06/2026 New paper by Dr. Paul Duffy, Prof. Cheryl Makarewicz, et al.

Congratulations to Dr. Paul Duffy, Prof. Cheryl Makarewicz, et al. on their new paper "Nascent agricultural extensification and distinct household cultivation strategies supported first population centers in Neolithic southeastern Europe" published in Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology. The study reconstructs household-scale farming practices at the Late Neolithic settlement of Berettyóújfalu–Herpály (Hungary) by integrating archaeobotanical remains, weed ecology, cereal morphometrics, and stable isotope analysis, suggesting that crop production continued to rely primarily on intensive farming, with households selectively experimenting with more extensive cultivation strategies for particular crops.Despite differences among households in access to labor, land, and livestock, the evidence suggests that cooperative resource sharing limited the development of pronounced social inequality at the early population centers on the Great Hungarian Plain.