The transmission of pottery technology among prehistoric European hunter-gatherers

Human history has been shaped by global dispersals of technologies, although understanding of what enabled these processes is limited. Here, we explore the behavioural mechanisms that led to the emergence of pottery among hunter-gatherer communities in Europe during the mid-Holocene. Through radioca...

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Published in:	Nature human behaviour Vol. 7; no. 2; pp. 171 - 183
Main Authors:	Dolbunova, Ekaterina, Lucquin, Alexandre, McLaughlin, T. Rowan, Bondetti, Manon, Courel, Blandine, Oras, Ester, Piezonka, Henny, Robson, Harry K., Talbot, Helen, Adamczak, Kamil, Andreev, Konstantin, Asheichyk, Vitali, Charniauski, Maxim, Czekaj-Zastawny, Agnieszka, Ezepenko, Igor, Grechkina, Tatjana, Gunnarssone, Alise, Gusentsova, Tatyana M., Haskevych, Dmytro, Ivanischeva, Marina, Kabaciński, Jacek, Karmanov, Viktor, Kosorukova, Natalia, Kostyleva, Elena, Kriiska, Aivar, Kukawka, Stanisław, Lozovskaya, Olga, Mazurkevich, Andrey, Nedomolkina, Nadezhda, Piličiauskas, Gytis, Sinitsyna, Galina, Skorobogatov, Andrey, Smolyaninov, Roman V., Surkov, Aleksey, Tkachov, Oleg, Tkachova, Maryia, Tsybrij, Andrey, Tsybrij, Viktor, Vybornov, Aleksandr A., Wawrusiewicz, Adam, Yudin, Aleksandr I., Meadows, John, Heron, Carl, Craig, Oliver E.
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	London Nature Publishing Group UK 01-02-2023 Nature Publishing Group
Subjects:	101/58 4014/19/27 4014/2801 639/638 Agriculture Behavioral Sciences Biomedical and Life Sciences Ceramics Cultural transmission Decoration Environmental aspects Europe Experimental Psychology Farming Holocene Humans Hunter-gatherers Innovations Kinship networks Life Sciences Metallurgical technology Microeconomics Neurosciences Personality and Social Psychology Physical properties Pottery Radiometric Dating Regions Residues Scholarship Social networks Technology Urbanism Europe
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Summary:	Human history has been shaped by global dispersals of technologies, although understanding of what enabled these processes is limited. Here, we explore the behavioural mechanisms that led to the emergence of pottery among hunter-gatherer communities in Europe during the mid-Holocene. Through radiocarbon dating, we propose this dispersal occurred at a far faster rate than previously thought. Chemical characterization of organic residues shows that European hunter-gatherer pottery had a function structured around regional culinary practices rather than environmental factors. Analysis of the forms, decoration and technological choices suggests that knowledge of pottery spread through a process of cultural transmission. We demonstrate a correlation between the physical properties of pots and how they were used, reflecting social traditions inherited by successive generations of hunter-gatherers. Taken together the evidence supports kinship-driven, super-regional communication networks that existed long before other major innovations such as agriculture, writing, urbanism or metallurgy. Analysis of pottery made and used by hunter-gatherers in northeastern Europe in the sixth millennium bc supports the existence of super-regional networks enabling cultural transmission long before the arrival of farming.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	2397-3374 2397-3374
DOI:	10.1038/s41562-022-01491-8