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Origins and Spread of Agriculture in Italy: a Nonmetric Dental Analysis

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Origins and Spread of Agriculture in Italy: a Nonmetric Dental Analysis AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 133:918–930 (2007) Origins and Spread of Agriculture in Italy: A Nonmetric Dental Analysis A. Coppa,1* A. Cucina,1,2 M. Lucci,1 D. Mancinelli,3 and R. Vargiu1 1Department of Human and Animal Biology, University of Rome ‘‘La Sapienza,’’ 00185 Rome, Italy 2Facultad de Ciencas Antropo´logicas, Universidad Auto´noma de Yucata´n, Me´rida 97305, Me´xico 3Dipartimento di Scienze Ambientali, University of L’Aquila, L’Aquila, Italy KEY WORDS dental morphology; biological affinities; Paleo-Mesolithic; Neolithic; Italy ABSTRACT Dental morphological traits were employ- not related to dental reduction. This suggests that the ed in this study as direct indicators of biological affin- shift in dental morphology was the product of Neolithic ities among the populations that inhabited the Italian populations migrating into the peninsula from other peninsula from the Upper Paleolithic-Mesolithic to Medi- areas. Nonetheless, the Paleo-Mesolithic populations eval times. Our analysis aims at contributing to the share several discriminative traits with the Neolithic ongoing debate regarding the origin and spread of agri- group. The biological relevance of such evidence suggests culture in the peninsula by contrasting the dental evi- that, to some minor extent, the spread of agriculture did dence of archaeological and modern molecular samples. not occur by total population replacement. Because of re- It is not possible to generalize given the complex and gional small sample sizes, this hypothesis cannot be dynamic nature of these populations. However, the tested on a micro-regional scale. It is, however, feasible results from the principal component analysis, maximum to depict a scenario where processes of genetic mixture likelihood, mean measure of divergence, and multidi- or replacement probably took place at different rates on mensional scaling do indicate a net separation of the a macro-regional level. Am J Phys Anthropol 133:918– Paleo-Mesolithic sample from the other groups that is 930, 2007. VC 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc. The transition from hunting-gathering to agriculture nent. In fact, the general picture seems to be composed is one of the most important issues in European human by a series of fragmented events (Tringham, 2000). prehistory. The ‘‘Neolithic Revolution’’ led to profound On smaller scale, the same process might have also changes in the cultural, demographic, and economic set- occurred on the Italian peninsula (Bagolini, 1992; Cipol- tings of populations (Childe, 1928; Binford, 1968; Ucko loni Sampo`, 1992; Grifoni Cremonesi, 1992). Certainly, and Dimbley, 1969; Zohary and Hopf, 1988; Welsey- at a time when changing cultural dynamics were influ- Cowan and Watson, 1992; Cauvin, 1994; Guilaine, encing an entire region, questions remain. i) Did the 2000a,b). In Europe, the hunting-gathering economy changes come as part of, or as a consequence of, a dras- that had characterized the continent until the Upper tic population movement and replacement that brought Paleolithic and Mesolithic was replaced, in some places the new culture into the peninsula? ii) Did these changes quite rapidly, by agropastoral and intensive agriculture occur in response to locally evolving populations or are production systems (Ammerman and Cavalli-Sforza, there other explanations that have yet to be considered? 1971, 1973; Harris, 1996; Thomas, 1996; Whittle, 1996; There is ever increasing evidence which indicates much Guilaine, 2003; Mazurie´ De Keroualin, 2003). Several more complex population dynamics during the Meso- models that are based on genetic, linguistic, and archaeo- lithic–Neolithic transition in Europe compared to the logical data have been hypothesised to explain the tran- previous simple idea of colonization versus adoption. sition to agriculture in Neolithic Europe (Ammerman This makes the study of the human skeletal data as a and Cavalli Sforza, 1971, 1973, 1984; Zvelebil, 1986; crucial help to understand how the Neolithic economy Renfrew, 1989, 1992, 1996; Sokal et al., 1991, 1993; entered the Italian peninsula. Barbujani et al., 1994, 1998; Zvelebil and Lillie, 2000; Biological, especially dental nonmetric, data has rarely Guilaine, 2000b, 2003; Mazurie´ De Keroualin, 2001, been used to assess these models. In this article, an 2003; Relethford, 2002). analysis of dental nonmetric traits is used to examine During recent decades, much research has been car- ried which has added a great deal of information to the subject. Archaeological, anthropological, chemical, and Grant sponsors: C.N.R. Progetto Finalizzato ‘‘Beni Culturali’’, Ateneo 60% University of Rome ‘‘La Sapienza’’; MIUR COFIN05. linguistic research has revealed a great deal regarding on the how and where of the transition (Jacobs, 1993; *Correspondence to: Alfredo Coppa, Dipartimento di Biologia Ani- Lubell et al., 1994; Jackes et al., 1997; Price, 2000a; Bell- male e dell’Uomo, Universita` di Roma ‘‘La Sapienza,’’ P.le Aldo Moro wood, 2001; Price et al., 2001; Bentley et al., 2002, 2003; 5, 00185 Roma, Italy. E-mail: [email protected] Richards, 2003). In particular, it has shown that the introduction of farming in Europe resulted from both Received 14 April 2006; accepted 19 February 2007 the adoption of agriculture by local hunter-gatherers and the process of colonization by farmers migrating into the DOI 10.1002/ajpa.20620 continent (Price, 2000b). Overall, the process does not Published online 23 April 2007 in Wiley InterScience appear to have been homogeneous throughout the conti- (www.interscience.wiley.com). VC 2007 WILEY-LISS, INC. ORIGINS OF AGRICULTURE IN ITALY 919 TABLE 1. Sample lists, grouped according to cultural pertinence, total number of individuals and teeth analyzed Cultural period Chronology No. of individuals No. of teeth Upper Paleolithic-mesolithic (UPM) 30,000–6,000 B.C. 108 987 Neolithic (NEO) 5,800–3,300 B.C. 224 1,520 Copper age (CAG) 3,200–2,300 B.C. 757 6,492 Early bronze age (EBA) 2,200–1,700 B.C. 539 4,415 Middle bronze age (MBA) 1,600–1,300 B.C. 683 5,587 Late bronze age (LBA) 1,200–1,100 B.C. 268 1,680 Early iron age (EIA) 1,000–900 B.C. 205 2,005 Middle iron age (MIA) 800–600 B.C. 750 6,956 Late iron age (LIA) 500–300 B.C. 791 7,072 Roman empire (REM) 100–400 A.D. 1,169 12,368 Late antiquity (LAT) 500–700 A.D. 175 1,579 Middle age (MAA) 800–1,500 A.D. 517 4,088 Total 6,186 54,749 TABLE 2. List of the Upper-Paleolithic/Mesolithic samples, their cultural period and region of provenance No. of sitea Sites No. of specimen Period Cultural period Region 1 Fontana Nuova 2 Early Upper Paleolithic Aurignacian Sicily 2 Fossellone 1 Early Upper Paleolithic Aurignacian Latium 3 Arene Candide 1 Early Upper Paleolithic Gravettian Liguria 4 Barma del Caviglione 1 Early Upper Paleolithic Gravettian Liguria 5 Barma Grande 4 Early Upper Paleolithic Gravettian Liguria 6 Cisterna (Finocchietto) 1 Early Upper Paleolithic Gravettian Latium 7 Grotta dei Fanciulli 4 Early Upper Paleolithic Gravettian Liguria 8 Grotta della Calanca 1 Early Upper Paleolithic Gravettian Campania 9 Paglicci 9 Early Upper Paleolithic Gravettian Apulia 10 Arene Candide 10 Late Upper Paleolithic Epigravettian Liguria 11 Grotta Continenza 16 Late Upper Paleolithic Epigravettian Abruzzo 12 Grotta Polesini 11 Late Upper Paleolithic Epigravettian Latium 13 La Punta 1 Late Upper Paleolithic Epigravettian Abruzzo 14 Maritza 2 Late Upper Paleolithic Epigravettian Abruzzo 15 Ortucchio 2 Late Upper Paleolithic Epigravettian Abruzzo 16 Papasidero il Romito 6 Late Upper Paleolithic Epigravettian Calabria 17 Riparo Tagliente 1 Late Upper Paleolithic Epigravettian Veneto 18 Romanelli 1 Late Upper Paleolithic Epigravettian Apulia 19 San Teodoro 5 Late Upper Paleolithic Epigravettian Sicily 20 Vado all’Arancio 2 Late Upper Paleolithic Epigravettian Tuscany 21 Valle Cismon 1 Late Upper Paleolithic Epigravettian Veneto 22 Grotta Continenza 11 Mesolithic Sauveterrian Abruzzo 23 Grotta della Molara 4 Mesolithic Sauveterrian Sicily 24 Mezzocorona 1 Mesolithic Sauveterrian Trentino 25 Mondeval de Sora 1 Mesolithic Castelnovian Veneto 26 Uzzo 8 Mesolithic Sauveterrian Sicily 27 Vatte di Zambana 1 Mesolithic Sauveterrian Trentino Total 108 a The number indicates the site’s geographical location in Figure 1. the biological affinities between Upper Paleolithic/Meso- traits has a strong genetic base, as suggested by studies lithic and Neolithic/postNeolithic populations that set- on twins and families, which demonstrated that phenetic tled in the Italian peninsula. This analysis also benefits and genetic characteristics are similar (Scott, 1973; Har- from the availability of an increasing number of Meso- ris, 1977; Berry, 1978; Scott et al., 1983; Nichol, 1990; lithic skeletons, which can be used for comparisons with Larsen, 1997; Scott and Turner, 1997). the Neolithic ones. Dental nonmetric traits have previ- On the other hand, dental morphology and crown’s ously been investigated in a number of specimens from complexity could be affected by the process of dental the Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic Eastern Alpine reduction. The transition from the Pleistocene to the area (Alciati et al.,1993, 1995, 1996, 1998) and some pre- Holocene, which approximately corresponds to the estab- liminary works have been presented on Italy (Coppa lishment of the Neolithic culture in Europe, marked one et al., 1999a, 2000a,b) and Europe (Coppa et al., 1999b, peak-moment in the reduction process of human denti- 2000c). In contrast with other indicators, they showed a tion (Formicola, 1986). In Europe, it led to a decrease in biological continuity from the 1st millennium B.C. to crown size of the total dentition from 2,319 to 1,971 mm2 recent time (Coppa et al., 1997, 1998a,b; Manzi et al., (Frayer, 1978). The reduction in crown size is supposed 1997; Cucina et al., 1999). to have resulted in loss of accessory cusps and tubercles Dental morphological traits were chosen for this study and in less complex crown surfaces in response to an because their characteristics provide informative data adaptive process against caries and crowding (Calcagno regarding affinities at inter- and intra-population level and Gibson, 1988).
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