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Characterizing the cultural evolutionary process from eco-cultural niche models: niche construction during the Neolithic of the Struma River Valley (c. 6200–4900 BC)

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Abstract

The Neolithic Period in the Struma River Valley—Southwest Bulgaria and Northern Greece—represents one of the earliest instances in which agricultural practices were transferred from the Mediterranean to a transitional Continental type climate. Throughout the Neolithic Period, the region is also marked by significant episodes of cultural change. Was the cultural evolutionary process in the region then influenced by differences in the ecological setting? According to niche construction theory (NCT), culture is not only impacted by ecology but can modify the ecological setting as well, suggesting that the evolutionary process can also be directed in that regard. As such, the relationship between culture and ecology is reciprocal. In order to assess diachronic change in the reciprocal relationship between culture and ecology during the Neolithic Period of the Struma River Valley and characterize the cultural evolutionary process, I utilize a procedure based on eco-cultural niche modeling. The results of the eco-cultural niche modeling procedure effectively demonstrate that shifts in agricultural subsistence practices first accommodated an expansion of settlement into new ecological settings. Following this expansion of settlement into new ecological settings, more significant episodes of cultural diversification ensued and eventually contributed toward the development of at least three archeological populations, each of which is confined to a relatively distinct eco-cultural niche within the valley. Therefore, I conclude that differences in the ecological setting did play a role in the cultural evolutionary process, however, that such differences were driven by prior changes in subsistence practices best characterized as niche construction events.

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  • 10 May 2019

    The lists of archeological settlements represented by Figures 3 & 4 in the original online first publication were unfortunately mislabelled by the author. Amended figures with the correct labelling have since been submitted.

Notes

  1. This article is based on research undertaken by the author during the course of an anthropology graduate program at Trent University, Peterborough ON, Canada and presented at the Doctoral Student Conference on Balkan Archeology, Sofia, November 19–21 2017.

  2. Four out of the five final models could be selected by maintaining a strict adherence with the abovementioned criteria; however, in one case (the Topolnitsa/Akropotamos subset model) it was necessary to invert the importance of Mean.OR10 and Mean.AUC so that a comparable feature class combination could be selected for the production of all final models. The choice of feature class combinations affects the overall shape of the independent variable response curves produced by Maxent and as such can limit the potential for inter-model comparisons.

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Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Drs. M. Grębska-Kulova, J. Conolly, L. Dubreuil, R. Fitzsimons, and A. Costopoulos for their support and very useful suggestions. Also, thank you to Drs. Bakamska, Genadieva, and Malamidou for their help in obtaining the necessary data. All conclusions and interpretations are the sole responsibility of the author.

Funding

This research was funded in part by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (2015) and the Michael Smith Foreign Study supplement (2016) as well as by the Ontario Graduate Scholarship (2016) and the Trent University Anthropology Graduate Program Sandi Carr Graduate Scholarship in Anthropology (2017).

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  1. Anthropology Graduate Program, Trent University, 1600 West Bank Drive, Peterborough, ON, K9L 0G2, Canada

    Brent R. Whitford

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Whitford, B.R. Characterizing the cultural evolutionary process from eco-cultural niche models: niche construction during the Neolithic of the Struma River Valley (c. 6200–4900 BC). Archaeol Anthropol Sci 11, 2181–2200 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-018-0667-x

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