From Mesolithic to Early Neolithic in the western Mediterranean JEAN GUILAINE & CLAIRE MANEN INTRODUCTION THE TRANSITION FROM the Mesolithic to the Early Neolithic in the western Mediterranean

THE TRANSITION FROM the Mesolithic to the Early Neolithic in the western Mediterranean is a stimulating subject for more than one reason. First, the region’s geographic position means that it is a case of ‘distant Neolithisation’ (between 2000–3500 km) from the presumed epicentre of Neolithisation in south-east Asia, around the Turko-Syrian border. Attempting to grasp the economic, social or symbolic differences compared with the ‘parent region’ is in itself a challenging exercise. Indeed, this remoteness, associated with the idea of a substantial and dynamic indigenous substratum, has frequently fostered the idea that this zone could have ‘toppled’ into the Neolithic by a process of acculturation of the native populations. For many years debates have in fact opposed upholders of a process of colonisation by maritime routes and those in favour of a transition merely due to cultural dissemination and local adaptation of farming or other aspects of the Neolithic. How, on the basis of archaeological data and their interpretation, can these diverse questions be approached today, and what conclusions can be drawn from them? The geographical context taken into consideration here is that of the broad western Mediterranean (Fig. 1), from Liguria (northern Italy) to the Valencian region (Mediterranean Spain). The French regions will be more specifically examined, but there will be frequent comparisons with the Mediterranean shores of the Iberian peninsula.