Non-metric dental analysis of human interactions around the Pyrenees during the Neolithic and their biological impact.

BACKGROUND: Interactions across the Pyreneans during the Middle-Neolithic (V-IV millennium BCE) have been described for a long time. Nevertheless, except for a few examples and attempts to describe them, the biological impact of these interactions on the human groups' make-up is not yet understood. The present work analyzes the biological affinities of different groups from both sides of these mountains that represent the Populations of the Middle- and Late-Neolithic by means of the dental morphology. METHODS: We present novel dental morphological data of 221 individuals from 11 archaeological sites. These data have been analyzed and compared to those from previously published twenty Iberian sites and one French site. Data were recovered following the ASUDAS protocol, and MMD biological measure was calculated between groups. RESULTS: Our results suggest that there were some differences between the analyzed populations. These differences were observed at each side of the Pyrenees, but also across them. Concretely, the coastal groups across the mountains show more affinities between each other than the inland groups. In addition, the differences between groups decreased by the end of the Neolithic. CONCLUSIONS: Therefore, our results indicate that the intense trade activities registered in the coastal area between both sides of the Pyrenees would have had the greatest biological impacts in the homogenisation of the groups. Although less intense, the across mountain network and coastal to mountain area trade networks to the south of Pyreneans, also influenced the biological make-up of the groups.

First insight into the Neolithic subsistence economy in the north-east Iberian Peninsula: paleodietary reconstruction through stable isotopes.

OBJECTIVES: The study of subsistence strategies among Neolithic communities in north-east Iberia, late-fifth to early-fourth millennia cal BC, enables a more in-depth study of the activities and behavior of the inhabitants of this region, where paleodiets have been little studied. The objectives of this study are, therefore, to determine the diet and subsistence patterns of those communities and to consider whether any relation existed between their subsistence strategies and environmental, geographic, and/or social factors. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Bone samples from 25 middle Neolithic human individuals at seven archeological sites and comparative faunal samples were analyzed, and compared with contemporary series in Mediterranean Europe. Carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios (δ13 C and δ15 N) of bone collagen were studied to determine the dietary patterns. RESULTS: Dietary habits proved to be similar between communities, apart from some interpopulational variations in subsistence strategies. Their diet was based on C3 terrestrial resources with a major vegetal protein component. DISCUSSION: The reported variations in interpopulational subsistence strategies among the compared Mediterranean societies do not seem to be directly related to the settlement region. Together with archeological data, this indicates the influence of socioeconomic factors in the Neolithic human diet. A general tendency toward a lesser use of aquatic resources is seen in this period in Iberia and the rest of the Mediterranean, as also documented for contemporary communities in the west and north of Europe. The data obtained will be important for further studies of socioeconomic patterns in European Neolithic societies.