Neolithic decline

The Neolithic ;
	↑ Mesolithic
	Fertile Crescent Heavy Neolithic Shepherd Neolithic Trihedral Neolithic Pre-Pottery (A, B) Qaraoun culture Tahunian culture Yarmukian culture Halaf culture Halaf-Ubaid Transitional period Ubaid culture Nile valley Faiyum A culture Tasian culture Merimde culture El Omari culture Maadi culture Badarian culture Amratian culture Europe Arzachena culture Boian culture Butmir culture Cardium pottery culture Cernavodă culture Coțofeni culture Cucuteni–Trypillia culture Dudești culture Gorneşti culture Gumelnița–Karanovo culture Hamangia culture Khirokitia Linear Pottery culture Malta Temples Ozieri culture Petreşti culture San Ciriaco culture Shulaveri-Shomu culture Sesklo culture Tisza culture Tiszapolgár culture Usatovo culture Varna culture Vinča culture Vučedol culture Neolithic Transylvania Neolithic Southeastern Europe China Peiligang culture Pengtoushan culture Beixin culture Cishan culture Dadiwan culture Houli culture Xinglongwa culture Xinle culture Zhaobaogou culture Hemudu culture Daxi culture Majiabang culture Yangshao culture Hongshan culture Dawenkou culture Songze culture Liangzhu culture Majiayao culture Qujialing culture Longshan culture Baodun culture Shijiahe culture Yueshi culture Neolithic Tibet South Asia Lahuradewa Mehrgarh Rakhigarhi Kalibangan Chopani Mando Jhukar Daimabad Chirand Koldihwa Burzahom Mundigak Brahmagiri Other locations Jeulmun pottery period Jōmon period Philippine jade culture Capsian culture Savanna Pastoral Neolithic
	farming, animal husbandry; pottery, metallurgy, wheel; circular ditches, henges, megaliths; Neolithic religion; Neolithic decline
	↓ Chalcolithic

The Neolithic decline was a rapid collapse in populations between five and six thousand years ago (approximately 3000 BC) during the Neolithic period in western Eurasia. The specific causes of that broad population decline are still debated.[1] While heavily-populated settlements were regularly created, abandoned, and resettled during the Neolithic, after around 5400 years ago, a great number of those settlements were permanently abandoned.[1] The population decline is associated with worsening agricultural conditions and a decrease in cereal production.[2] Other suggested causes include the emergence of communicable diseases spread from animals living in close quarters with humans.[1]

Plague

Rascovan et al (2019) suggest that plague could have also caused the population decline.[3] That is supported by the discovery of a tomb in modern-day Sweden containing 79 corpses buried within a short time, in which the authors discovered fragments of a unique strain of the plague pathogen Yersinia pestis.[1][4][3] The authors note that the strain contained the "plasminogen activator gene that is sufficient to cause pneumonic plague", an extremely deadly form of the plague which is airborne and directly communicable between humans.[5]

A similar site was found in China in 2011. The site Hamin Mangha in northeast China dates back to approximately 5000 years ago and features a small structure filled with almost 100 bodies. This could mean the location faced an outbreak that surpassed what the village could handle. Two other sites like these have been found in Northeast China: Miaozigou and Laijia.[6]

Conditions for the population increase that preceded that decline are generally ascribed to rapid population growth between 5950 and 5550 BP. That growth was catalysed by the introduction of agriculture,[2] along with the spread of technologies such as pottery, the wheel, and animal husbandry.[1] Following the Neolithic decline were massive human migrations from the Eurasian Steppe into eastern and central Europe, in approximately 4600 BP.[7]

References

Rascovan et al. 2019, p. 1.
Colledge et al. 2019, p. 1.
Rascovan et al. 2019, p. 2.
Zhang, Sarah. "An Ancient Case of the Plague Could Rewrite History". The Atlantic. The Atlantic. Retrieved 13 November 2019.
Rascovan et al. 2019, p. 7.
Leafloor, Liz (27 July 2015). "Prehistoric Disaster: Nearly 100 Bodies Found Stacked in Ancient House in China". Ancient Origins. Retrieved 9 May 2020.
Rascovan et al. 2019, p. 5-6.

Sources

Colledge, Sue; Connolly, James; Crema, Enrico; Shennan, Stephen (23 August 2019). "Neolithic population crash in northwest Europe associated with agricultural crisis". Quaternary Research: 1–22. Retrieved 13 November 2019.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
Rascovan, Nicolas; Sjögren, Karl-Göran; Kristiansen, Kristian; Nielsen, Rasmus; Willerslev, Eske; Desnues, Cristelle; Rasmussen, Simon (10 January 2019). "Emergence and Spread of Basal Lineages of Yersinia pestis during the Neolithic Decline". Cell. 176 (2): 295–305. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2018.11.005. PMID 30528431. S2CID 54447284. Retrieved 13 November 2019.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)

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[FOOTNOTERascovanSjogrenKristiansenNielsen20191-1] Rascovan et al. 2019, p. 1.

[FOOTNOTEColledgeConnollyCremaShennan20191-2] Colledge et al. 2019, p. 1.

[FOOTNOTERascovanSjogrenKristiansenNielsen20192-3] Rascovan et al. 2019, p. 2.

[atlantic-4] Zhang, Sarah. "An Ancient Case of the Plague Could Rewrite History". The Atlantic. The Atlantic. Retrieved 13 November 2019.

[FOOTNOTERascovanSjogrenKristiansenNielsen20197-5] Rascovan et al. 2019, p. 7.

[6] Leafloor, Liz (27 July 2015). "Prehistoric Disaster: Nearly 100 Bodies Found Stacked in Ancient House in China". Ancient Origins. Retrieved 9 May 2020.

[FOOTNOTERascovanSjogrenKristiansenNielsen20195-6-7] Rascovan et al. 2019, p. 5-6.