PIGS, PEOPLE & THE NEOLITHISATION OF EUROPE

The invention and spread of farming around the world was perhaps one of the most important events in human history. Its consequences were drastic and far reaching, and it continues to shape our own existence today and in the future. Despite many years of study, archaeologists and biologists still have little idea of why, where or even how it occurred, and what were its early consequences for humankind. It is one of the principal keys to understanding human civilization and, at the same time, provides an ideal model to study evolutionary change. Despite decades of research in this field, fundamental questions about the biological and cultural processes involved in the origins and spread of early farming remain largely unresolved. The bones of early domestic animals and their wild ancestors are commonly dug up from archaeological sites and they hold important clues to many of the unanswered questions. New scientific techniques, which can explore ancient genetic signals from these ancient bones, are now beginning to provide unique insights into the biology of the domestication process itself, as well as new ways of tracking its spread as farmers moved into new areas. It is clear that agriculture was introduced to Europe by the earliest farmers moving from the Near East where it began. It spread from East to west over 6,500 years, with different Neolithic cultures moving through and occupying different regions. With the farmers moved their domestic animals and plants. However, Europe was not an empty landscape. It was already occupied by human groups, who for thousands of years had survived through hunting and gathering. Also present in Europe were some of the same wild animal species that people in the Near East had already domesticated (for example pigs and cattle). The nature of the interaction between the early farmers, indigenous hunters and the new environments they encountered is something we don't fully understand and is something we aim to explore in this major research project. We plan to ask several simple questions: Can we use these early introduced domesticated animals (in this case pigs which we have already studied in detail) to track the specific routes taken by early farmers through Europe? Can we see if wild boar in Europe were then domesticated? We will use two different methods to study ancient pig remains from Neolithic sites. Both methods focus on pig teeth, as teeth are not only the best preserved element in an archaeological context, but also the most reliable portion of the skeleton for determining wild or domestic status. We will firstly employ geometric morphometrics, a sophisticated shape analysis technique that assesses dental shapes and can tell us about the degree of domestication, as well as the relatedness of different individuals. Secondly, we will extract DNA from the teeth, which, when compared with DNA from modern specimens, can inform our understanding of evolutionary relationships and geographic origins of domestic pigs. By contrasting the data from both the tooth shape and genetic analyses, and by employing traditional archaeological methods we will not only answer questions related to origins and dispersal routes, but also glean insights into other aspects of human dispersal and pig domestication. For example, we will be able to answer whether independent pig domestication events from different wild ancestors are reflected in the shape of the pig's teeth. The data will allow us to assess the process by which pig domestication took place by firstly identifying which cultures domesticated pigs; and secondly by identifying the degree to which trade/movement of domestic pigs influenced possible subsequent domestications of other regional wild boar. Answering these questions will provide insights into the way humans acquired domesticated animals, the bedrock upon which modern civilization has been built.