Neolithic

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{| cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" style="float:right; margin:5px; border:3px solid;"|-| style="border-bottom:3px solid; background:#efefef;" |
This time period is part of the
Holocene epoch.]
Mesolithic or Epipaleolithic
:Kebaran culture
:Natufian culture
Neolithic age effects

:Halafian culture
:Hassuna culture
:Mehrgarh culture
:Ubaid culture
:Uruk period or culture
Chalcolithic or Copper Age :Mehrgarh culture
:Yamna culture culture
|}image:Néolithique 0001.jpg Scotland, Europe's most complete Neolithic village.. Evidence of home furnishings i.e. shelves, in Europe's most complete Neolithic villageimage:European Middle Neolithic.gif, ca.4500 BC

The NeolithicThe name was invented by John Lubbock, 1st Baron Avebury in 1800 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 that did not fully develop metal-working technology raises problems. 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. or "New" Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology that is traditionally the last part of the Stone Age. The Neolithic era follows the terminal Holocene Epipalaeolithic periods, beginning with the rise of farming, which produced the "Neolithic Revolution" and ending when metal tools became widespread in the Copper Age (chalcolithic) or Bronze Age or developing directly into the Iron Age, depending on geographical region.

Neolithic culture appeared in the Levant (Jericho, modern-day West Bank) about 8500 BC. It developed directly from the Epipaleolithic Natufian culture in the region, whose people pioneered wild cereal use, which then evolved into true farming. The Natufians can thus be called "proto-Neolithic" (11,000–8500 BC). As the Natufians had become dependent on wild cereals in their diet, and a sedentary way of life had begun among them, the climatic changes associated with the Younger Dryas forced people to develop farming. By 8500–8000 BC farming communities arose in the Levant and spread to Anatolia, North Africa and North Mesopotamia.

Early Neolithic farming was limited to a narrow range of crops, both wild and domestication, which included einkorn wheat, millet and spelt and the keeping of dogs, sheep and goats. By about 7000 BC it included domesticated cattle and pigs, the establishment of permanently or seasonally inhabited settlements, and the use of pottery.The potter's wheel was a later refinement that revolutionized the pottery industry. Not all of these cultural elements characteristic of the Neolithic appeared everywhere in the same order: the earliest farming societies in the Ancient Near East did not use pottery, and, in Prehistoric 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, South Asia 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 before developing agriculture, for example.

Unlike the paleolithic, where more than one human species existed, only one human species (Homo sapiens) reached the neolithic.

Periods 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.

The prehistoric Beifudi site near Yixian in Hebei Province, China, contains relics of a culture contemporaneous with the Cishan culture and Xinglongwa culture cultures of about 7,000-8,000 BC, neolithic cultures east of the Taihang Mountains, filling in an archaeological gap between the two Northern Chinese cultures. The total excavated area is more than 1,200 square meters and the collection of neolithic findings at the site consists of two phases.{{cite web|url=http://www.kaogu.cn/en/detail.asp?ProductID=982|title=New Archaeological Discoveries and Researches in 2004 -- The Fourth Archaeology Forum of CASS|publisher=Institue of Archaeology - Chinese Academy of Social Sciences|accessdate=2007-09-18--> Neolithic 1 — Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) The Neolithic 1 (PPNA) began in the Levant (Jericho, Palestine & Jbeil (Byblos), Lebanon) around 8500 to 8000 BC. The actual date is not established with certainty due to different results in carbon dating by scientists in the British Museum and Philiadelphia laboratories.

The major advance of Neolithic 1 was true farming. In the proto-Neolithic Natufian cultures, wild cereals were harvested, and perhaps early seed selection and re-seeding occurred. The grain was ground into flour. Emmer wheat was domesticated, and animals were herded and domesticated (animal husbandry and animal breeding).

Settlements became more permanent with circular houses, much like those of the Natufians, with single rooms. However, these houses were for the first time made of mudbricks. The husband had one house, while each of his wives lived with their children in surrounding houses. The settlement had a surrounding stone wall and perhaps a stone tower (like Jericho). The wall served as protection from nearby groups, as protection from floods, or to keep animals penned. There are also some enclosures that suggest grain and meat storage.

Neolithic 2 — Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) The Neolithic 2 (PPNB) began around 7500 to 7000 BC in the Levant (Jericho, Palestine). Like the PPNA dates there are two versions from the same laboratories noted above.

Settlements have rectangular mudbrick houses where the family lived together in single or multiple rooms. Burial findings suggest an ancestor cult where people preserved skulls from the dead which were plastered with mud to make facial features. The dead skull may have been asked for advice and blessings. The rest of the corpse may have been left outside the settlement to decay until only the bones were left, then the bones were buried inside the settlement underneath the floor or between houses.

Neolithic 3 — Pottery Neolithic (PN) The Neolithic 3 (PN) began around 6000 to 5500 BC in the Fertile Crescent. By then distinctive cultures emerged, with pottery like the Halafian (Turkey, Syria, Northern Mesopotamia) and Ubaid (Southern Mesopotamia).

The Chalcolithic period began about 4500 BC, then the Bronze Age began about 3500 BC, replacing the Neolithic cultures.

In the Fertile Crescent The Levant, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, Anatolia, Northern Mesopotamia. Tel Halaf culture (5500 BC).

Southern Mesopotamia Alluvial plains (Sumer/Elam). Little rainfall, makes irrigation systems necessary. Ubaid period culture from 5500 BC.

Europe In southeast Neolithic Europe agrarian societies first appeared 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 culture. Through a combination of cultural diffusion and human migration, the Neolithic traditions spread west and northwards to reach northwestern Europe by around 4500 BC.

South and East Asia The oldest neolithic site in South Asia is Mehrgarh from 7000 BC on the "Kachi plain of Balochistan (Pakistan), Pakistan It is one of the earliest sites with evidence of farming (wheat and barley) and herding (cattle, sheep and goats) in South Asia." Hirst, K. Kris. 2005. "Mehrgarh". Guide to Archaeology

One of the earliest Neolithic sites in India is Lahuradewa, at Middle Ganges region, C14 dated around 7th millennium BC. Fuller, Dorian 2006. "Agricultural Origins and Frontiers in South Asia: A Working Synthesis" in Journal of World Prehistory 20, p.42 "Ganges Neolithic". Recently another site near the confluence of Ganges and Yamuna rivers called Jhusi yielded a C14 dating of 7100 BC for its Neolithic levels. Tewari, Rakesh et al. 2006. "Second Preliminary Report of the excavations at Lahuradewa,District Sant Kabir Nagar, UP 2002-2003-2004 & 2005-06" in Pragdhara No. 16 "Electronic Version p.28"

In South India the Neolithic began by 3000 BC and lasted until around 1400 BC when the Megalithic transition period began. South Indian Neolithic is characterized by Ashmounds since 2500 BC in Karnataka region, expanded later to Tamil Nadu.

Comparative excavations carried out in Adichanallur in Thirunelveli District and in Northern India have provided evidence of a southward migration of the Megalithic culture Sastri K.A.N., A History of South India, pp. 49–51 The earliest clear evidence of the presence of the megalithic urn burials are those dating from around 1000 BCE, which have been discovered at various places in Tamil Nadu, notably at Adichanallur, 24 km from Tirunelveli, where archaeologists from the Archaeological Survey of India unearthed 12 urns with Tamil Brahmi script on them containing human skulls, skeletons and bones, plus husks, grains of rice, charred rice and Neolithic Celt (tool), giving evidence confirming it of the Neolithic period 2800 years ago. This proved that Tirunelveli area has been the abode for human habituation since the Neolithic period about 3,000 years ago. Adhichanallur has been announced as an archaeological site for further excavation and studies.Subramanian T.S. (May 26, 2004 )Skeletons, script found at ancient burial site in Tamil Nadu, The Hindu, retrieved 7/31/2007 , 'The most interesting pre-historic remains in Tamil India were discovered at Adichanallur.There is a series of urn burials. seem to be related to the megalithic complex. - Zvelebil, K.A., Companion Studies to the History of Tamil Literature - pp21–22, Brill Academic Publishers.

We have to keep in mind that Adhichanallur is a Megalithic period site, not a Neolithic place.

In East Asia the earliest sites include Pengtoushan culture around 7500 BC to 6100 BC, Peiligang culture around 7000 BC to 5000 BC.

America In Mesoamerican chronology a similar set of events (i.e., crop domestication and sedentary lifestyles) occurred by around 4500 BC, but possibly as early as 11,000–10,000 BC, although here the term Pre-Classic (or Formative) is used instead of mid-late Neolithic, Archaic Era for the Early Neolithic, and Paleo-Indians for the preceding period.

Social organization image:Néolithique 0008.jpgThere is little scientific evidence for developed hierarchy 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, however, revealed that early Neolithic Linear Ceramic cultures ("Linearbandkeramik") 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 settlements at Linearbandkeramik 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, whether a 'Big man (anthropology)', or proto-Tribal chief or a matriarch, functioning as a lineage-group head. These sociopolitical entities later developed into the chiefdoms of the European Bronze Age. In the New world, the Iroquois, Pueblo people, Maya civilization and in Oceania the Māori are all examples of stone-tool-dependent cultures with complex social and political systems.

Farming A significant and far-reaching shift in human subsistence and lifestyle was to be brought about in areas where crop farming and cultivation were first developed: the previous reliance upon an essentially nomadic hunter-gatherer list of subsistence techniques or Transhumance 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 labor in tending crop fields required more localized dwellings. This trend would continue into the Bronze Age, eventually giving rise to towns, and later city 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 onset of early agricultural practices in the Neolithic have been called the Neolithic Revolution, a term first neologism by the Australian archaeologist Vere Gordon Childe.

One potential benefit of the development and increasing sophistication 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. The storage site might need to be defended from marauders, increasing the cultural investment in a particular site.

However, it should be noted that early farmers were also adversely affected in times of famine, such as may be caused by drought or pest control. In instances where agriculture had become the predominant way of life the sensitivity to these shortages could be particularly acute, affecting agrarian populations to an extent which otherwise may not have been routinely experienced by prior hunter-gatherer communities. Nevertheless, despite what must have been periodic setbacks, agrarian communities generally 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 (nutrition). Pre-agrarian diets varied by region, season, available local plant and animal resources and degree of pastoralism and hunting. Post-agrarian diet was restricted to a limited package of successfully cultivated cereal grains, plants and to variable extents domesticable animals and animal products. Supplementation of diet by hunting and gathering was to variable degrees precluded by increase of population above the carrying capacity of the land and high sedentary local population concentration. In some cultures there would have been a significant shift toward increased starch and plant protein. 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.

In addition, increased population density, decreased population mobility, increased continuous proximity to domesticated animals, and continuous occupation of comparatively population-dense sites would have altered patterns of disease and sanitation needs.

Technology 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 tools 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, Neolithic long house 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 limited exceptions (a few copper hatchets and spear heads in the Great Lakes (North America) region), the peoples of the Americas and the Pacific retained the Neolithic level of tool technology up until the time of European contact. There are numerous examples(Inca, Maya civilization, Aztec, Iroquois, Mississippian culture, Maori), however, of development of complex socio-political organization, building technology, scientific knowledge and linguistic culture in these regions that parallel post-neolithic developments in Africa and Eurasia.

Neolithic List of archaeological sites include: Spirit Cave in Thailand 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 West Bank, Neolithic from around 8350 BC, arising from the earlier Epipaleolithic Natufian culture Nevali Cori in Turkey, ca. 8000 BC Çatalhöyük in Turkey, 7500 BC Pengtoushan culture in China, 7500–6100 BC 'Ain Ghazal in Jordan, 7250–5000 BC Jhusi in India, 7100 BC Sesklo in Greece, 6850 BC (with a +/- 660 year margin of error) Dispilio Tablet in Greece, ca. 5500 BC Jiahu in China, 7000 to 5800 BC Mehrgarh in Pakistan, 7000 BC Knossus on Crete, ca. 7000 BC Lahuradewa in India, 6400 BC Porodin in Republic of Macedonia, 6500 BC Vrshnik (Anzabegovo) in Republic of Macedonia, 6500 BC Hemudu culture in China, 5000–4500 BC, large scale rice plantation around 2000 settlements of Trypillian culture, 5400 BC — 2800 BC Knap of Howar and Skara Brae, Orkney, Prehistoric Scotland, from 3500 BC Brú na Bóinne in Ireland, ca. 3500 BC Lough Gur in Ireland from around 3000 BC The world's oldest known engineered roadway, the Sweet Track in England, dates from 3800 BC.

Footnotes

Bibliography

Bellwood, Peter. (2004). First Farmers: The Origins of Agricultural Societies. Blackwell Publishers. ISBN 0-631-20566-7