Lisa A. Maher

Evidence for a reduction in stature between Mesolithic foragers and Neolithic farmers has been interpreted as reflective of declines in health, however, our current understanding of this trend fails to account for the complexity of cultural and dietary transitions or the possible causes of phenotypic change. The agricultural transition was extended in primary centers of domestication and abrupt in regions characterized by demic diffusion. In regions such as Northern Europe where foreign domesticates were difficult to establish, there is strong evidence for natural selection for lactase persistence in relation to dairying. We employ broad-scale analyses of diachronic variation in stature and body mass in the Levant, Europe, the Nile Valley, South Asia, and China, to test three hypotheses about the timing of subsistence shifts and human body size, that: 1) the adoption of agriculture led to a decrease in stature, 2) there were different trajectories in regions of in situ domestication or cultural diffusion of agriculture; and 3) increases in stature and body mass are observed in regions with evidence for selection for lactase persistence. Our results demonstrate that 1) decreases in stature preceded the origins of agriculture in some regions; 2) the Levant and China, regions of in situ domestication of species and an extended period of mixed foraging and agricultural subsistence, had stable stature and body mass over time; and 3) stature and body mass increases in Central and Northern Europe coincide with the timing of selective sweeps for lactase persistence, providing support for the “Lactase Growth Hypothesis.”

In the Azraq Basin of eastern Jordan, dramatic landscape changes from wetlands to desert resulted in major shifts in settlement and land use over time. Palaeoenvironmental research here suggests that, like today, water availability was a crucial factor for past populations. Recent work at Kharaneh IV (19.8–18.6 kya) indicates settlement of this aggregation site around the end of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM; 26.5–19 kya) and abandonment by the start of a second drying period, Heinrich Stadial 1 (HS1; 18–15.5 kya). In contrast to regional narratives that associate aggregation and “settling in” during the Epipalaeolithic (23–11.6 kya) with phases of climatic amelioration, intensively occupied sites in eastern Jordan during this time are associated with increased rates of evaporation and shrinking wetlands. Ongoing drying, however, led the occupants of Kharaneh IV to reconsider their use of this locale, and aggregation sites soon disappear entirely from the region, perhaps signalling the abandonment of the very practice of aggregation as a socioecological strategy. The subsequent occupation of the Azraq Basin at the end of the Pleistocene and into the Holocene was strongly influenced by fluctuations in water availability in this newly aridifying landscape. Past occupants experienced similar situations to modern-day inhabitants of this area, where water is an increasingly dwindling resource and continues to shape how people engage with the landscape.

Epipalaeolithic hunter-gatherer communities in the Southern Levant exhibit numerous complex trends that suggest that the transition to the Neolithic was patchy and protracted. This paper explores the changing nature of occupation at the Epipalaeolithic site Kharaneh IV, Jordan, through an in-depth analysis of the lithic and faunal assemblages. Focusing on the analysis of a single deep sounding (unit AS42), we address how Kharaneh IV occupations link to the local landscape and environmental changes. As an aggregation site, Kharaneh IV represents an interesting locale to explore the changing nature of aggregation and social cohesion prior to the origins of agriculture, as well as changes in technology and subsistence between the Early and Middle Epipalaeolithic. We explore the tempo and nature of transition from one archaeological culture to the next through changes in technology and how this reflects the people making and using tools, to understand how foragers adapted to a changing landscape.

Geoarchaeology is the study, at all scales, of the direct interrelationships between past humans and their landscape/environment, including the social, economic, technological, and ideological aspects of human–environment interactions. It covers a wide range of topics that deal directly with material culture, cultural attitudes and perceptions of landscape, landscape modification, and issues of subsistence, settlement, daily activities, and sustainability. Geoarchaeology is both a field and laboratory‐based endeavor and practitioners employ methods and techniques from a wide range of fields, namely archaeology and the earth sciences.