Linear Pottery Culture - Demographic History

Demographic History

Although no significant population transfers were associated with the start of the LBK, population diffusion along the wetlands of the mature civilization (about 5200 BC) had leveled the high percentage of the rare gene sequence mentioned above by the late LBK. The population was much greater by then, a phenomenon termed the Neolithic Demographic Transition (NDT). According to Bocquet-Appel beginning from a stable population of "small connected groups exchanging migrants" among the "hunter-gatherers and horticulturalists" the LBK experienced an increase in birth rate caused by a "reduction in the length of the birth interval." The author hypothesizes a decrease in the weaning period made possible by division of labor. At the end of the LBK the NDT was over and the population growth disappeared due to an increase in the mortality rate, caused, the author speculates, by new pathogens passed along by increased social contact.

The new population was sedentary up to the capacity of the land, and then the excess population moved to less inhabited land. An in-depth GIS study by Ebersbach and Schade of an 18 km² region in the wetlands region of Wetterau, Hesse, traces the land use in detail and discovers the limiting factor. In the study region 82% of the land is suitable for agriculture, 11% for grazing (even though wetland) and 7% steep slopes. The investigators found that the LBK occupied this land for about 400 years. They began with 14 settlements, 53 houses, 318 people using the wetlands for cattle pasture. Settlement gradually spread over the wetlands, reaching a maximum of 47 settlements, 122 houses, 732 people in the late period. At that time all the available grazing land was in use.

Toward the end, the population suddenly dropped to initial levels, even though much of the arable land was still available. The investigators conclude that cattle were the main economic interest and available grazing land was the limiting factor in settlement. The Neolithic of the Middle East featured urban concentrations of people subsisting mainly on grain. Beef and dairy products on the other hand were the mainstay of LBK diet. When the grazing lands were all in use they moved elsewhere in search of them. As the relatively brief window of the LBK falls roughly in the center of the Atlantic climate period, a maximum of temperature and rainfall, a conclusion that the spread of wetlands at that time encouraged the growth and spreading of the LBK is to some degree justified.