title: Modeling the role of voyaging in the coastal spread of the Early Neolithic in the West Mediterranean.
abstract: The earliest dates for the West Mediterranean Neolithic indicate that it expanded across 2,500 km in about 300 y. Such a fast spread is held to be mainly due to a demic process driven by dispersal along coastal routes. Here, we model the Neolithic spread in the region by focusing on the role of voyaging to understand better the core elements that produced the observed pattern of dates. We also explore the effect of cultural interaction with Mesolithic populations living along the coast. The simulation study shows that (i) sea travel is required to obtain reasonable predictions, with a minimum sea-travel range of 300 km per generation; (ii) leapfrog coastal dispersals yield the best results (quantitatively and qualitatively); and (iii) interaction with Mesolithic people can assist the spread, but long-range voyaging is still needed to explain the archaeological pattern.
authors.affiliation: Complex Systems Laboratory and Physics Department, Universitat de Girona, 17003 Girona, Spain; neus.isern@udg.edu.
authors.forename: Neus
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-8386-5373
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Isern
authors.affiliation: Departament d'Història i Arqueologia (Grup de Recerca SGR2014-00108), University of Barcelona, 08001 Barcelona, Spain.|Catalan Institute for Research and Advanced Studies, 08010 Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: João
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-5937-3061
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zilhão
authors.affiliation: Complex Systems Laboratory and Physics Department, Universitat de Girona, 17003 Girona, Spain.|Catalan Institute for Research and Advanced Studies, 08010 Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Joaquim
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fort
authors.affiliation: Department of Classics, Colgate University, Hamilton, NY 13346.
authors.forename: Albert J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Ammerman
keywords: Neolithic; coastal spread; computational model; cultural transmission; voyaging