Neolithic
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An array of Neolithic artifacts, including bracelets, axe heads, chisels, and polishing tools |
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Excavated dwellings at Skara Brae Scotland, Europe's most complete Neolithic village. |
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Skara Brae Scotland. Evidence of home furnishings i.e. shelves, in Europe's most complete Neolithic village |
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Map showing distribution of some of the main culture complexes in Neolithic Europe, ca.4500 BC |
The
Neolithic (or "New"
Stone Age) was a period in the development of
human technology that is traditionally the last part of the
Stone Age. The name was invented by
Sir John Lubbock in
1865 as a refinement of the
three-age system. The term is more commonly used in the
Old World, as its application to cultures in the
Americas and
Oceania is problematic.
The Neolithic era follows the terminal
Pleistocene Epipalaeolithic and early
Holocene Mesolithic periods, beginning with the start of
farming and ending when
metal tools became widespread in the Copper Age (
chalcolithic),
Bronze Age or
Iron Age, depending on geographical region. The term "Neolithic" thus does not refer to a specific
chronological period, but rather to a suite of behavioural and cultural characteristics including the use of (both wild and domestic)
crops and the use of
domesticated animals. Some archaeologists have long advocated replacing "Neolithic" with a more descriptive term, such as
Early Village Communities, although this has not gained wide acceptance.
In
Southwest Asia (i.e., the
Middle East), cultures identified as Neolithic began appearing soon after the
10th millennium BC. Early development occurred in the
Levant (e.g.,
Pre-Pottery Neolithic A and
Pre-Pottery Neolithic B) and from there spread eastwards and westwards. Neolithic cultures are also attested in southeastern
Anatolia and northern
Mesopotamia by ca. 8000 BC.
Neolithic sites and traditions in
South Asia include
Mehrgarh in the
Balochistan region from ca. 7000 BC, and Lahuradewa from ca. 6200 BC in the
Ganges valley of the
Indian subcontinent. Earlier-dated finds (ca. 8000 BC) of
charcoal in some Lahuradewa sites provide indications of
slash and burn cultivation techniques present in the area (National Seminar on the Archaeology of Ganga Plain, December 2004, Lucknow, India). Further to the west but still within the Ganges valley some studies of deposits at sites such as Sanai Tal lake have reported
cereal pollens dated to ca. 13000 BC, indicating that this region may have exhibited some of the earliest-known Neolithic traits (National Seminar on the Archaeology of the Ganga Plain, December 2004, Lucknow, India).
In
East Asia the earliest sites include
Peiligang culture around
7000 BC to
5000 BC.
In southeast
Europe cultivational societies first appear by ca. 7000 BC, and in
Central Europe by ca. 5500 BC. Among the earliest cultural complexes of this area are included the
Starčevo-Körös (Cris),
Linearbandkeramic, and
Vinča). Through a combination of
cultural diffusion and
migration of peoples, the Neolithic traditions spread west and northwards to reach northwestern Europe by around 4500 BC.
In Mesoamerica a similar set of events (i.e., crop domestication and sedentary lifestyles) occurred at about 4500 BC, although here the term 'Formative' is used instead of 'Neolithic'.
Early Neolithic farming is limited to a narrow range of crops (both wild and domestic) and the keeping of
sheep and
goats, but by about 7000 BC it included the
domestication of
cows and
pigs, the establishment of permanently or semi-permanently inhabited settlements and the use of pottery. Not all of the cultural elements characteristic of the Neolithic (i.e., pottery, permanent villages, and the farming of domestic crops and animals) appear in the same order -- e.g. the earliest farming societies in the Near East do not use pottery, and in
Britain it remains unclear to what extent plants were domesticated in the earliest Neolithic, or even whether permanently settled communities existed. In other parts of the world, such as
Africa, India and Southeast Asia, independent domestication events led to their own regionally-distinctive Neolithic cultures which arose completely independent of those in Europe and Southwest Asia. Early Japanese societies used pottery in the Mesolithic for example.
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Anthropomorphic Neolithic figurine |
There is little
scientific evidence for developed
hierarchies in the Neolithic; hierarchies are more closely associated with the later
Bronze Age. Families and households were still largely economically independent. Excavations in
Central Europe have also revealed that early Neolithic
Linear Ceramic cultures were building large arrangements of
circular ditches between
4800 BC and
4600 BC. These structures (and their later Neolithic equivalents such as
causewayed enclosures,
burial mounds, and
henges) required considerable time and labour to construct, which suggests that some influential individuals were able to organise and direct human labour. There is also good evidence for fortified settlement at
Linearbandkeramic sites along the
Rhine, as well as evidence for inter-group conflict from Neolithic sites in Britain. Control of labour and inter-group conflict is characteristic of corporate-level or 'tribal' groups, headed by a charismatic individual (e.g., a '
big man', or proto-
chief) such as a lineage group head. These sociopolitical entities later developed into the
chiefdoms of the European
Early Bronze Age. The
Iroquois,
Pueblo people,
Maya civilization and the
Māori are examples of stone-tool-dependent cultures with complex social and political systems.
A significant and far-reaching shift in human
subsistence and lifestyle was to be brought about in those areas where crop
farming and cultivation were first developed, then gradually improved. In these areas, the previous reliance upon a more
nomadic
hunter-gatherer subsistence technique was at first supplemented, and then increasingly replaced by, a reliance upon the yield produced from cultivated lands. These developments are also believed to have greatly encouraged the growth of settlements, since it may be supposed that the increased need to spend more time and labour in tending crop fields required more localised dwellings. This trend would continue into the Bronze Age, eventually giving rise to
towns, and later
cities and
states whose larger populations could be sustained by the increased productivity from cultivated lands.
The profound differences in human interactions and subsistence methods associated with the early onset of agricultural practices in the Neolithic have been called the
Neolithic Revolution, a term first
coined by the Australian archaeologist
Vere Gordon Childe.
One potential benefit of the increasing sophistication and development of farming technology was an ability (if conditions allowed) to produce a crop yield which would be surplus to the immediate needs of the community. When such surpluses were produced they could be preserved and sequestered for later use during times of seasonal shortfalls, traded with other communities (giving rise to a nascent non-
subsistence economy), and in general allowed larger populations to be sustained.
However, it should be noted that early farmers were also adversely affected in times of crop failures, such as may be caused by
drought or
pestilence. In instances where agriculture had become the predominant way of life the sensitivity to these shortages could be particularly acute, affecting agrarian populations to a sometimes dramatic extent which otherwise may not have been routinely experienced by former hunter-gatherer communities. Nevertheless, despite what must have been periodic setbacks in general agrarian communities proved successful, and their growth and the expansion of territory under cultivation continued.
Another significant change undergone by many of these newly-agrarian communities was one of
diet. Whereas hunter-gatherer communities typically have diets with a larger proportion of
animal protein, those farmers whose opportunities and motivation for hunting had lessened might have their
food intake derived in large part just from the proceeds of their
plant cultivation. The relative
nutritional benefits and disadvantages of these dietary changes, and their overall impact on early societal development is still the subject of some debate.
The
domestication of animals, either as
working animal or as a food source (
livestock), was another innovation which altered the societal characteristics of those Neolithic communities which adopted it. Animal by-product of
dung could be used as a
fertilizer, as
fuel or even as a
building material. Apart from providing a ready source of protein and
dairy-based products, livestock animals could also be used for barter and trade. For those communities where
pastoralism of
grazing animals was developed, this often implied a more nomadic existence than is the case for purely crop-based farming, as the animals were herded or migrated to seasonal
pastures (a practice known as
transhumance).
Neolithic peoples were skilled farmers, manufacturing a range of tools necessary for the tending, harvesting and processing of crops (such as sickle blades and grinding stones) and food production (e.g.
pottery, bone implements). They were also skilled manufacturers of a range of other types of stone tool and ornaments, including
projectile points, beads, and statuettes. Neolithic peoples in the
Levant,
Anatolia,
Syria, northern
Mesopotamia and
Central Asia were also accomplished builders, utilising mud-brick to construct houses and villages. At
Çatalhöyük, houses were plastered and painted with elaborate scenes of humans and animals. In
Europe,
long houses built from
wattle and daub were constructed. Elaborate tombs for the dead were also built. These tombs are particularly numerous in
Ireland, where there are many thousand still in existence. Neolithic people in the British Isles built
long barrows and
chamber tombs for their dead and
causewayed camps,
henges flint mines and
cursus monuments. It was also important to figure out ways of preserving food for future months, such as fashioning relatively airtight containers, and using substances like
salt as preservatives.
With very small exceptions (a few copper
hatchets and
spear heads in the
Great Lakes region), the peoples of the
Americas and the
Pacific remained at the Neolithic level of
technology up until the time of European contact.
Neolithic
settlements include::
Franchthi Cave in
Greece, epipalaeolithic (ca. 10,000 BC) settlement, reoccupied between 7500-6000 BC:
Göbekli Tepe in Turkey, ca. 9000 BC:
Jericho in the
Levant, Neolithic from around 8350 BC, arising from the earlier
Epipaleolithic Natufian culture:
Nevali Cori in Turkey, ca. 8000 BC:
Çatalhöyük in
Turkey, 7500 BC:Dispilio in
Greece, ca. 7500 BC:
Jiahu in
China，7000 to 5800 BC:
Mehrgarh in
Pakistan, 7000 BC:
Cnossus in
Greece, ca. 7000 BC:Lahuradewa in
India, 6200 BC:around 2000 settlements of
Trypillian culture,
5400 BC --
2800 BC:
Knap of Howar and
Skara Brae, the
Orkney Islands,
Scotland, from 3500 BC:
Brú na Bóinne in
Ireland, ca. 3500 BCThe world's oldest known engineered
roadway, the
Sweet Track in
England, also dates from this time.
* Bellwood, Peter. (2004). First Farmers: The Origins of Agricultural Societies. Blackwell Publishers. ISBN 0631205667
*
Neolithic Europe*
Neolithic Revolution*
Neolithic religion*
Ötzi the Iceman*
Brutal lives of Stone Age Britons
