Testing the hypothesis of a worldwide neolithic demographic transition - Corroboration from American cemeteries

摘要

The signal of a major demographic change characterized by a relatively abrupt increase in the proportion of immature skeletons has been detected in a paleoanthropological database of 38 Mesolithic-Neolithic cemeteries from Europe and North Africa. From the Mesolithic to the Neolithic, the proportion of immature skeletons increases by 20-30% over a period of 500-700 years, indicating a notable increase in the crude birth rate. This shift has been called the Neolithic demographic transition. A similar signal has been detected in an independent set of archaeological data, namely, enclosures. This paper presents results from a sample of 62 cemeteries in North America ( 7,755 BP-350 BP) that point to the same transition over a period of 600-800 years.