The Neolithic transition in Europe was driven by the rapid dispersal of Near Eastern farmers who, over a period of 3,500 years, brought food production to the furthest corners of the continent. However, this wave of expansion was far from homogeneous, and climatic factors may have driven a marked slowdown observed at higher latitudes. Here, we test this hypothesis by assembling a large database of archaeological dates of first arrival of farming to quantify the expansion dynamics. We identify four axes of expansion and observe a slowdown along three axes when crossing the same climatic threshold. This threshold reflects the quality of the growing season, suggesting that Near Eastern crops might have struggled under more challenging climatic conditions. This same threshold also predicts the mixing of farmers and hunter-gatherers as estimated from ancient DNA, suggesting that unreliable yields in these regions might have favoured the contact between the two groups.

欧洲的新石器时代转型是由近东农民的迅速分散所推动的，他们在3500年的时间里将粮食生产带到了非洲最远的角落。但是，这种扩张浪潮远非均匀，气候因素可能导致了在高纬度地区观测到的明显减速。在这里，我们通过组装一个大型的农业首次到达的考古数据数据库来检验这一假设，以量化扩张动态。我们确定了四个膨胀轴，并在超过相同的气候阈值时沿三个轴观察到了减速。该阈值反映了生长季节的质量，表明近东地区的作物可能在更具挑战性的气候条件下苦苦挣扎。