Evidence for Agricultural Transition Identified in Cave…

TRIESTE, ITALY— La Brújula Verde reports that a camp used by Mesolithic hunter-gatherers has been found just underneath artifacts left by the first farmers of the Neolithic period in intact archaeological layers in Tina Jama, a mountain cave on the northern coast of the Adriatic Sea. Federico Bernardini of Ca’ Foscari University, Elena Leghissa of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, and their colleagues suggest that farmers arrived in the region some 7,500 years ago. Prior to the arrival of farming in the region, hunter-gatherers built a hearth in the most sheltered part of the cave. They also closed off the cave entrance with stones and blocks. Stone tools, waste flakes from crafting tools, bone points, ornaments made of marine and freshwater shells, and pendants made of deer teeth were recovered from this layer of the cave as well. Ocher and adhesives were identified throughout the site, in addition to an unfinished deer antler ax. A smaller piece of antler, measuring about four inches long, had two holes drilled in it. This tool is thought to have been used to straighten arrow shafts. Radiocarbon dating of the site will help the researchers to determine how the shift from hunting and gathering to farming took place in the region. To read about the earliest known female infant burial discovered in Europe, go to " Mesolithic Baby Carrier ."