NEOLITHIC PERIOD

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NEOLITHIC PERIOD
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NEOLITHIC CULTUREbegins ca. 10,000 bp

• Also referred to as the New Stone Age
• Ground and polished stone tools
• Settled villages largely dependent on
  domesticated plants and animals
• Development of pottery and weaving
• Megalithic architecture
• Evidence of mother-earth/goddess religion
• The end of the Neolithic period is marked by the
  use of writing, metal tools, and the rise of
  urban civilization

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Making stone tools by pecking, grinding and
polishing is a defining technology for the new
stone age, or Neolithic period.
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Spread of Neolithic Culture

• The earliest known development of Neolithic
  culture was in SW Asia between 8000 and 6000 bce.
  
• In the Tigris and Euphrates river valleys, the
  Neolithic culture of the Middle East, developed
  into the urban civilizations of the Bronze Age by
  3500 bce.
• Between 6000 and 2000 bce Neolithic culture
  spread through Europe, the Nile valley (Egypt),
  the Indus valley (India), and the Huang He valley
  (N China).
• In the New World, the domestication of plants
  and animals occurred independently of Old World
  developments. By 1500 bce, Neolithic cultures
  were present in Mexico and South America

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Agricultural Revolution

• Pastoralism
• Domesticated animals
• Farming
• Weaving
• Fired Pottery
• Village Life

The Agricultural Revolution website
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The Agricultural Revolution Pastoralism

• Pastoralism, the herding of domesticated or
  partially domesticated animals emerged at the
  same time as agriculture did -- 10-12,000 years
  ago
• The wandering, nomadic life of the pastoralists
  had more in common with hunter-gatherers than did
  the life of the farmers

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Domesticated Animals

• Shorter muzzles and horns
• Less developed teeth and jaws
• Less intelligent and aggressive
• Tendency to uniform color
• Specialization for human needs (ex. heavy wool)

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Shepherds and FarmersCooperation and Conflict

• Pastoralism developed on marginal land in areas
  unsuitable for agriculture, often in semi-arid
  regions.
• Frequently, the two ways of life were compatible
  with lively trade between farmers who had grain,
  metal and fabricated objects to exchange, and
  pastoral nomads, who had hides, wool, meat, and
  milk products.
• However, nomads frequently found raiding of
  settled agricultural lands tempting and
  profitable, and farmers, with growing
  populations, tended to encroach on any land that
  could be converted to the growing of crops.
• With these two specializations, organized warfare
  emerged.

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Weaving

• The discovery of techniques for turning plant and
  animal fibers into cloth represented a
  revolutionary improvement in the quality of human
  life.
• Weaving may have preceded agriculture, as it grew
  naturally out of basketry and the weaving of reed
  mats.
• Life in sedentary agricultural villages permitted
  the refinement of ancient techniques and the
  adoption of more complex looms.

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The Agricultural Revolution From wild grass to
grain
Genetic Changes

• A small percentage of wild grass plants has seed
  that clings to the stalk even when ripe. Over
  time, because of human havesting, the percentage
  of seed that falls off the stalk when ripe
  declined--which made harvesting much easier.
• These crops could not reproduce themselves
  without human intervention.
• Size and number of the kernels, also changed over
  time,

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The invention of the scratch plow in Mesopotamia
about 6,000 years ago was a great labor-saving
device for humans. It also marked a revolutionary
stage in human development--the beginning of
substitution of other forms of energy, in this
case animal power, for human muscles.
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Lifestyle Changes

• Dependency on few plants
• Greater vulnerability to weather
• Complete dependency on harvest times
• Need for hard physical labor
• Larger families
• Expanded tool kit
• Wealth and property become meaningful

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Transformation of grain to food

• Seeds milled between two stones and then boiled
  in water makes a kind of gruel.
• If ground fine and mixed with water into a paste
  and then baked, the grain is transformed into
  bread.
• Yeast cultures which leaven some forms of bread
  are naturally occuring, but were regarded as
  magical prior to the relatively recent discovery
  of micro-organisms.
• Grain spoiled for bread-making can be fermented.
  The sprouted grain is first baked, ground into a
  paste (called malt), and then added to water.
  With the right yeast and little luck, the result
  is beer.

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Fired Pottery

• Invention of kiln brought about the firing of
  clay pots
• Fired pots were sturdier and allowed for
  increased storage of agricultural products

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The Agricultural RevolutionVillage Life

• Sedentism living in one place
• Opportunities
• Accumulation of food and wealth
• Development of new skills
• Specialization
• Challenges
• Close quarters need for community organization
• Epidemics
• Protection

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Jerichothe oldest discovered villageThe
History of Jericho
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Jericho Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (ca. 8500-7000
bce)

• The first genuine town developed during this
  period.
• Houses were round and substantially built.
• The walls of the houses inclined inward, which
  suggests that the houses had domed roofs.

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Jerichos Walls

• Sometime after the founding of the town, a wall
  was built around it, enclosing an area of ca. 10
  acres.
• The wall itself was ca. 6.5 feet thick and is
  preserved to a height of almost 20 feet.
• In its second phase it was reinforced with a moat
  cut in the rock about thirty feet wide and 6-7
  feet thick.
• This is the earliest known fortification in the
  world.

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Jericho Pre-Pottery Neolithic B ca.7000-6000
bce

• Following a long abandonment, Jericho was
  resettled ca. 6800 by a people with a different
  culture.
• Much more elaborate houses, consisting of
  multiple rectangular rooms that were positioned
  around courtyards.
• Among the finds of this period were some that
  suggest a cult of ancestors at Jericho (and
  throughout Syria Palestine during this period).
  Ten skulls were discovered that had been removed
  from their bodies and modelled with plaster to
  resemble the faces of the dead.

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Çatalhöyük ca. 8,000-7,000 bce Çatalhöyük
website

• Çatalhöyük means 'forked mound' and is the
  modern name for the site of an ancient city in
  the country of Turkey, ancient Anatolia.
• First discovered and excavated by James Mellaart
  in 1950s and 1960s
• Archaeologists believe the ancient city covered
  an area the size of 50 soccer fields.

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Çatalhöyük Pottery

• The oldest pottery known from Anatolia
• The earliest pottery was fired, unpainted and
  unglazed and had a very simple bag shaped form.
• The pottery was fired in closed kilns outside of
  houses.

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Çatalhöyük bone work

• Most of the bone tools are bone points that would
  have been used as awls and needles.
• Tools also would have been used for scraping
  various things, possibly used in making pottery,
  and some antler artifacts used for making stone
  tools
• Ornaments like rings and pendants

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Çatalhöyük stone work

• Ground stone tools found at Çatalhöyük include
  axe heads, mace heads, querns for grinding grain,
  ornaments such as pendants, and mirrors of
  obsidian.
• These artifacts were made by pecking - slowly
  crushing away the surface by tapping with another
  rock, then grinding - wearing away the surface by
  abrading it with or against another rock, and
  then sometimes finishing by polishing - grinding
  using fine sand or silt and water

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Çatalhöyük obsidian trade

• Anatolian obsidian, "purchased" in Catal Huyuk
  with an exchange of valuable lumber or
  Mediterranean seashell, would wind its way a
  thousand miles southward to Jericho.
• Obsidian, a volcanic rock, may have been
  considered a sacred material charged with "mana,"
  divine power
• Jericho craftsmen, paying for the black volcanic
  glass with equally black chunks of bitumen from
  the shores of the Dead Sea, would work the
  obsidian into a variety of stone tools that were
  sharper and harder than steel.

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Çatalhöyük Murals Figurative

• A stylized portrayal of the terraced houses of
  the city itself, with a geologically perceptive
  rendition of an erupting, twin-peaked volcano,
  The painting clearly represents an actual
  eruption of Hasan Dag, a twin-peaked, then-active
  volcano eight miles to the east of the city,
  which dominated the skyline on a clear day.

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Çatalhöyük Burials

• Human burials were placed underneath sleeping
  platforms inside houses.
• Burial pits in platforms were used again and
  again.
• When the time came to add a burial to a pit, it
  was opened, cleared of earth, the bones of the
  previous burial pushed aside, and the new burial,
  tightly wrapped in cloth or reed matting was
  placed in the pit and resealed.

• Most adults were buried without any grave goods.
• Babies and children, however, were often buried
  with long strands of small polished beads made of
  stone, shell or coral.

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European Megalithic Cultureca. 5000-1500 bce
Megalithic Pages
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European Megaliths

• Some seven thousand years ago in Brittany people
  started to move stones of up to 180 tons in
  weight and to place them in the landscape.
• For what reason we don't know, despite many
  theories. Common archaeological opinion says
• dolmens - artificial caves built of stones and
  stone plates - were made for burial purposes.
• menhirs - the standing stones - there isn't any
  reasonable explanation.

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Megalithic Mysteries

• The age of certain megaliths is dated to about
  4600 years bce
• A discrepancy is evident between the highly
  developed understanding of astronomy, geometry
  and trigonometry which these megalith builders
  clearly possessed, and the relatively "primitive"
  nature of the archeological finds from cultures
  of the equivalent time
• Certain stone circles are complex geometric
  constructions, a combination of different
  ellipses, taking into account a measurement we
  call today the megalithic yard 0.829 meters
• Studies have shown a mathematical correspondence
  to two other ancient measurements the Egyptian
  Remen, used in the construction of the pyramids,
  and the royal Elle, a measurement often found in
  the construction of medieval cathedrals.

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Malta Megaliths
The Megalithic Temples of Malta
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The MEGALITHIC TEMPLES OF MALTA, dating from 5500
years ago, are the oldest free-standing stone
structures in the world

• Seven megalithic temples on the islands of Malta
  and Gozo
• The Ggantija complex on Gozo 3,600 BCE
• On Malta, the temples of Hagar Qim, Mnajdra and
  Tarxien and The Ta' Hagrat and Skorba complexes
  bear witness to the development of the temple
  tradition

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STONEHENGE2750-1500 bp
Sacred Sites Stonehenge
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• Stonehenge was built in several phases on a
  sacred site on the Salisbury Plain in a series of
  concentric rings of standing stones around an
  altar stone at the center.

The first ring has a horseshoe plan of originally
5 trilithons
Beyond this a circle of small, movable "marker
stones" were set in pits
An outer, enclosing circle of sandstone monoliths
13.5 feet high, supported what was once a
continuous lintel.
Beyond these was first a circle of smaller
uprights, sacred "blue" stones, transported from
South Wales
A landscaped trench separated the site from the
surrounding land.