Publications by authors named "Lech Czerniak"
During the sixth millennium BCE, the first farmers of Central Europe rapidly expanded across a varied mosaic of forested environments. Such environments would have offered important sources of mineral-rich animal feed and shelter, prompting the question: to what extent did early farmers exploit forests to raise their herds? Here, to resolve this, we have assembled multi-regional datasets, comprising bulk and compound-specific stable isotope values from zooarchaeological remains and pottery, and conducted cross-correlation analyses within a palaeo-environmental framework. Our findings reveal a diversity of pasturing strategies for cattle employed by early farmers, with a notable emphasis on intensive utilization of forests for grazing and seasonal foddering in some regions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe genomic landscape of Stone Age Europe was shaped by multiple migratory waves and population replacements, but different regions do not all show similar patterns. To refine our understanding of the population dynamics before and after the dawn of the Neolithic, we generated and analyzed genomic sequence data from human remains of 56 individuals from the Mesolithic, Neolithic, and Eneolithic across Central and Eastern Europe. We found that Mesolithic European populations formed a geographically widespread isolation-by-distance zone ranging from Central Europe to Siberia, which was already established 10,000 years ago.
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- Lactase persistence (LP) evolved as a significant genetic trait in European, African, Middle Eastern, and South Asian populations over the last 10,000 years, largely influenced by milk consumption patterns.
- Despite evidence of widespread milk use in Europe since the Neolithic period, the relationship between prehistoric milk consumption and LP allele frequency is complex and suggests that other factors, such as environmental stressors, may have played a role in driving LP selection.
- The findings indicate that LP's rise in frequency may be better understood in the context of population dynamics and challenges faced by societies, rather than solely through the lens of milk exploitation.
Article Synopsis
- The 8.2-thousand years B.P. event caused widespread dry and cold conditions for 160 years, which is evidenced by proxy records from various global sites.
- A study of the archaeological site Çatalhöyük East during this period revealed major shifts in farming and consumption practices, correlated with changes in paleoclimate data from lipid biomarkers found in pottery.
- This research highlights how climatic changes impacted the economic and domestic choices of early Neolithic farmers, affecting settlement planning and food sourcing.