A Bayesian Chronomodel for an Economic Approach to the Onset of Farming in Northwestern Mediterranean and the Western Alpine Foreland

The purpose of the last chapter in the book is to draw things together from a historical perspective. The first section opens with a few words about how Luca Cavalli-Sforza and I began working in collaboration on the Neolithic transition in Europe and then introduces the early simulation study of the spread of the Linearbandkeramik (LBK) in central Europe, which we did at Stanford in 1973. The second section considers some of the processes that are involved in transitioning in space and time from late hunting and gathering to early forms of agro-pastoralism. The third section returns to the LBK and the recent gains that have been made in its simulation study by a research group in Paris. The fourth section then turns to a broader discussion of simulation studies and research on the transition to agriculture.