The beginning of Old European agriculture

This text is based on Harald Haarmann's work "Das Rätsel der Donauzivilisation. Die Entdeckung der ältesten Hochkultur Europas" (The Mystery of the Danube Civilization – The Discovery of Europe's Oldest Civilization).

Where did the agrarian culture of Old Europe originate?

Modern genetic research provides clarity on this question. The agriculture that enabled civilization began in Europe because of migrants. The genetic timeframe for these migrations is thought to be around 7100 BCE. Previously, it was assumed that Anatolian farmers migrated to Europe in large colonies, but recent studies have proven this claim to be false.

When the migrants arrived in Thessaly, which later became Old Europe's economic and cultural center, their genes had already mixed. Thessaly is located in the coastal region of the Aegean Sea. Recent genetic studies have shown that the migrants from Anatolia were mostly men who formed unions with female indigenous inhabitants. This is evident when examining the ratios of Y chromosomes in the region's men to X chromosomes in women. Genetic research has shattered the notion that agriculture arrived in Europe from Anatolia through large waves of migration. Instead, small groups arrived from Anatolia at different times.

Agriculture began in Europe as a result of the coexistence and formation of family ties between Anatolian Neolithic farmer settlers and Mesolithic European hunters. Research has confirmed that when the descendants of the first settlers traveled north to the central Danube a few generations later, their genes had already mixed.

In Bulgaria, for example, the amount of Anatolian genes decreased rapidly. It can be assumed that the Anatolians had already assimilated with the Old Europeans by the end of the 7th millennium BCE. The Old Europeans, in turn, spread out and brought agricultural skills to the Balkans.

The interactions between Old European hunters and Neolithic farmers must have been peaceful. Evidence of this includes the fact that hunter-gatherers adopted agrarian skills and eventually became farmers themselves. Several shared dwellings, and their genes had already mixed. The exchange between groups led to close social relationships, marriages were formed, and multicultural families emerged as northern hunter women married southern farmer men. Gradually, the hunter women's relatives adopted agrarian lifestyles. The climate of ancient Bulgaria was different, more humid than the climate of Thessaly. The sharing of ideas and skills helped to adapt. Cattle breeding also arrived in Old Europe in the 7th millennium BCE. At that time, a domesticated dog already lived in the north. People cultivated hazelnuts and kept wild boars safe to eat them later. The cooling of the climate around 6200 BCE slowed the growth of hazelnuts, and as the climate warmed again around 5800 BCE, hazelnuts spread over a wide area. Since the local inhabitants quickly adopted agricultural skills, they began to cultivate the land productively. The spread of cultivation among the local inhabitants was no longer tied to family relationships but became an adopted practice. One of the oldest settlements north of Greece can be found in the Azmak River Valley in Bulgaria. Karanovo was established before 6200 BCE. A couple of centuries later, it became a fertile place for unique cultural development. Genetic maps indicate that the Anatolian genotype significantly decreased in the genotypes of Old Europeans, the local inhabitants. Dwellings of these groups have been found in Southeast Europe.

Research on the continuity of Y chromosomes indicates that the genetic legacy of Anatolian farmers is limited only to Thessaly. If there had been a mass migration from Thessaly to the north, it would be reflected in a larger proportion of the genetic makeup of the populations in Bulgaria and Macedonia. However, the genetic legacy of Thessalians is found only in a narrow gene pool.

The original Old Europeans adopted other practices from the Thessalians besides agricultural skills; the introduction of agriculture influenced the development of aesthetics and artistic crafts of the time. New styles were also applied to sculpture. The Old Europeans began agricultural experiments with local plant seeds and started domesticating local animals. Archaeological studies have confirmed that the bones of migratory cattle found in settlements north of Greece decrease as one moves further north. Conversely, as one goes further north, the bones of local cattle increase. Genetic studies of cattle reveal that the Old Europeans also crossbred local cows with cows brought from Anatolia to Thessaly. The crossbred cows were more resistant and adapted better to northern conditions.

It is not yet precisely known how long it took for the Old Europeans to adopt agricultural culture. However, the adoption of agriculture marked the beginning of a period of about 2000 years, which can be referred to as the "golden millennia" of agrarian culture.

Even before agriculture really arrived in the North, the local inhabitants cultivated hazelnuts.

The culture of farmers who arrived from the south has been referred to as linear pottery culture (LBK). According to some older theories, linear pottery culture arrived in Europe from Anatolia. It is assumed that there was a rapid migration directly into Central Europe. However, these theories have been proven to be only speculative. DNA samples from human bones from the linear pottery culture show that the bones do not originate from Anatolia. The migrants from the south had brought cattle with them and guided the locals in dairy production. The early linear pottery culture farmers adapted to dairy products, and within a few generations, they had become lactose tolerant. Lactose tolerance was not common in Anatolia (40% of the adult population), while in Central Europe, milk tolerance was more prevalent (80% of the adult population). It is estimated that people from the linear pottery culture moved to the southeastern part of the Black Sea, to present-day Western Ukraine and Hungary, as lactose tolerance developed more rapidly in this region. Therefore, the linear ceramic population must have been original Europeans who, like hunter-gatherers, lived peacefully with their neighbors and later adopted agriculture. The warming of the Earth that began around 5800 BC accelerated the spread of locally adaptive agricultural skills and culture in the Balkans, Northern Danube, Transylvania, Moldova, and Southern Ukraine. The inhabitants of these areas adopted a settled way of life and developed their agricultural skills as they recognized the benefits of this new lifestyle. The spread of agriculture was not related to large migrations. There was plenty of land for farming, and within a few centuries, agrarian culture had spread throughout Southeast Europe.