Human Mobility and the Spread of Innovations – Case Studies from Neolithic Central and Southeast Europe

Abstract The spread of innovations is an important driver for transformation processes in human societies. It is carried by two crucial conditions – the flow of information and the adoption/appropriation of the innovation. While the latter is a social and cultural process, the first is among others carried by mobility. Mobility in this context can take on different forms and range from migration events up to small-scale everyday mobility between neighbours. In this article, the transmission of ideas and technology without major migration events will be treated. This is based on two case studies – the spread of agriculture from Central Europe to South Scandinavia and the spread of copper metallurgy from Southeast to Central Europe. For both, the spatio-temporal spread of the innovation will be described and factors influencing the information flow and the process of adoption will be taken into account. This will help to develop a more detailed understanding concerning the transmission of ideas and technology without major migration events and allows us to follow the question of what roles did mobility and other factors play in it.