Modelling para-Neolithic “reconquista”: hunter-gatherers’ revival of the early Vth mill. BC in the south of Eastern Europe

The issue of hunter-gatherers / early farmers interaction is particularly vivid in the south of Eastern Europe. Here, two subsistence systems co-existed for millenia in VI-IV mill. BC. Sometimes in a single microregion there are sites of hunter-gatherers and those of early farmers separated just by few kilometers of distance. However, sites situated close in space can be separated in time and vice-versa. An intriguing pattern appeared when refining the chronological controls with AMS-dating. The early farming settlement had a punctuated nature: after a demise of a certain agricultural society there usually were some centuries with a little known evidence of human occupation. Such a gap is evident in the early Vth mill. BC after disappearance of Linear Pottery culture and prior to expansion of Early Trypillia agriculturalists. Surprisingly some dates from “ceramic” hunter-gatherers (para-Neolithic) sites fell into this time slot, thus suggesting that deserted fields were resettled as hunting grounds. Under the conditions of still unsufficient radiocarbon dating and dubious stratigraphies, “scenario” modelling seems to be the only way to investigate the mechanisms of this revival. The GIS-aided modelling pointed to the possible “refugia”, where hunter-gatherers population could continue its way of life during agricultural expansion. The demographic potential of “reconquista” is estimated as well as routs and geographical “targets” of re-expansion of para-Neolithic groups. The possibilities of their interaction with early farmers in the decline phase are highlighted as relatively limited, while possible zones of such contacts are defined on chronologically and geographically evident basis.