The Neolithic revolution and its repercussions in the Mediterranean basin: a study through dental morphology

The present study wishes to infer in the relationships and interchanges of circum-Mediterranean populations throughout time and space. In particular, it wishes to, on one side, assess the diachronic relations among the different populations that have, in time, inhabited the region; and on the other, evaluate the relations each of these groups had with those in their chronological or geographical vicinities. Dental morphology was the methodology adopted, for studies on historical and even fossil remains have clearly demonstrated the great validity and potential of such an approach in the study of human variation and have indicated it to be. potentially, one of the most adequate physical anthropological approaches in population studies. The Neolithic revolution has determined indisputable changes in subsistence throughout the Mediterranean. Even though there is general consensus regarding a Near Eastern descent for the European Neolithic, its modalities and extent are, however, unfortunately still far from resolved. Two principal, but extremely dissimilar, scenarios have, in fact, been hypothesized: demic diffusion and cultural transmission; the first envisaging a change in the region's genetic pool and the second envisaging population continuity. In order to establish if. in the region, the gene flow has been continuous or if. on the contrary, migrations have caused strong discontinuities, the present study addresses the bearers of the Neolithic culture and establishes the relations both amongst them and with the populations that preceded them. Furthermore, the present study wishes to establish if the adoption of a Neolithic subsistence along the southern shore of the Mediterranean was an independent process or if, on the contrary, it was part of a wider phenomenon which was interesting, from the Near East, a great portion of the Old World. The results, indeed, seem to strongly suggest the transition to a Neolithic subsistence was accompanied by consistent population replacement and that the Neolithic revolution spread in different directions. In particular, they seem to indicate routes along the northern and southern coasts of the Mediterranean, towards the Arabian Peninsula and along the shores of the Nile valley and from there to Kenya.