Pottery Patterns Shed Light on Neolithic Social Shifts

A new study explores how changes in pottery styles can trace the growth and decline of Neolithic communities in Europe. Two researchers, including Dr. Aleksandr Diachenko of Ukraine's National Academy of Sciences and Dr. Detlef Gronenborn, developed a mathematical model to examine what drove these fluctuations between roughly 8,000 and 4,000 years ago. The findings indicate that social development during this period was not a simple, continuous progression.

EXPANDED:

This study sits within archaeological efforts to understand prehistoric social change through surviving objects. By examining shifts in ceramic style across Neolithic Europe, the researchers ask what caused communities to expand and contract between about 8,000 and 4,000 years ago. Their model, developed by Dr. Aleksandr Di