New Preprint: The Neolithic in Lower Central America (2023-06-12)

Dr. Andrés Mejía presents a meta-analysis of the Neolithic Transition in Costa Rica and Panama in his latest preprint on SocArXiv (in Spanish). Through a Bayesian re-analysis of 161 radiocarbon dates from 39 sites, he argues that ceramic technology existed in the region as early as 4840-4144 BC, one-to-three millenia before the currently-accepted date. He argues against viewing the 'Neolithic Transition' as a time of inevitable change brought on by the arrival of agriculture, instead showing the diverse adaptive strategies and social systems employed by early cultures.