Mesolithic Hunter-Gatherers in the Carpathian Basin and the Spread of Agriculture in Europe By William J. Eichmann .................................................................................. University of Wisconsin, Madison Archaeological Institute of the
[email protected] Hungarian Academy of Sciences 1014, Úri u. 49, Budapest Advisers: Dr. Eszter Bánffy and Dr. Róbert Kertész .................................................................................. Seminal research in the 1970’s resulted in the recognition that events in Transdanubia (western Hungary) during the 6th millennium B.C. were pivotal to the spread of agriculture to north central Europe. Two perspectives have figured prominently in the debate: 1) agriculture was directly spread by migrating agricultural populations; and 2) agriculture spread through the adoption of agricultural practices by indigenous hunter- gatherer populations. In Hungary the spread of agriculture has primarily been approached from the perspective of the first farmers (Neolithic). Limited archaeological evidence from Mesolithic hunter-gatherers during the Early Holocene (~10,000-6,000 B.C.) in the Carpathian Basin has made it difficult to consider their role in the entire process. It is argued that the complex process of agricultural spread may be more comprehensible if research is specifically directed toward identifying long term evolutionary trends in Mesolithic hunter-gatherer society. This paper provides a summary of extant evidence from the Mesolithic and Neolithic in Hungary, with an emphasis on Transdanubia, and presents some of the preliminary results of recent research on the Mesolithic. Introduction The prehistoric spread of agriculture B.C. the first agricultural societies was the impetus for one of the most (Neolithic) in Europe appeared in significant reorganizations of human Greece, and by the early 4th millennium society.