What relations between North Africa and Europe in the early holocene?

Abstract

Between the 8th and 5th millennium BCE, human societies in the Western Mediterranean underwent several major changes. One of them took place during the 7th millennium with a profound change in material production, especially in their stone industries. It resulted in a fundamental change in production patterns, operating sequences and technical procedures. The precise origin of these changes is currently unknown, but it is possible that they initially occurred in North Africa before spreading rapidly along the shores of the Mediterranean and reaching Western Europe. This south-to-north expansion could reflect population shifts, at least in the early stages of the expansion of these new technical processes. However, possible contacts between Africa and Europe are not limited to this technical sphere, and exchanges can also be documented in both ceramic productions and graphic expressions. Several recent research programmes have brought new data to these hypotheses, the main results of which are presented here.