Identify the most important evolutionary changes that happened during the neolithic period.

Donkey (Asinus) and Horse (Caballus)

Based on cattle, swine, sheep, and goats, the subsistence economy of the Neolithic period flourished in Europe, the Near and Middle East, and North Africa for several thousand years without other animals being added to the stock. In Europe, it is the appearance of the horse which marks the first important addition. This is different in southwest Asia and northeast Africa, because there the donkey initiated the expansion of the domestic squad. Apart from donkey and horse, these additions later also included the Bactrian camel and the dromedary. All these additional animals were mainly used as beasts of burden and for riding.

The domestication of the donkey is still poorly understood. The wild ass, Equus africanus, occurred in arid to semi-arid regions throughout northern Africa from Somalia in the east to the coast of the Atlantic in the west, but also on the Arabian Peninsula including the dry parts of the Levant and Mesopotamia up to the foothills of the Taurus and Zagros Mountains. For a long time, palaeozoologists were not aware of the Asiatic part of the range of the wild ass, because its fossil remains were confounded with those of the so-called Asiatic wild ass, Equus hemionus. Therefore, the older literature considers Egypt as the only center of donkey domestication, and the donkey is sometimes seen as the only African species among the domestic mammals. However, up to now, the earliest finds of donkey bones are from the famous site of Uruk in Mesopotamia, where they are dated to the last quarter of the fourth millennium BC. This indicates that Mesopotamia was one center of domestication of this species. The other one certainly was in the Nile valley (Figure 2), where ancient Egyptian sources also illustrate how donkey domestication might have taken place.

Ancient Egyptian art gives insight into many aspects of the natural environment. Animals are quite prominent in all sorts of illustrations and the accuracy of animal depictions is most impressive. It is often possible to identify particular species of wild birds or fish from the pictures, and it is therefore not astounding that various wild mammals can easily be recognized. From such sources we know that the ancient Egyptians kept asses, ibex, Oryx antelopes, various gazelles, and other wild species in captivity. As these depictions usually belong to particular social contexts, it may be assumed that these motifs represent activities of outstanding members of the society. From Mesopotamia, there is evidence for special gardens where wild animals were kept. What can be inferred from depictions in Egypt and from texts in Mesopotamia might well be interpreted as a reaction to the alienation from nature at a time when villages started to become towns or even cities. Whatever the reason was to have captive wild animals at that time, it will in any case have had the potential to add new animals to the domestic stock, because breeding animals in captivity must inevitably always have been the first step toward their domestication (see above). However, with regard to domestication of the donkey, the last word has probably not yet been written.

It seems most likely that the horse was domesticated after the example of the donkey. Wild horses did not exist in the centers of early civilization where the donkey was domesticated. Their natural adaptation to the continental steppes of the Northern Hemisphere gave them a huge range during the cold phases of the Pleistocene, reaching from the Iberian Peninsula through Central Europe to Russia and Siberia and even across the then existing Bering Land Bridge over to Alaska and farther into North America. The spread of forests in the Post Pleistocene confined the wild horses to areas which retained an open, grass-dominated vegetation. The extent of such areas varied quite a lot during the Holocene, and therefore it is still difficult to determine exactly where wild horses would have been available for domestication. Obviously, there is a core area of steppes from Eastern Europe into Central Asia where wild horses always lived until they were exterminated in recent historic times. But in addition to that, more or less isolated populations existed on the Iberian Peninsula, temporarily in France and Central Europe, but during cool and dry climatic phases also in the Danube Plains and in the highlands from Central Anatolia to Armenia and northwestern Iran (Figure 2). If the assumption is correct that the donkey was the example for the domestication of the horse, the area mentioned last is crucial for the beginning of this process. However, actual research has been very limited until recently. There is evidence for the presence of domestic horses in Armenia at the beginning of the last quarter of the third millennium BC (unpublished results of recent research by the author). It is still not known, however, whether these animals were domesticated locally or imported from an earlier center of horse domestication elsewhere. In any case, the domestic horse made its appearance in ancient Mesopotamia at the very beginning of written history at the shift from the third to the second millennium BC. In Central Europe, it arrived during the second millennium BC, while on the Iberian Peninsula an independent domestication may have happened before. These views are in contrast to the older assumption that the horse was domesticated in the east European steppes during the fourth millennium BC. However, the evidence for this assumption is now widely considered as insufficient.

Paleopathology

It is not known when TB first became a parasite of humans, but the human form is believed to have increased during the Neolithic period where it was spread from bovine TB with the widespread adoption of agriculture. More recent research suggests that TB was also carried by feral animals and was present in bison during the late Pleistocene, and sea lions in the Holocene. Hence, it may have been present in human populations at a much earlier date (Bos et al., 2014; Roberts and Buikstra, 2003). Factors that result in high levels of TB are complex, often interlinked, and in some cases impossible to measure. This list includes physiological and psychological stress, climate, age, sex, ethnicity, poverty, and migration (Roberts and Buikstra, 2003). In the past, it was children who were most susceptible to the gastrointestinal form of the disease (Griffith, 1919). One of the major causes was the use of cow’s milk for infant feeding. During its height (AD 1850–1860) milk was produced in urban cowsheds or on the outskirts of towns. Reports of adulterated and infected milk were common, as the transportation of milk from the countryside could take up to 24 hours in unrefrigerated conditions before being stored, uncovered in shops or in the home (Atkins, 1992). By the 1870s, improvements in sanitation in the urban centers led to a decline in TB. It remained a problem in the rural areas that did not benefit from the new reforms and as late as 1931, even after strict rules had been applied to the storage and supply of milk, 6.7% of “fresh” milk in England was still infected with bovine TB (Atkins, 1992; Cronjé, 1984).

Despite the high incidence of skeletal TB in children reported in the clinical literature, the paucity of TB in nonadult skeletons has been attributed to poor skeletal preservation, segregated burial, or death before skeletal changes could manifest (Roberts and Buikstra, 2003, p. 50). There may also be other factors. Holloway et al. (2011) reviewed cases of TB identified in 221 archeological sites spanning 7250 BC–AD 1899. They suggest that the distribution of lesions has changed over time, from mainly spinal lesions to a combination of spinal and extraspinal lesions, so earlier dated cases may be more subtle in their expression. Children in the past may have died of meningeal TB before any obvious changes to the spine and joints could manifest. For example, a review of the Coimbra University Hospital records (AD 1919–1928) showed that 73% of infants and 51% of 1- to 10-years-olds died of meningeal TB. Pott’s disease was only evident in 2.9% of cases, and was absent in infants, while joint involvement occurred in only 2.4% of cases. Twenty-one percent of the children died from widespread TB of the intestines and other soft tissues. Of the 11- to 20-year-olds, 10% died of meningitis, 2.3% had bone involvement, and 0.6% had Pott’s disease (Santos, 2015). The low numbers of individuals displaying Pott’s disease was of note given this is one of the most common skeletal signs used in paleopathology. It serves to highlight the importance of examining the ribs and endocranial surfaces for sign of meningeal or pulmonary TB infections (Santos, 2015). The pattern of widespread soft tissue infection in adolescents reflects current thinking on the impact of a maturing immune system on the spread of M. tuberculosis. Marais et al. (2005) argue that the transition from containment of an infection characteristic in the immune system of under 5 year olds to destruction in older children allows TB to spread more readily to the lungs in an oxygen-rich microenvironment. Hence, we may only see more characteristic lytic lesions in the bones of older children. As there are no features that are considered pathognomonic of TB in dry bone, differential diagnosis is always required (Wilbur et al., 2009). For children, this may include brucellosis, bronchitis, pneumonia, Scheuermann’s disease (juvenile kyphosis), scurvy, primary HOA, actinomycosis, or hematogenous osteomyelitis of unspecified cause.

Based on skeletal presentation alone, the youngest identified case of TB is in the mummified remains of an infant from Les Mesa de Los Santos, Colombia with calcified pleura (Arateco, 1998). Derry (1938, p. 197) reported a case of Pott’s disease in a 9-year-old from Early Dynastic Dakka, Egypt with destruction and fusion of T10–L2 into an “irregular mass.” Other cases, however, have been in older children. Allison et al. (1981) suggested TB in the mummified remains of a 14-year-old from precontact Peru, when a calcified nodule was identified on the chest radiograph. Pfeiffer (1984) noted that of the individuals showing lytic lesions of the spine and sacrum 15th–16th century Uxbridge, Ontario, the most severe changes were in the children. She suggests that warfare, overcrowding, and a poor diet may have contributed to the usually high prevalence of TB in this particular Iroquoian sample. One of the earliest dated cases of TB in Europe is of a 15-year-old male discovered in a cave in Neolithic Liguria, Italy. Lytic destruction and collapse of the spine from T11 to L1 had led to severe kyphosis. The gracile nature of the skeleton compared to two other Neolithic adolescents led Formicola et al. (1987) to suggest the infection had been long standing, and that the teenager’s regular burial and survival suggested his acceptance within the community. In their review of TB in the New World, Roberts and Buikstra (2003) listed 20 cases of children with possible TB. Less certain are individuals with isolated lesions identified on the extra spinal bones. Ortner (1979) suggested a likely diagnosis of TB in a child with a lytic lesion on the left sphenoid bone, which showed similarities to a pathological specimen with the disease. Santos and Roberts (2001) identified skeletal lesions in 72% of 7- to 21-year-olds from Portugal (1904–36), this high frequency of skeletal lesions is explained by the introduction of new diagnostic criteria of widespread subperiosteal new bone formation on the skeleton. These criteria were included in a study of nonadults from Poundbury Camp in Roman Britain, where TB had previously not been noted in the children. This absence had been used to argue that TB was a rare and perhaps newly introduced condition to Roman England (Lewis, 2011). Lewis (2011) identified 7 (4.2%) cases of probable TB in children aged between 2 and 15 years. The nonadults displayed a variety of lesions from widespread subperiosteal new bone formation, profuse, and lytic visceral rib lesions, osteomyelitis of the mandible and scapula, lytic lesions of the spine, and dactylitis of the hand and foot phalanges. Interestingly, clear lytic lesions only occurred in children who were around 12 years of age. Further evidence that TB was actually a significant childhood disease in Roman Britain is suggested by the identification of four additional cases from other sites (Clough and Boyle, 2010; Müller et al., 2014; Rohnbogner, 2015). A rare case of cervical spine involvement in TB was identified in an 8-year-old with associated Pott’s disease from medieval Isle of May, Scotland (Willows, 2015).

Biomolecular analysis is being increasingly used to identify skeletons with more subtle traces of tuberculous infection, and allow for the specific strain of TB (MTB complex) to be isolated. Arriaza et al. (1995) provided direct evidence for TB in a 12-year-old from Arica, Chile. The child had numerous cloacae on the anterior aspects of the cervical and lumbar vertebra bodies, spinal collapse of the thoracic spine, with neural arch involvement, and visceral rib lesions. In addition, new bone formation was evident of the humeri and femora. Of additional interest was the inclusion of a belt around the child’s lower back that may have been used to compensate for the spinal collapse and provide some relief. The first positive identification of M. bovis in human remains was made in Iron Age Siberia in a 15- to 17-year-old with visceral rib lesions suggesting a pulmonary route for the infection (Murphy et al., 2009). DNA is helping us understand the large degree of skeletal variation we might expect in children with TB, and cases that would have been overlooked are now being identified. TB aDNA was isolated in a child with lytic and blastic lesions of a single vertebra (Klaus et al., 2010), and TB joint involvement was identified in a well-preserved skeleton of a 12- to 14-year-old from medieval Spain. There were lytic lesions on both recently fused proximal tibial epiphyses, but no other lesions that would have allowed TB to be determined macroscopically (Baxarias et al., 1998). Endocranial lesions were the only clue to TB in the case presented by Pálfi et al. (2000), and visceral rib lesions were the only elements with indicative lesions in a 16-year-old from Romano–British Kingsholm (Müller et al., 2014). More arrestingly in Lithuania, Faerman et al. (1999) identified TB in a 15-year-old with no bone changes. Conversely, when Mays et al. (2002) analyzed samples of seven individuals with visceral rib lesions from Wharram Percy, England, they found no positive cases of TB.

The First Health Transition

Although the term health transition is primarily used to refer to a shift from communicable to noncommunicable disease, the first health transition is associated with a rise in infectious diseases during the Neolithic period due to climate and population changes. Barrett and colleagues (1998) illustrate that for much of human history, human populations were relatively stable and too sparse to sustain many communicable pathogens. However, there is strong evidence of the prevalence of infections with a long latency period, and of those that survive in other animal populations, including diseases associated with various parasites and enteric pathogens. As populations moved from nomadic hunting and gathering to sedentary living, changes took place in social organization, food production, and behavior. These factors led to an increase in the introduction of zoonotic infections to human hosts, increased virulence of existing pathogens, and increased exposure to new pathogens through increased contact between communities. The domestication of animals provided a reservoir for zoonoses such as tuberculosis and brucellosis, while the introduction of farming increased the exposure of populations to other vectors, such as mosquitoes, and to nonvector parasites.

The intensification and specialization of agriculture also resulted in a decline in dietary diversity, leading to nutritional deficiencies and particular vulnerability during drought (Harrison and Waterlow, 1990). Physical anthropological research in China, for example, links a decline in health status to the rise of hierarchical states from 5000 BC. Skeletal remains from this period indicate increased porotic hyperostosis (related to nutritional stress) and dental caries (associated with increased processing of food and a decline in nutrients), as well as decreased adult stature associated with increased population density (Pechenkina et al., 2002). There is also extensive archaeological evidence of signs of immunocompromise and infectious diseases, including leprosy, tuberculosis, and malaria, among early sedentary populations, probably due to increased colonization and thus the introduction of diseases to immunologically naive populations (Mitchell, 2003). Further developments in urbanization and nascent industrialization created the preconditions to favor the further spread of infectious diseases such as smallpox, measles, plague, cholera, typhus, and sexually transmissible infections. Disease spread with population movement, shipping and commercial trading. By the fourth century BC, port cities in Greece, North Africa, South Asia, and East Asia were lively centers of commerce, internationally and between the coast and inland centers, facilitating the spread of disease as well as goods and people.

The Neolithic and Chalcolithic Periods

As climatic conditions became more favorable during the Holocene, numerous communities across South Asia began the process of plant cultivation and animal domestication. This development is generally associated with the beginnings of the Neolithic period, but it is a process which began at different times across South Asia between the eighth and third millennia BCE. During this span of time, some regional cultures are characterized as ‘Chalcolithic’ based on the presence of copper artifacts. Copper begins to appear in limited quantities by the fifth millennium BCE, increasing in frequency over the next two millennia. Ground stone tools, early pottery, and evidence for permanent settlements are also associated with ‘Neolithic’ period sites across South Asia; however, there is much regional variability in Neolithic stone tool assemblages. Similarly, previous assumptions about the link between domestication, ceramics, and sedentism are now under question in many areas. Although there was a marked increase in sedentism between the eighth and third millennia BCE, various communities continued to practice more mobile lifestyles associated with pastoral or foraging subsistence strategies. This heterogeneity continues across South Asia to this day and must be factored into any consideration of past social dynamics.

Once believed to be a singular development, paleobotanical studies have now confirmed that agriculture was initiated at multiple locations across South Asia (Fuller, 2011). The earliest evidence comes from Baluchistan at the site of Mehrgarh in the Bolan valley, where the transition from seminomadic pastoralism to sedentary agriculture between the eighth and sixth millennia BCE may have been influenced by developments in Western Asia (Allchin and Allchin, 1982). Excavations at Mehrgarh yielded evidence for house structures, burials, and domesticates such as barley, wheat, and cotton. There is evidence for the gradual domestication of cattle, goats, and sheep, though wild game continues to form an important part of diet – this is a pattern seen across South Asia throughout time.

Several other sites in the northwest have provided evidence of small agricultural settlements between the sixth and fourth millennia BCE including Kili Gul Mohammad, Anjira, Mundigak, Gumla, and Sarai Khola (Ghosh, 1989; Singh, 2009). At these sites and many others, Neolithic levels are identified by features and artifacts such as mud brick structures, querns, pottery, and by paleobotanical and faunal evidence for domesticated species (Allchin and Allchin, 1982). Many sites and regions are associated with specific types of pottery traditions including Nal, Kulli, and Hakra ware sites. Copper objects, terracotta figurines, and beads made of semiprecious materials have also been recovered from Neolithic levels in many places, and excavated human burials attest to a variety of funerary customs during this time (Ghosh, 1989).

Elsewhere in South Asia, early Neolithic traditions have been documented in numerous regions, many having distinct traits marking them as potential loci of indigenous development. Rice is an early domesticate in the Ganga valley and surrounding plains, as well as in the northern fringes of the Vindhyas (Fuller, 2011). Though paleobotanical evidence for rice is documented from very early periods in these regions, understanding of its transition from a wild to cultivated crop remains ambiguous and is possibly dependent on the timing of hybridization of indica rice with japonica species introduced from China (Fuller, 2011). At sites such as Mahagara, Koldihwa, Chirand, and Senuar, Neolithic settlements have been dated from the fourth to third millennia BCE, though some earlier dates have also been suggested. In the Kashmir valley, Neolithic sites such as Burzahom and Gufkral are distinguished by the presence of plastered pit dwellings between the third and second millennia BCE. In the Northeast, Neolithic stone celts and axes have mainly been collected as surface finds. Neolithic levels at Sarutaru, Marakdola, Napchik, and Selbalriri have yielded some absolute dates in the range of the mid-second millennium BCE but there are suggestions that some of these sites may date to much later periods (Ghosh, 1989; Chakrabarti, 1999; Singh, 2009).

Further to the south, early agricultural village sites have been uncovered in Orissa and Bengal such as Kuchai, Gopalpur, and Pandu Rajar Dhibi, while in peninsular India, a number of Neolithic and Chalcolithic cultures have been documented, including the Ahar, Ganeshwar-Jodhpura, Malwa, and Jorwe complexes (Ghosh, 1989). These cultures have been dated from the third to late first millennia BCE and are contemporaneous with the Indus civilization. At sites such as Ahar, Gilund, Navdatoli, Daimabad, and Inamgaon, excavations have revealed evidence for copper artifacts in addition to stone implements. The presence of nonlocal materials such as shell, gold, ivory, and semiprecious stones indicates the existence of interregional networks of exchange across South Asia during this time.

In South India, the Neolithic traditions of the Southern Deccan are marked by unique patterns of material culture and paleobotanical evidence, suggesting this region was an independent center of early domestication. The cultivation of pulses and millets by the third millennium BCE at sites such as Hallur, Sanganakallu, Kurugodu, and Tekkalakota gradually intensified to include a wide range of local and introduced species (Fuller et al., 2004). A distinctive feature of the early ‘Southern Neolithic,’ confined mainly to Bellary and Raichur districts in Karnataka, are Neolithic ashmounds. These monumental accretions of vitrified dung indicate the importance of cattle in the agro-pastoral economy and possibly represent the emergence of communal ritual activity (Paddayya, 1993; Johansen, 2004). Further south, Neolithic levels at Paiyampalli in Tamil Nadu have been radiocarbon dated to the mid-second millennium BCE. Very early dates have been suggested for the cultivation of barley, oats, and possibly rice in the Horton Plains (Premathilake, 2008), but overall the transition from the Mesolithic period to the better documented Iron Age remains poorly understood in Sri Lanka.

European Studies

British insect fossils have been studied from archaeological sites ranging in age from 10 kyr BP through the nineteenth century. More than 120 sites have been investigated for insects. An extensive gap in the fossil insect record extends from the Upper Paleolithic to the Early Neolithic period. Neolithic sites document the change from natural forest to cleared sites used for cultivation and grazing. One of the best-documented insect faunal successions of the Bronze Age was discovered at Thorne Moor in South Yorkshire. Here, fossils from an ancient trackway showed regional forest clearing and the rise of cereal pollen in the regional vegetation. Beetle species which are now extinct or extremely rare in Britain provide evidence of old, mature forests.

Iron Age records abound in Britain, and insect fossils have been examined from numerous Roman sites. Stored product pests associated with grain have been found in a number of Roman sites in Britain. Reconstructions of medieval life at Anglo-Danish sites in York have included detailed research on insect fossils. All of the insect assemblages from York reflect human habitations. Based on the quantity and quality of debris, the insect evidence suggests that the Romans were somewhat more hygienic than the subsequent Anglo-Danish inhabitants of York. The overwhelming impression from the insect evidence is one of squalor in Anglo-Danish times.

Elsewhere in Europe, insects have been studied from medieval sites at Oslo, Norway, and the Orkney Islands. More extensive work has been done on Roman and medieval sites in Germany. In Greece, Panagiotakopulu and Buckland in 1991 have studied fossil insects from a Late Bronze Age site at Santorini. The fossil evidence indicates the establishment of field and stored grain pests in the Aegean region by about 3500 year BP. One cereal pest, Rhyzopertha dominica, probably originated in Africa, and arrived at Santorini through trade with Crete and Egypt.

1.1.1 Cradle of the Nation

In the prehistoric period, the progenitors of the Chinese people were scattered across small tribes over the middle reaches of the Yellow River. The present-day Chinese see themselves as descendants of the Hua-Xia people. The Hua people, who first settled around Mount Hua, near the middle reaches of the Yellow River valley, together with the Xia people, who established themselves near the Xia River (the upper course of the Han River, a tributary of the Yangtze River), were referred to as the Hua-Xia people. Both of these areas were located in the central southern region of Shaanxi province. Towards the end of the Neolithic period, these tribes were already using a primitive form of writing, and had developed a system to measure time and count numbers. They had also developed a variety of articles for daily use, including clothing, houses, weapons, pottery, and money.

According to mythology, the Chinese nation began with Pangu, the creator of the universe. However, Chinese culture began to develop with the emergence of Emperor Yan (Yandi) and Emperor Huang (Huangdi) around 2300 BC. For this reason the Chinese today refer to themselves as the yanhuang zisun (the descendants of Emperors Yan and Huang). During the period of the reign of Emperors Yan and Huang and their successors, people were taught to observe five basic relationships, including good relations between: sovereign and minister; father and son; husband and wife; brother and brother; and friend and friend. This code of conduct, which was later systematically developed by Confucius (551–475 BC) and his disciples, established an ethical philosophy which has influenced Chinese society for the past two thousand years.

What is the horizontal line present across the front teeth of this skeleton and what does it represent?

Why is teeth crowding and malocclusion common in modern humans?

Why did domestication of plants and animals occur during the Holocene?

Where was rice domesticated quizlet anthropology?