Model-aided Understanding of the Spread of Agriculture in the Neolithic Age

Date

May 20, 2026

Time

3:00 PM - 4:30 PM

Speaker

Dr. M. Humayun Kabir

Affiliation

Mathematical and Computational Biology (MCB) Research Group, Department of Mathematics, Jahangirnagar University, Savar, Dhaka 1342, Bangladesh

Series

TUD ZIH Kolloquium

Language

en

Main Topic

Informatik

Other Topics

Informatik, Mathematik, Umwelt, Willkommen

Host

Dr. Hartmut Mix

Description

The archaeological study of the Neolithic age indicates that the spread of agriculture involved nomadic foraging as a gradual transition across regions. The spreading velocity of agriculture is roughly constant, according to archaeological evidence of the Neolithic transition. Many theoretical attempts have been made to understand such a phenomenon through mathematical modeling. Existing models of the spread of agriculture indicate that expansion velocity is faster than the observed rate. To understand this difference, we propose a three-component reaction-diffusion/ODE system involving two types of farmers: sedentary and migratory. Moreover, we introduce the influence of farming technology on the spread of agriculture in the Neolithic age. We aim to study the relationship between the expanding velocity and farming technology.

In this talk, we focus on the one-dimensional traveling wave solutions with minimal velocity when the expanding pattern of farmers is radially symmetric. Finally, our model suggests that the minimal velocity of traveling waves explains the spreading velocity of agriculture when the expanding pattern exhibits radial symmetry. Numerical simulations reveal that the minimal velocity of traveling wave solutions decreases as farming technology advances. Furthermore, we investigate the planar stability of the minimal traveling waves and subsequently the occurrence of two-dimensional traveling wave solutions in the context of the development of farming technology. 

M. Humayun Kabir earned his Ph.D. in Mathematical Sciences from Meiji University, Japan, under the supervision of Prof. Masayasu Mimura. He has been a Visiting Research Fellow at the Center for Mathematical Modeling & Applications at Meiji University since April 2018. Humayun leads the Mathematical and Computational Biology Research Group at the Department of Mathematics, Jahangirnagar University, Bangladesh. His research interests include a mathematical model-aided understanding of biological phenomena, particularly mathematical ecology, population dynamics, reaction-diffusion equations, and pattern formation. Currently, Dr. Kabir is serving as the secretary of the Bangladesh Mathematical Society and the Bangladesh Society for Mathematical Biology. 

ONLINE BBB: Link ZIH-Colloquia (https://bbb.tu-dresden.de/b/har-oa6-col-lmy)

Links

• Webseite
• Termindetails auf den Webseiten der TU Dresden (https://tu-dresden.de)

Last modified: May 20, 2026, 7:37:22 AM