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Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 867–870 (1999)

Time-Delayed Theory of the Neolithic Transition in Europe

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Joaquim Fort1 and Vicenç Méndez2
1Departament de Física, Escola Politècnica Superior, Universitat de Girona, 17071 Girona, Catalonia, Spain
2Facultat de Ciències de la Salut, Universitat Internacional de Catalunya, Hospital General de Catalunya, Gomera s/n, 08190 Sant Cugat del Vallès, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain

Received 23 July 1998; published in the issue dated 25 January 1999

The classical wave-of-advance model of the neolithic transition (i.e., the shift from hunter-gatherer to agricultural economies) is based on Fisher's reaction-diffusion equation. Here we present an extension of Einstein's approach to Fickian diffusion, incorporating reaction terms. On this basis we show that second-order terms in the reaction-diffusion equation, which have been neglected up to now, are not in fact negligible but can lead to important corrections. The resulting time-delayed model agrees quite well with observations.

© 1999 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.82.867
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.82.867
PACS:
87.10.+e, 05.40.-a, 05.60.Cd, 47.70.-n
 
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