shows that Neolithic farmers migrated from the Levant (modern Israel, Syria, and Lebanon) to Anatolia (modern Turkey) and then to Cypress and Crete before leaping north into Europe. This hypothesis, already expressed in other research, was also recently confirmed by a University of Washington study argues conclusively that Neolithic sea travel did indeed carry populations north to Europe across the Aegean Sea by the same approximate route. The study also shows that Neolithic populations spread out from the Levant into Arabia and across northern Africa at about the same time.

This rapid dispersion of similar genetic groups suggests a massive upheaval event may have occurred, displacing populations. The upheaval could have been the result of climatological catastrophe or innovations in food technology. The fact that the populations spread by sea in many places suggests a water-borne culture that was capable of establishing colonies, even if the colonies eventually lost contact with each other (a certainty given the diversity of ancient languages that arose in these region).

Despite the slow transformation of agriculture during the first 5-6,000 years, therefore, we must concede that there must have been sufficient population growth or movement to lead to a widespread displacement of populations. The inundation events may not have been sufficient to spawn these population movements; it may be that population pressure set in as the climate began to turn dry in many once formerly green areas. Competition for resources may have led to innovations in travel.