Provider: Moravian Museum, Brno, Czech Republic TY - JOUR JO - Anthropologie (Brno) TI - External auditory exostoses and aquatic activities during the Mesolithic and the Neolithic in Europe: results from a large prehistoric sample AU - Villotte S AU - Stefanovic S AU - Knüsel CJ Y1 - 2014 VL - 52 IS - 1 PB - Moravian Museum, Brno, Czech Republic SN - 0323-1119 SP - 73 EP - 89 KW - Activity-related skeletal morphologies KW - Palaeopathology KW - Subsistence strategies KW - Palaeo-economy N2 - N2 - External auditory exostosis (EAE) appears to be a faithful marker of water-related activities. The frequency of this condition has been calculated for 449 European Mesolithic and Neolithic individuals from several geographic regions. The condition is more frequent in females but not significantly so. Neolithic skeletons display significantly less EAE than Mesolithic ones. The very high frequency of EAE in Late Mesolithic samples is consistent with fishing subsistence activities, and the significant decrease in frequency in Neolithic populations provides further evidence (along with isotopic and other archaeological evidence) for a rapid abandonment of marine/freshwater resources after the transition. ER -