tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3563811638411839784.post6987887083905674815..comments2023-05-15T07:11:30.874+02:00Comments on Leherensuge: Demographics of Central-North European NeolithicMajuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12369840391933337204noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3563811638411839784.post-69001362043671910402009-12-10T00:20:10.371+01:002009-12-10T00:20:10.371+01:00An interesting analysis. Your additions to the gra...<i>An interesting analysis. Your additions to the graphs make it easier to visualise the cultural surges and periods of decay</i>.<br /><br />Thanks, I really like the graph too. I needed something like those notes to see the patterns more clearly. <br /><br />The marks are not too precise anyhow, for instance TRBK (Funnelbeaker) also extended into parts of Germany and Poland but I did not have room for it nor was sure of the exact dates where it does happen, so I skipped it. I also understand that TRBK extends for all the Megalithic period in Denmark and South Sweden but my source did not confirm that. <br /><br />You probably have a point re. climatic influences. In this I make two observations:<br /><br />First, not only cold but maybe also the humidity of Atlantic climate could have hindered Neolithic advance. Only three Atlantic regions are exceptional in this:<br /><br />1. Southern Portugal with its peculiar Atlantic-Mediterranean transitional climate. <br /><br />2. Denmark (and nearby areas), though as we can see here with very little increase in population. It was a rather "developed" region already in the Epipaleolithic and had Danubians just "across the border". <br /><br />3. The Low Countries/North France (eventually Danubian but initially with many locally distinct, non-Danubian, farmer cultures as well).<br /><br />A further region was maybe along the Garonne in Southern France, also climatically "intermediate" between Atlantic and Mediterranean climates maybe, but it's rather diffuse and confusing. <br /><br />Second, I'm looking at <a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Holocene_Temperature_Variations.png" rel="nofollow">this climate graph</a> and I have the impression that the more marked demic peaks may be coincident with some climatic peaks too. However the overall climate of that period was rather warm ("climate optimum", near or above modern temperatures). <br /><br /><i>Someone from the Basque Country commented that this might also apply to the that region of Spain</i>.<br /><br />Sure (per above: Atlantic climate in most of it). Just that the Basque Country historically is at least as much related to SW France (Gascony, Aquitaine) than to Spain, probably more. Ancient Aquitanians spoke Basque and Gascons today are still the ethnos that is closest to Basques genetically, even if they speak Romance now. Parts of the modern Basque Country are also under the administration of France. Just that for geography and historical reasonsMajuhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12369840391933337204noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3563811638411839784.post-25953421447235113042009-12-09T23:44:39.266+01:002009-12-09T23:44:39.266+01:00There is a relevant climatological point. Here'...There is a relevant climatological point. Here's what I say about it in Peopling of Europe: <br /><br />"Farming arrived late in northern Europe. Farmers seem to have been daunted by the northerly climate. For over a millennium they halted on the North European Plain. Then climate change made farming feasible further north around 4,000 BC. Paradoxically this was an era of global cooling. At such times the prevailing winds shift from latitudinal (east and west) to meridional (north and south). Southerly winds brought drier conditions and warmer summers to the British Isles and south-western Scandinavia, areas temperate for their latitude due to the North Atlantic Drift. Farmers spread swiftly into and across the British Isles. The Funnel Beaker Culture that arose in Scandinavia and the Baltic Sea basin at the same time falls technologically into the Copper Age. Even then it only penetrated southern Scandinavia." <br /><br />Someone from the Basque Country commented that this might also apply to the that region of Spain.Jeanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16199139920477685196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3563811638411839784.post-72436953354824582782009-12-09T23:37:38.558+01:002009-12-09T23:37:38.558+01:00An interesting analysis. Your additions to the gra...An interesting analysis. Your additions to the graphs make it easier to visualise the cultural surges and periods of decay.Jeanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16199139920477685196noreply@blogger.com