ABSTRACT
Generally, animal bones are among the most common finds in archaeological contexts, whereas plant remains are often rare or absent. Moreover, animal bones are commonly left as a result of animal exploitation, whereas many plants of economic importance do not produce waste materials likely to become part of the archaeological record. In the 1950s Gordon Childe took an economy based on plant cultivation and animal husbandry as the defining character for distinguishing the Neolithic from the Palaeolithic period. This definition provided a more meaningful subdivision of the Stone Age than did the former characterization of the Neolithic as the period of polished stone versus flaked stone tools. The economic basis of this sedentism is the exploitation of aquatic animal populations, mainly in the form of fish and shellfish. The sedentism reached by some fishing populations actually led to cultural developments diverging from a Palaeolithic lifestyle.
