(Redirected from Neolithic Period)
Excavated dwellings at
Skara Brae Scotland, Europe's most complete Neolithic village.
Skara Brae
Scotland. Evidence of home furnishings i.e. shelves, in Europe's most complete Neolithic village
The 'Neolithic'
[1] 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
domesticated, 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.
[2] Not all of these cultural elements characteristic of the Neolithic appeared in the same order: the earliest farming societies in the
Near East did 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, 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 in the Mesolithic, for example.
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.
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 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 some enclosures that suggest grain 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.
Halafian culture (5500 BC) more...
Southern Mesopotamia
Alluvial plains (Sumer/Elam). Little rainfall, makes
irrigation systems necessary.
Ubaid culture from 5500... more.
mundra makal
Europe
In southeast
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. 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.
South and East Asia
The oldest neolithic site in
South Asia is
Mehrgarh from
7000 BC on the "Kachi plain of
Baluchistan,
Pakistan It is one of the earliest sites with evidence of farming (wheat and barley) and herding (cattle, sheep and goats) in South Asia."
[3]
One of the earliest Neolithic sites in
India is
Lahuradewa, at Middle
Ganges region, C14 dated around .
[4]. Recently another site near the confluence of
Ganges and
Yamuna rivers called
Jhusi yielded a C14 dating of
7100 BC for its Neolithic levels.
[5]
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
[6] 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 celts, 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.
[7],
[8]
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
Mesoamerica a similar set of events (i.e., crop domestication and sedentary lifestyles) occurred for sure 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-Indian for the preceding period.
Social organization
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, 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', or proto-
chief or a
matriarch, functioning as a lineage-group head. These sociopolitical entities later developed into the
chiefdoms of the European
Early 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 subsistence technique or
pastoral 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
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 onset of early 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 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
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 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. 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
sanitary 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,
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 limited exceptions (a few copper
hatchets and
spear heads in the
Great Lakes 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,
Aztec,
Iroquois,
Mississippian,
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
settlements 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 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
[2]
:Vrshnik (Anzabegovo) in
Republic of Macedonia, 6500 BC
[3]
:
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,
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
1. The name was invented by Sir John Lubbock 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.
2. The potter's wheel was a later refinement that revolutionized the pottery industry.
3. Hirst, K. Kris. 2005. "Mehrgarh". '' Guide to Archaeology''
4. Fuller, Dorian 2006. "Agricultural Origins and Frontiers in South Asia: A Working Synthesis" in Journal of World Prehistory 20, p.42 "Ganges Neolithic"
5. 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"
6. Sastri K.A.N., ''A History of South India'', pp. 49–51
7. Subramanian T.S. (May 26, 2004 )''Skeletons, script found at ancient burial site in Tamil Nadu'', The Hindu, retrieved 7/31/2007 [1]
8. '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.
Bibliography
★ Bellwood, Peter. (2004). ''First Farmers: The Origins of Agricultural Societies.'' Blackwell Publishers. ISBN 0-631-20566-7
See also
★
European Megalithic Culture
★
Neolithic Europe
★
Neolithic Revolution
★
Neolithic religion
★
Ötzi the Iceman
★
Synoptic table of the principal old world prehistoric cultures
External links
★
Neolithic Stone Tools and Artifacts — World Museum of Man
★
Brutal lives of Stone Age Britons
★
Vincha Neolithic Script
Internal links:
★
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