A dataset to model Early Neolithic resource dependency in North-West Europe: draft and experimental code with dummy data

This code and the datasets are currently in preparation for the following paper (see below)

Here, we present a dummy code and data to replicate the analysis.

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One major pillar of the Neolithisation process in Central Europe is the abundance of lithic resources for the production of high quality stone tools. Whether the raw material is sourced from local geological units or gets transported via large-scale communication networks is, however, not yet fully understood. To trace the distribution patterns of early Neolithic resource dispersal, this datasets presents a multicomponent network analysis and the first resource dependency model of Middle Eocene lithic records across Central-West Europe. The model builds on topographic landscape permeability and Bartonian silicite dispersal and estimates the chaîne opératoire from i) directly sourced raw material based on accumulative cost functions; ii) chronologically differentiated network models; iii) a probability model of potential site distributions based on a point process model. From these approaches, we resume that early Neolithic site locations were particularly targeted at connecting to the supraregional resource exchange network originating from the Paris Basin. Local resource mining predominated in the core region of Bartonian records whereas distant sites were located on or close to high-probability dissemination corridors. We conclude that major site distributions can be expected in close distance to the resource with satellite agglomerations in secondary centers in a star-shaped pattern across the study area.

Dataset to:

Kempf, M. & Denis, S. (2024): Resource dependency and communication networks in Early Neolithic North West Europe (under review)