The signal of the Neolithic demographic transition in the Levant

In this chapter, we test the prediction of a Neolithic demographic transition in the Levant, with palaeoanthropological data from 31 cemeteries. The demographic profile obtained is the same as the profile obtained for Europe and North Africa and for North America, with a significant increase of the 15P5 values when the new farming economy emerges (dt=0), over a time span of more than 2000 years. However, the tempo of this transition in the epicentre of the transition to farming differs from the tempo in the peripheral areas: in the Levantine cemeteries the increase in immature skeletons is as high as in the rest of Europe but the time span in which it occurs is three times as long. The question of the tempo of the NDT in the Levant is discussed in terms of the impact on change in the fertility of residual forager mobility in the new farming system. © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2008.