This is the blog of the project "Neo-Innova: The diffusion of Neolithic in the Central-Western Mediterranean: agriculture, technological innovations and radiocarbon dating" (HAR2016-75201-P). This research project focuses on one of the main turning points of human history: the diffusion of Neolithic. Even if it is well established that the Near East was the first focus of the invention of farming, around X-IX milenium BC, the mechanisms and the paths of its spreading in the rest of the Mediterranean are yet to be unfolded. During the last decades, the origin of European Neolithic has been explained as result of a diffusion process through two main axes: a Northern one, crossing central Europe, and a Southern one along the Mediterranean coasts. The current project is aimed to analyse the process of Neolithic diffusion through the Central-Western Mediterranean through analysis of the techniques and tools associated with the crop-harvesting and -processing tools. Analysis of those tools has to be supported by an extensive program of radiocarbon dating and a cross-analysis of the crop-harvesting/14C with the information proceeding from the environmental/ecological, the technological and the cereals consumed.
The 23rd EAA 2017 conference has successfully took place in Maastricht and we are proud to have participated with a session on the "Approaches to Early Farming Systems: diffusion and development of agricultural practices into the Mediterranean". We wouls like to thanks the EAA, the congress organizers, all the colleagues that have participated to the session and our institutions (CNRS / UMR 7055, IMF-CSIC).
We recently took part in the first “Colloque Internacional RPA: Les Rencontres préhistoriques d’oued el Akarit” where, thanks to our colleagues L. Belhouchet, R. Khedhaier, N. Aouadi, H. B Sghari, H. Lakhal-Nasfi y H. Mekki, we presented a poster entitled Neo-Innova : The diffusion of Neolithic in the Central-Western Mediterranean: agriculture, technological innovations and radiocarbon dating" (HAR2016-75201-P): Tracing back the first farming communities of the Mediterranean by the analysis of agricultural tools
With such a work, we wanted not only to show our project’s objectives but to transmit to the attendees our interest in studying Tunisian archaeological sites. We believe it is a hugely interesting area, especially for the explanations about the neolithization of north-western Africa.
We are pleased to invite you to participate to our recently accepted session called: "Approaches to Early Farming Systems: diffusion and development of agricultural practices into the Mediterranean - SESSION #285" within the "23th Annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists" which will be held in Maastricht (The Netherlands), 30 August - 3 September 2017.
