An Alternative Approach in Tracing Changes in Demographic Composition The Westward Expansion of the Neolithic Way of Life

Abstract

The dispersal of the Neolithic way of life from the place of its origin to other regions and the way this was achieved is one of the most debated, but at the same time challenging, problems of Neolithic archaeology. To resolve this problem, numerous contradictory models, ranging from local developments to demic movements have been suggested. No matter how contradictory these models are, their verification would, in each case, depend on proving whether or not there has been a demographic shift from one region to the other. Thus, understanding the demographic structure of both the primary and the secondary zone of neolithisation becomes essential in answering the question. This, evidently is also intermingled with the problem why there was a decline in the population at the core area by the end of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic Period.