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FROM PRECOCITY TO INVOLUTION: THE NEOLITHIC OF CORSICA IN ITS WEST MEDITERRANEAN AND FRENCH CONTEXTS
Author(s) -
LEWTHWAITE JAMES
Publication year - 1985
Publication title -
oxford journal of archaeology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.382
H-Index - 31
eISSN - 1468-0092
pISSN - 0262-5253
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-0092.1985.tb00230.x
Subject(s) - involution (esoterism) , geography , mediterranean climate , agriculture , archaeology , deciduous , ecology , biology , consciousness , neuroscience
Summary The cultural and economic development of neolithic Corsica falls into two periods. Until the early fourth millennium be the rate of innovation is rapid and the range of contacts extensive but thereafter involution sets in. This paradox cannot be explained in terms of static geographic factors. The author suggests a possible solution: the island acted as a transmitter of cultural and economic innovations which were in the long run better adapted to other regions of the Mediterranean. The postglacial paucity of terrestrial resources would have stimulated maritime activity and the selective adoption of the pastoral sector at the inception of the Neolithic but the typically late neolithic pattern of mixed‐farming villages failed to become established: exploitation of the mature deciduous forest of the climatic optimum appears to have been more important.