Mobility and Social Change: Understanding the European Neolithic Period after the Archaeogenetic Revolution

Abstract This paper discusses and synthesizes the consequences of archaeogenetic revolution to our understanding mobility social change during Neolithic period in Europe (6500–2000 BC). In spite major obstacles a productive integration archaeological anthropological knowledge with ancient DNA data, larger changes European gene pool are detected taken as indications for large-scale migrations two periods: Early expansion into (6500–4000 BC) third millennium BC “steppe migration.” Rather than massive migration events, I argue that both genetic turnovers better understood terms small-scale human movement systems population circulation, fission fusion communities, translocal interaction, which together add up signal. At same time, upticks initiated by most consequential transformations took place Eurasia, namely emergence farming, animal husbandry, sedentary village life centralized political organization process urbanization early state formation southwest Asia.