Neolithic

The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Greek νέος

Neolithic
néos 'new' and λίθος líthos 'stone') is an archaeological
period, the final division of the Stone Age in
Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE
to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a
wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have
arisen independently in several parts of the world. This
"Neolithic package" included the introduction of
farming, domestication of animals, and change from a
hunter-gatherer lifestyle to one of settlement. The term
'Neolithic' was coined by John Lubbock in 1865 as a Reconstruction of Pre-Pottery Neolithic B
refinement of the three-age system.[1] housing in Aşıklı Höyük, modern Turkey
Period Final period of Stone Age
The Neolithic began about 12,000 years ago, when
Dates c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE
farming appeared in the Epipalaeolithic Near East and
Mesopotamia, and later in other parts of the world. It Preceded by Mesolithic, Epipalaeolithic
lasted in the Near East until the transitional period of Followed by Chalcolithic
the Chalcolithic (Copper Age) from about 6,500 years
ago (4500 BCE), marked by the development of metallurgy,
leading up to the Bronze Age and Iron Age.

In other places, the Neolithic followed the Mesolithic (Middle

Stone Age) and then lasted until later. In Ancient Egypt, the
Neolithic lasted until the Protodynastic period, c. 3150
BCE.[2][3][4] In China, it lasted until circa 2000 BCE with the
rise of the pre-Shang Erlitou culture,[5] as it did in
Scandinavia.[6][7][8]
Reconstruction of a Neolithic farmstead,
Irish National Heritage Park. The
Neolithic saw the invention of agriculture.
Origin
Following the ASPRO chronology, the Neolithic started in around 10,200 BC in the Levant, arising from
the Natufian culture, when pioneering use of wild cereals evolved into early farming. The Natufian period
or "proto-Neolithic" lasted from 12,500 to 9,500 BC, and is taken to overlap with the Pre-Pottery
Neolithic A (PPNA) of 10,200–8800 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 (about 10,000 BC) are thought to have forced people to develop farming.

The founder crops of the Fertile Crescent were wheat, lentil, pea, chickpea, bitter vetch, and flax. Among
the other major crops to be domesticated were rice and millet. Crops were usually domesticated in a
single location and ancestral wild species are still found.[10]
 Approximate centers of origin of agriculture in the Neolithic Revolution and its
spread in prehistory: the Fertile Crescent (12,000 BP), the Yangtze river and Yellow
River basins (9,000 BP) and the New Guinea Highlands (9,000–6,000 BP), Central
Mexico (5,000–4,000 BP), Northern South America (5,000–4,000 BP), sub-Saharan
Africa (5,000–4,000 BP, exact location unknown), eastern North America (4,000–
3,000 BP).[9]

Early Neolithic age farming was limited to a narrow range of plants, both wild and domesticated, which
included einkorn wheat, millet and spelt, and the keeping of dogs. By about 8000 BC, it included
domesticated sheep and goats, cattle and pigs.

Not all of these cultural elements characteristic of the Neolithic appeared everywhere in the same order:
the earliest farming societies in the Near East did not use pottery. 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 independently of those in Europe and Southwest
Asia. Early Japanese societies and other East Asian cultures used pottery before developing
agriculture.[11][12]

Periods by region

Southwest Asia
In the Middle East, cultures identified as Neolithic began
appearing in the 10th millennium BC.[13] 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 around 8000 BC.

Anatolian Neolithic farmers derived a significant portion of their

ancestry from the Anatolian hunter-gatherers (AHG), suggesting An array of Neolithic artifacts,
including bracelets, axe heads,
that agriculture was adopted in site by these hunter-gatherers and
chisels, and polishing tools
not spread by demic diffusion into the region.[14]
Pre-Pottery Neolithic A
The Neolithic 1 (PPNA) period began around 10,000 BC in the
Levant.[13] A temple area in southeastern Turkey at Göbekli Tepe,
dated to around 9500 BC, may be regarded as the beginning of the
period. This site was developed by nomadic hunter-gatherer tribes, as
shown by the absence of permanent housing nearby, and may be the
oldest known human-made place of worship.[18] At least seven stone
circles, covering 25 acres (10 ha), contain limestone pillars carved with
animals, insects, and birds. Stone tools were used by perhaps as many
as hundreds of people to create the pillars, which might have supported
roofs. Other early PPNA sites dating to around 9500–9000 BC have
been found in Palestine, notably in Tell es-Sultan (ancient Jericho) and
Gilgal in the Jordan Valley; Israel (notably Ain Mallaha, Nahal Oren,
and Kfar HaHoresh); and in Byblos, Lebanon. The start of Neolithic 1
overlaps the Tahunian and Heavy Neolithic periods to some degree.

The major advance of Neolithic 1 was true farming. In the proto-

The Urfa Man
Neolithic Natufian cultures, wild cereals were harvested, and perhaps
c. 9000 BC.[15][16][17] Şanlıurfa
early seed selection and re-seeding occurred. The grain was ground Archaeology and Mosaic
into flour. Emmer wheat was domesticated, and animals were herded Museum.
and domesticated (animal husbandry and selective breeding).

In 2006, remains of figs were discovered in a house in Jericho dated to 9400 BC. The figs are of a mutant
variety that cannot be pollinated by insects, and therefore the trees can only reproduce from cuttings. This
evidence suggests that figs were the first cultivated crop and mark the invention of the technology of
farming. This occurred centuries before the first cultivation of grains.[19]

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 mudbrick. The settlement had a
surrounding stone wall and perhaps a stone tower (as in Jericho). The wall served as protection from
nearby groups, as protection from floods, or to keep animals penned. Some of the enclosures also suggest
grain and meat storage.[20]

Pre-Pottery Neolithic B
The Neolithic 2 (PPNB) began around 8800 BC according to the ASPRO chronology in the Levant
(Jericho, West Bank).[13] As with the PPNA dates, there are two versions from the same laboratories
noted above. This system of terminology, however, is not convenient for southeast Anatolia and
settlements of the middle Anatolia basin. A settlement of 3,000 inhabitants called 'Ain Ghazal was found
in the outskirts of Amman, Jordan. Considered to be one of the largest prehistoric settlements in the Near
East, it was continuously inhabited from approximately 7250 BC to approximately 5000 BC.[21]

Settlements have rectangular mud-brick houses where the family lived together in single or multiple
rooms. Burial findings suggest an ancestor cult where people preserved skulls of the dead, which were
plastered with mud to make facial features. The rest of the corpse could 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.
 Pre-Pottery Neolithic C
Work at the site of 'Ain Ghazal in Jordan has indicated a later
Pre-Pottery Neolithic C period. Juris Zarins has proposed that
a Circum Arabian Nomadic Pastoral Complex developed in
the period from the climatic crisis of 6200 BC, partly as a
result of an increasing emphasis in PPNB cultures upon
domesticated animals, and a fusion with Harifian hunter
gatherers in the Southern Levant, with affiliate connections
with the cultures of Fayyum and the Eastern Desert of Egypt.
Cultures practicing this lifestyle spread down the Red Sea
shoreline and moved east from Syria into southern Iraq.[22]

Late Neolithic
The Late Neolithic began around 6,400 BC in the Fertile
Female and male figurines; 9000–7000 Crescent.[13] By then distinctive cultures emerged, with
BC; gypsum with bitumen and stone
pottery like the Halafian (Turkey, Syria, Northern
inlays; from Tell Fekheriye (Al-Hasakah
Governorate of Syria); University of
Mesopotamia) and Ubaid (Southern Mesopotamia). This
Chicago Oriental Institute (USA) period has been further divided into PNA (Pottery Neolithic
A) and PNB (Pottery Neolithic B) at some sites.[23]

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

Fertile Crescent
Around 10,000 BC the first fully developed Neolithic cultures
belonging to the phase Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA)
appeared in the Fertile Crescent.[13] Around 10,700–9400 BC
a settlement was established in Tell Qaramel, 10 miles
(16 km) north of Aleppo. The settlement included two
temples dating to 9650 BC.[24] Around 9000 BC during the
PPNA, one of the world's first towns, Jericho, appeared in the
Levant. It was surrounded by a stone wall, may have
contained a population of up to 2,000–3,000 people, and 'Ain Ghazal Statues, found at 'Ain Ghazal
contained a massive stone tower.[25] Around 6400 BC the in Jordan, are considered to be one of
Halaf culture appeared in Syria and Northern Mesopotamia. the earliest large-scale representations of
the human form dating back to around
In 1981, a team of researchers from the Maison de l'Orient et 7250 BC.
de la Méditerranée, including Jacques Cauvin and Oliver
Aurenche, divided Near East Neolithic chronology into ten
periods (0 to 9) based on social, economic and cultural characteristics.[26] In 2002, Danielle Stordeur and
Frédéric Abbès advanced this system with a division into five periods.

1. Natufian between 12,000 and 10,200 BC,

2. Khiamian between 10,200 and 8800 BC, PPNA: Sultanian (Jericho), Mureybetian,
3. Early PPNB (PPNB ancien) between 8800 and 7600 BC, middle PPNB (PPNB moyen)
between 7600 and 6900 BC,
 4. Late PPNB (PPNB récent) between 7500 and
7000 BC,
5. A PPNB (sometimes called PPNC)
transitional stage (PPNB final) in which Halaf
and dark faced burnished ware begin to
emerge between 6900 and 6400 BC.[27]
They also advanced the idea of a transitional stage
Neolithic wall painting from Tell Bouqras at the
between the PPNA and PPNB between 8800 and
Deir ez-Zor Museum, Syria
8600 BC at sites like Jerf el Ahmar and Tell
Aswad.[28]

Southern Mesopotamia
Alluvial plains (Sumer/Elam). Low rainfall makes irrigation systems necessary. Ubaid culture originated
from 6200 BC.[29]

Northeastern Africa

Megaliths from Nabta Playa displayed in

the Aswan Nubian museum Algerian cave paintings depicting hunting
scenes
The earliest evidence of Neolithic culture in northeast Africa
was found in the archaeological sites of Bir Kiseiba and
Nabta Playa in what is now southwest Egypt.[30] Domestication of sheep and goats reached Egypt from
the Near East possibly as early as 6000 BC.[31][32] Graeme Barker states "The first indisputable evidence
for domestic plants and animals in the Nile valley is not until the early fifth millennium BC in northern
Egypt and a thousand years later further south, in both cases as part of strategies that still relied heavily
on fishing, hunting, and the gathering of wild plants" and suggests that these subsistence changes were
not due to farmers migrating from the Near East but was an indigenous development, with cereals either
indigenous or obtained through exchange.[33] Other scholars argue that the primary stimulus for
agriculture and domesticated animals (as well as mud-brick architecture and other Neolithic cultural
features) in Egypt was from the Middle East.[34][35][36]

Northwestern Africa
The neolithization of Northwestern Africa was initiated by Iberian, Levantine (and perhaps Sicilian)
migrants around 5500–5300 BC.[38] During the Early Neolithic period, farming was introduced by
Europeans and was subsequently adopted by the locals.[38] During the Middle Neolithic period, an influx
of ancestry from the Levant appeared in
Northwestern Africa, coinciding with the arrival
of pastoralism in the region.[38] The earliest
evidence for pottery, domestic cereals and animal
husbandry is found in Morocco, specifically at
Kaf el-Ghar.[38]

Sub-Saharan Africa
The neolithization of Northwestern Africa corresponded
The Pastoral Neolithic was a period in Africa's to the arrival of European migration circa 5500 BCE
prehistory marking the beginning of food (■), and a wace of Levantine migration circa 5000
production on the continent following the Later BCE (■), with some local admixture (■).[37]
Stone Age. In contrast to the Neolithic in other
parts of the world, which saw the development of
farming societies, the first form of African food production was mobile pastoralism,[39][40] or ways of life
centered on the herding and management of livestock. The term "Pastoral Neolithic" is used most often
by archaeologists to describe early pastoralist periods in the Sahara,[41] as well as in eastern Africa.[42]

The Savanna Pastoral Neolithic or SPN (formerly known as the Stone Bowl Culture) is a collection of
ancient societies that appeared in the Rift Valley of East Africa and surrounding areas during a time
period known as the Pastoral Neolithic. They were South Cushitic speaking pastoralists, who tended to
bury their dead in cairns whilst their toolkit was characterized by stone bowls, pestles, grindstones and
earthenware pots.[43] Through archaeology, historical linguistics and archaeogenetics, they
conventionally have been identified with the area's first Afroasiatic-speaking settlers. Archaeological
dating of livestock bones and burial cairns has also established the cultural complex as the earliest center
of pastoralism and stone construction in the region.[44]

Europe
In southeast Europe
agrarian societies first
appeared in the 7th
millennium BC, attested by
one of the earliest farming
sites of Europe, discovered
in Vashtëmi, southeastern
Albania and dating back to
6500 BC.[45][46] In most of
Western Europe in
followed over the next two
Map showing distribution of some of the
thousand years, but in some main culture complexes in Neolithic
parts of Northwest Europe Europe, c. 3500 BC
Female figure from Tumba
Madžari, North Macedonia
it is much later, lasting just
under 3,000 years from c.
4500 BC–1700 BC. Recent advances in archaeogenetics have
confirmed that the spread of agriculture from the Middle East
to Europe was strongly correlated with the migration of early
farmers from Anatolia about 9,000 years ago, and was not just
a cultural exchange.[47][48]

Anthropomorphic figurines have been found in the Balkans

from 6000 BC,[49] and in Central Europe by around 5800 BC
(La Hoguette). Among the earliest cultural complexes of this
area are the Sesklo culture in Thessaly, which later expanded
in the Balkans giving rise to Starčevo-Körös (Cris),
Skara Brae, Scotland. Evidence of home
Linearbandkeramik, and Vinča. Through a combination of
furnishings (shelves)
cultural diffusion and migration of peoples, the Neolithic
traditions spread west and northwards to reach northwestern
Europe by around 4500 BC. The Vinča culture may have created the earliest system of writing, the Vinča
signs, though archaeologist Shan Winn believes they most likely represented pictograms and ideograms
rather than a truly developed form of writing.[50]

The Cucuteni-Trypillian culture built enormous settlements in Romania, Moldova and Ukraine from 5300
to 2300 BC. The megalithic temple complexes of Ġgantija on the Mediterranean island of Gozo (in the
Maltese archipelago) and of Mnajdra (Malta) are notable for their gigantic Neolithic structures, the oldest
of which date back to around 3600 BC. The Hypogeum of Ħal-Saflieni, Paola, Malta, is a subterranean
structure excavated around 2500 BC; originally a sanctuary, it became a necropolis, the only prehistoric
underground temple in the world, and shows a degree of artistry in stone sculpture unique in prehistory to
the Maltese islands. After 2500 BC, these islands were depopulated for several decades until the arrival of
a new influx of Bronze Age immigrants, a culture that cremated its dead and introduced smaller
megalithic structures called dolmens to Malta.[51] In most cases there are small chambers here, with the
cover made of a large slab placed on upright stones. They are claimed to belong to a population different
from that which built the previous megalithic temples. It is presumed the population arrived from Sicily
because of the similarity of Maltese dolmens to some small constructions found there.[52]

With some exceptions, population levels rose rapidly at the beginning of the Neolithic until they reached
the carrying capacity.[53] This was followed by a population crash of "enormous magnitude" after 5000
BC, with levels remaining low during the next 1,500 years.[53] Populations began to rise after 3500 BC,
with further dips and rises occurring between 3000 and 2500 BC but varying in date between regions.[53]
Around this time is the Neolithic decline, when populations collapsed across most of Europe, possibly
caused by climatic conditions, plague, or mass migration.[54]

South and East Asia

Settled life, encompassing the transition from foraging to farming and pastoralism, began in South Asia in
the region of Balochistan, Pakistan, around 7,000 BC.[55][56][57] At the site of Mehrgarh, Balochistan,
presence can be documented of the domestication of wheat and barley, rapidly followed by that of goats,
sheep, and cattle.[58] In April 2006, it was announced in the scientific journal Nature that the oldest (and
first Early Neolithic) evidence for the drilling of teeth in vivo (using bow drills and flint tips) was found
in Mehrgarh.[59]
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 Ash mounds (created from ritual
burning of wood, dung and animal matter) from 2500 BC in Karnataka region, expanded later to Tamil
Nadu.[60]

In East Asia, the earliest sites include the Nanzhuangtou

culture around 9500–9000 BC,[61] Pengtoushan culture
around 7500–6100 BC, and Peiligang culture around 7000–
5000 BC. The prehistoric Beifudi site near Yixian in Hebei
Province, China, contains relics of a culture contemporaneous
with the Cishan and Xinglongwa cultures of about 6000–
5000 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
Neolithic artifacts from China
square yards (1,000 m2; 0.10 ha), and the collection of
Neolithic findings at the site encompasses two phases.[62]
Between 3000 and 1900 BC, the Longshan culture existed in the middle and lower Yellow River valley
areas of northern China. Towards the end of the 3rd millennium BC, the population decreased sharply in
most of the region and many of the larger centres were abandoned, possibly due to environmental change
linked to the end of the Holocene Climatic Optimum.[63]

The 'Neolithic' (defined in this paragraph as using polished stone implements) remains a living tradition
in small and extremely remote and inaccessible pockets of West Papua. Polished stone adze and axes are
used in the present day (as of 2008) in areas where the availability of metal implements is limited. This is
likely to cease altogether in the next few years as the older generation die off and steel blades and
chainsaws prevail.

In 2012, news was released about a new farming site discovered in Munam-ri, Goseong, Gangwon
Province, South Korea, which may be the earliest farmland known to date in east Asia.[64] "No remains of
an agricultural field from the Neolithic period have been found in any East Asian country before, the
institute said, adding that the discovery reveals that the history of agricultural cultivation at least began
during the period on the Korean Peninsula". The farm was dated between 3600 and 3000 BC. Pottery,
stone projectile points, and possible houses were also found. "In 2002, researchers discovered prehistoric
earthenware, jade earrings, among other items in the area". The research team will perform accelerator
mass spectrometry (AMS) dating to retrieve a more precise date for the site.[65]

The Americas
In Mesoamerica, a similar set of events (i.e., crop domestication and sedentary lifestyles) occurred by
around 4500 BC in South America, but possibly as early as 11,000–10,000 BC. These cultures are usually
not referred to as belonging to the Neolithic; in North America, different terms are used such as
Formative stage instead of mid-late Neolithic, Archaic Era instead of Early Neolithic, and Paleo-Indian
for the preceding period.[66]

The Formative stage is equivalent to the Neolithic Revolution period in Europe, Asia, and Africa. In the
southwestern United States it occurred from 500 to 1200 AD when there was a dramatic increase in
population and development of large villages supported by agriculture based on dryland farming of corn
(maize), and later, beans, squash, and domesticated turkeys. During this period the bow and arrow and
ceramic pottery were also introduced.[67] In later periods cities of considerable size developed, and some
metallurgy by 700 BC.[68]

Australia
Australia, in contrast to New Guinea, has generally been held not to have had a Neolithic period, with a
hunter-gatherer lifestyle continuing until the arrival of Europeans. This view can be challenged in terms
of the definition of agriculture, but "Neolithic" remains a rarely used and not very useful concept in
discussing Australian prehistory.[69]

Cultural characteristics

Social organization
During most of the Neolithic age of Eurasia, people lived in
small tribes composed of multiple bands or lineages.[70]
There is little scientific evidence of developed social
stratification in most Neolithic societies; social stratification
is more associated with the later Bronze Age.[71] Although
some late Eurasian Neolithic societies formed complex
stratified chiefdoms or even states, generally states evolved in
Eurasia only with the rise of metallurgy, and most Neolithic
societies on the whole were relatively simple and Model of a Linear Pottery culture
egalitarian. [70] Beyond Eurasia, however, states were formed settlement, showing longhouses, circular
during the local Neolithic in three areas, namely in the enclosures, and fields
Preceramic Andes with the Caral-Supe Civilization, [72][73]

Formative Mesoamerica and Ancient Hawaiʻi.[74] However,

most Neolithic societies were noticeably more hierarchical than the Upper Paleolithic cultures that
preceded them and hunter-gatherer cultures in general.[75][76]

The domestication of large animals (c. 8000 BC) resulted in a dramatic increase in social inequality in
most of the areas where it occurred; New Guinea being a notable exception.[77] Possession of livestock
allowed competition between households and resulted in inherited inequalities of wealth. Neolithic
pastoralists who controlled large herds gradually acquired more livestock, and this made economic
inequalities more pronounced.[78] However, evidence of social inequality is still disputed, as settlements
such as Çatalhöyük reveal a lack of difference in the size of homes and burial sites, suggesting a more
egalitarian society with no evidence of the concept of capital, although some homes do appear slightly
larger or more elaborately decorated than others.[79]

Families and households were still largely independent economically, and the household was probably the
center of life.[80][81] However, excavations in Central Europe have revealed that early Neolithic Linear
Ceramic cultures ("Linearbandkeramik") were building large arrangements of circular ditches between
4800 and 4600 BC. These structures (and their later counterparts such as causewayed enclosures, burial
mounds, and henge) required considerable time and labour to
construct, which suggests that some influential individuals
were able to organise and direct human labour – though non-
hierarchical and voluntary work remain possibilities.

There is a large body of evidence for fortified settlements at

Linearbandkeramik sites along the Rhine, as at least some
villages were fortified for some time with a palisade and an
outer ditch.[82][83] Settlements with palisades and weapon-
traumatized bones, such as those found at the Talheim Death
Pit, have been discovered and demonstrate that "...systematic
violence between groups" and warfare was probably much
more common during the Neolithic than in the preceding
Paleolithic period.[76] This supplanted an earlier view of the
Linear Pottery Culture as living a "peaceful, unfortified
lifestyle".[84] Violence increased toward the end of this
culture which existed at 5500–4500 BCE.[85] In 2024, a study
suggested a peaceful explanation to the reduction in the size
of male population observed worldwide 5000–3000 years
ago.[86]

Control of labour and inter-group conflict is characteristic of

tribal groups with social rank that are headed by a charismatic
individual – either a 'big man' or a proto-chief – functioning
as a lineage-group head. Whether a non-hierarchical system
of organization existed is debatable, and there is no evidence
that explicitly suggests that Neolithic societies functioned
under any dominating class or individual, as was the case in Anthropomorphic Neolithic ceramic
the chiefdoms of the European Early Bronze Age. [87] Possible figurine
exceptions to this include Iraq during the Ubaid period and
England beginning in the Early Neolithic (4100–3000
BC).[88][89] Theories to explain the apparent implied egalitarianism of Neolithic (and Paleolithic)
societies have arisen, notably the Marxist concept of primitive communism.

Phylogenies reconstructed from modern genetic data indicates an extreme drop in Y-chromosomal
diversity occurred during the Neolithic, with effective population size for the mitochondria up to 17 times
higher than for the Y-chromosomes during this period.[90] The causes of this bottleneck remain poorly
understood. At a basic level, it can likely be attributed to a culture-induced change in the distribution of
male reproductive success, with possible explanations ranging from an increased incidence of violence
and male mortality during the Neolithic [91] to the rise of patrilineal segmentary groups with varying
reproductive success due to polygyny.[92]

Shelter and sedentism

The shelter of early people changed dramatically from the Upper Paleolithic to the Neolithic era. In the
Paleolithic, people did not normally live in permanent constructions. In the Neolithic, mud brick houses
started appearing that were coated with plaster.[93] This increased use of clay for building, along with the
development of pottery and other clay-based artifacts, has led
some to refer to the Neolithic period as the Age of Clay.[94]
The growth of agriculture made permanent houses far more
common. At Çatalhöyük 9,000 years ago, doorways were
made on the roof, with ladders positioned both on the inside
and outside of the houses.[93] Stilt-house settlements were
common in the Alpine and Pianura Padana (Terramare)
region.[95] Remains have been found in the Ljubljana Marsh
in Slovenia and at the Mondsee and Attersee lakes in Upper
Austria, for example.

Agriculture
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 on
an essentially nomadic hunter-gatherer subsistence technique Clay human figurine (Fertility goddess)
or pastoral transhumance was at first supplemented, and then Tappeh Sarab, Kermanshah c. 7000–
increasingly replaced by, a reliance upon the foods produced 6100 BC, National Museum of Iran
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 permanently settled farming 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 Reconstruction of Neolithic house in
Neolithic Revolution, a term coined in the 1920s by the Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Australian archaeologist Vere Gordon Childe.

One potential benefit of the development and increasing

sophistication of farming technology was the possibility of
producing surplus crop yields, in other words, food supplies
in excess of the immediate needs of the community. Surpluses
could be stored for later use, or possibly traded for other
necessities or luxuries. Agricultural life afforded securities
that nomadic life could not, and sedentary farming
populations grew faster than nomadic.
A Cucuteni-Trypillian culture deer antler
However, early farmers were also adversely affected in times plough
of famine, such as may be caused by drought or pests. 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 that otherwise may not have been routinely
experienced by prior hunter-gatherer communities.[78]
Nevertheless, 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 a variable
Food and cooking items retrieved at a
extent domesticated animals and animal products. European Neolithic site: millstones,
Supplementation of diet by hunting and gathering was to charred bread, grains and small apples, a
variable degrees precluded by the increase in population clay cooking pot, and containers made of
above the carrying capacity of the land and a high sedentary antlers and wood
local population concentration. In some cultures, there would
have been a significant shift toward increased starch and plant
protein. The relative nutritional benefits and drawbacks of these dietary changes and their overall impact
on early societal development are still debated.

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 sanitation needs and patterns of disease.

Lithic technology
The identifying characteristic of Neolithic technology is the use of polished or ground stone tools, in
contrast to the flaked stone tools used during the Paleolithic era.

Neolithic people 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. But what allowed forest clearance on a
large scale was the polished stone axe above all other tools. Together with the adze, fashioning wood for
shelter, structures and canoes for example, this enabled them to exploit the newly developed farmland.

Neolithic peoples in the Levant, Anatolia, Syria, northern Mesopotamia and Central Asia were also
accomplished builders, utilizing 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 were built for the dead. 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.
The peoples of the Americas and the Pacific mostly retained the Neolithic level of tool technology until
the time of European contact. Exceptions include copper hatchets and spearheads in the Great Lakes
region.

Clothing
Most clothing appears to have been made of animal skins, as indicated by finds of large numbers of bone
and antler pins that are ideal for fastening leather. Wool cloth and linen might have become available
during the later Neolithic,[96][97] as suggested by finds of perforated stones that (depending on size) may
have served as spindle whorls or loom weights.[98][99][100]

List of early settlements

Neolithic human settlements include:

Reconstruction of a Cucuteni-Trypillian
hut, in the Tripillian Museum, Ukraine

archaeological site of Çatalhöyük in the

Konya Plain in Turkey
 early date late date
name location comments
(BC) (BC)

Tell Qaramel Syria 10,700[101] 9400

reoccupied between 7500

Franchthi Cave Greece 10,000
and 6000 BC

Göbekli Tepe Turkey 9600 8000

Nanzhuangtou Hebei, China 9500 9000

Byblos Lebanon 8800 7000[102]

arising from the earlier
Jericho (Tell es-Sultan) West Bank 9500 Epipaleolithic Natufian
culture

oldest known settlement of

Pulli settlement Estonia 8500 5000
Kunda culture
Central Anatolia,
Turkey, an Aceramic correlating with the
Aşıklı Höyük 8200 7400
Neolithic period E/MPPNB in the Levant
settlement

Nevali Cori Turkey 8000

Bhirrana India 7600 7200 Hakra ware

rice residues were carbon-
Pengtoushan culture China 7500 6100
14 dated to 8200–7800 BC

Çatalhöyük Turkey 7500 5700

Mentesh Tepe and

Kamiltepe
Azerbaijan 7000 3000[103]

'Ain Ghazal Jordan 7250 5000

Chogha Bonut Iran 7200

Jhusi India 7100

Motza Israel 7000

Ganj Dareh Iran 7000

presence of rice cultivation,

Lahuradewa India 7000[104] ceramics etc.
Jiahu China 7000 5800

Knossos Crete 7000

Khirokitia Cyprus 7000 4000

aceramic but elaborate
Mehrgarh Pakistan 7000 5500 culture including mud brick,
houses, agriculture etc.

with a 660-year margin of

Sesklo Greece 6850
error

cultivation of oats and barley

Horton Plains Sri Lanka 6700
as early as 11,000 BC

Porodin North Macedonia 6500[105]

Padah-Lin Caves Burma 6000
 Petnica Serbia 6000
Vinča-Belo Brdo Serbia 5700

Pločnik (archaeological Earliest known copper tools

Serbia 5500 4700
site) in Europe, dated 5500 BC.

Stara Zagora Bulgaria 5500

Cucuteni-Trypillian Ukraine, Moldova and
5500 2750
culture Romania

Tell Zeidan northern Syria 5500 4000

Quezon, Palawan,
Tabon Cave Complex
Philippines
5000 2000[106][107]

Hemudu culture, large-

China 5000 4500
scale rice plantation

The Megalithic Temples

Malta 3600
of Malta

Knap of Howar and

Orkney, Scotland 3500 3100
Skara Brae
Brú na Bóinne Ireland 3500

Lough Gur Ireland 3000

Shengavit Settlement Armenia 3000 2200

Norte Chico civilization,
30 aceramic Neolithic northern coastal Peru 3000 1700
period settlements

Tichit Neolithic village central southern

2000 500
on the Tagant Plateau Mauritania

by 2000 BC Neolithic
sedentary villages had been
Oaxaca, state Southwestern Mexico 2000
established in the Central
Valleys region of this state.
Lajia China 2000

Mumun pottery period Korean Peninsula 1800 1500

Neolithic revolution Japan 500 300

The world's oldest known engineered roadway, the Post Track in England, dates from 3838 BC and the
world's oldest freestanding structure is the Neolithic temple of Ġgantija in Gozo, Malta.

List of cultures and sites

Note: Dates are very approximate, and are only given for a rough estimate; consult each culture for
specific time periods.

Early Neolithic
Periodization: The Levant: 9500–8000 BC; Europe: 7000–4000 BC; Elsewhere: varies greatly,
depending on region.

Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (Levant, 9500–8000 BC)

 Nanzhuangtou (China, 8500 BC)
Franchthi Cave (Greece, 7000 BC)
Cishan culture (China, 6500–5000 BC)
Sesklo village (Greece, c. 6300 BC)
Starcevo-Criş culture (Starčevo-Körös-Criş culture) (Balkans, 5800–4500 BC)
Katundas Cavern (Albania, 6th millennium BC)
Dudeşti culture (Romania, 6th millennium BC)
Beixin culture (China, 5300–4100 BC)
Tamil Nadu culture (India, 3000–2800 BC)[108]
Mentesh Tepe and Kamiltepe (Azerbaijan, 7000–3000 BC)[103]
Middle Neolithic
Periodization: The Levant: 8000–6500 BC; Europe: 5500–3500 BC; Elsewhere: varies greatly,
depending on region.

Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (Levant, 7600–6000 BC)

Baodun culture
Jinsha settlement and Sanxingdui mound.
Çatalhöyük
Cardium pottery culture
Comb Ceramic culture
Corded Ware culture
Cortaillod culture
Cucuteni-Trypillian culture
Dadiwan culture
Dawenkou culture
Daxi culture
Chengtoushan settlement
Dapenkeng culture (Taiwan, 4000–3000 BC)
Grooved ware people
Skara Brae, et al.
Erlitou culture
Xia dynasty
Ertebølle culture
Hembury culture
Hemudu culture
Hongshan culture
Houli culture
Horgen culture
Kura–Araxes culture
Liangzhu culture
Linear Pottery culture
Goseck circle, Circular ditches, et al.
Longshan culture
Majiabang culture
Majiayao culture
 Peiligang culture
Pengtoushan culture
Pfyn culture
Precucuteni culture
Qujialing culture
Shijiahe culture
Trypillian culture
Vinča culture
Lengyel culture (Central Europe, 5000–3400 BC)
Varna culture (South/Eastern Europe 4400–4100 BC)
Windmill Hill culture
Stonehenge
Xinglongwa culture
Beifudi site
Xinle culture
Yangshao culture
Banpo and Xishuipo settlements.
Zhaobaogou culture
Later Neolithic
Periodization: 6500–4500 BC; Europe: 5000–3000 BC; Elsewhere: varies greatly, depending on region.

Pottery Neolithic (Fertile Crescent, 6400–4500 BC)

Halaf culture (Mesopotamia, 6100 BC and 5100 BC)
Halaf-Ubaid Transitional period (Mesopotamia, 5500–5000 BC)
Ubaid 1/2 (5400–4500 BC)
Funnelbeaker culture (North/Eastern Europe, 4300–2800 BC)

Chalcolithic

Periodization: Near East: 6000–3500 BC; Europe: 5000–2000 BC; Elsewhere: varies greatly, depending
on region. In the Americas, the Chalcolithic ended as late as the 19th century AD for some peoples.

Ubaid 3/4 (Mesopotamia, 4500–4000 BC)

early Uruk period (Mesopotamia, 4000–3800 BC)
middle Uruk period (Mesopotamia, 3800–3400 BC)
late Trypillian (Eastern Europe, 3000–2750 BC)
Gaudo Culture (Italy, 3150–2950 BC)
Corded Ware culture (North/Eastern Europe, 2900–2350 BC)
Beaker culture (Central/Western Europe, 2900–1800 BC)

Comparative chronology

See also
Céide Fields Neolithic religion
 Neolithic tomb Two layer hypothesis
Ötzi Neolithic in China
Rock art of the Djelfa region Neolithic in the Near East
Tabon Man

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Further reading
Pedersen, Hilthart (2008). Die Jüngere Steinzeit Auf Bornholm. GRIN Verlag. ISBN 978-3-
638-94559-2.

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Romeo, Nick (Feb. 2015). Embracing Stone Age Couple Found in Greek Cave ([Link]
[Link]/web/20150221195225/[Link]
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discovered at one of the largest Neolithic burial sites in Europe." National Geographic
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original ([Link] on 2008-04-30. Retrieved
2008-04-14.
Affonso, T.; Pernicka, E. (2000). "Pre-Pottery Neolithic Clay Figurines from Nevali Çori".
Internet Archaeology (9). doi:10.11141/ia.9.4 ([Link]
"Neolithic" ([Link]
Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). 1911.

Retrieved from "[Link]