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The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek νέος 'new' and λίθος '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 sedentism. The term 'Neolithic' was coined by Sir John Lubbock in 1865 as a refinement of the three-age system.
The Neolithic began about 12,000 years ago, when farming appeared in the Epipalaeolithic Near East and Mesopotamia, and later in other parts of the world. It lasted in the Near East until the transitional period of 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, 3150 BCE.Karin Sowada and Peter Grave. Egypt in the Eastern Mediterranean during the Old Kingdom.Lukas de Blois and R. J. van der Spek. An Introduction to the Ancient World. p. 14. In China, it lasted until circa 2000 BCE with the rise of the Shang dynasty Erlitou culture,Chang, K.C.: "Studies of Shang Archaeology", pp. 6–7, 1. Yale University Press, 1982. as it did in Scandinavia. Encyclopedia Britannica, "Stone Age"
The founder crops of the Fertile Crescent were wheat, lentil, pea, chickpeas, bitter vetch, and flax. Among the other major crop domesticated were rice, and millet. Crops were usually domesticated in a single location and ancestral wild species are still found.[2]
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 domesticated pig.
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 West Asia. Early Japanese societies and other cultures used pottery before developing agriculture.
Anatolian Neolithic farmers derived a significant portion of their ancestry from the Anatolian hunter-gatherers (AHG), suggesting that agriculture was adopted in site by these hunter-gatherers and not spread by demic diffusion into the region.
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 selective breeding).
In 2006, remains of Ficus 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.
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.
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.
The Chalcolithic (Stone-Bronze) period began about 4500 BC, then the Bronze Age began about 3500 BC, replacing the Neolithic cultures.
In 1981, a team of researchers from the Maison de l'Orient et 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.Haïdar Boustani, M. "The Neolithic of Lebanon in the context of the Near East: State of knowledge" (in French), Annales d'Histoire et d'Archaeologie, Universite Saint-Joseph, Beyrouth, Vol. 12–13, 2001–2002. Retrieved on 2011-12-03. In 2002, Danielle Stordeur and Frédéric Abbès advanced this system with a division into five periods.
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. 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.
Anthropomorphic figurines have been found in the Balkans from 6000 BC, Female figurine, c. 6000 BC, Nea Nikomidia, Macedonia, Veroia, (Archaeological Museum), Greece. Macedonian-heritage.gr. Retrieved on 2011-12-03. 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), Linearbandkeramik, and Vinča. Through a combination of cultural diffusion and human migration, 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.
The Cucuteni-Trypillian culture built enormous settlements in Romania, Moldova and Ukraine from 5300 to 2300 BC. The temple complexes of Ġgantija on the Mediterranean island of Gozo Island (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 cremation its dead and introduced smaller megalithic structures called dolmens to Malta.Daniel Cilia, "Malta Before Common Era", in The Megalithic Temples of Malta. Retrieved 28 January 2007. 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.Piccolo, Salvatore (2013) Ancient Stones: The Prehistoric Dolmens of Sicily, Abingdon-on-Thames, England: Brazen Head Publishing, pp. 33–34
With some exceptions, population levels rose rapidly at the beginning of the Neolithic until they reached the carrying capacity. This was followed by a population crash of "enormous magnitude" after 5000 BC, with levels remaining low during the next 1,500 years. Populations began to rise after 3500 BC, with further dips and rises occurring between 3000 and 2500 BC but varying in date between regions. Around this time is the Neolithic decline, when populations collapsed across most of Europe, possibly caused by climatic conditions, plague, or mass migration.
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. In East Asia, the earliest sites include the Nanzhuangtou culture around 9500–9000 BC, 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 culture 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 , and the collection of Neolithic findings at the site encompasses two phases. 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.
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 adzes and axes are used in the present day () 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.The Archaeology News Network. 2012. "Neolithic farm field found in South Korea" . "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. The Korea Times (2012). "East Asia's oldest remains of agricultural field found in Korea".
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. In later periods cities of considerable size developed, and some metallurgy by 700 BC.A. Eichler, G. Gramlich, T. Kellerhals, L. Tobler, Th. Rehren & M. Schwikowski (2017). "Ice-core evidence of earliest extensive copper metallurgy in the Andes 2700 years ago"
Families and households were still largely independent economically, and the household was probably the center of life. 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, , and henges) 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. Idyllic Theory of Goddess Creates Storm . Holysmoke.org. Retrieved on 2011-12-03.Krause (1998) under External links, places. 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. This supplanted an earlier view of the Linear Pottery Culture as living a "peaceful, unfortified lifestyle".Gimbutas (1991) page 143. Violence increased toward the end of this culture which existed at 5500–4500 BCE. In 2024, a study suggested a peaceful explanation to the reduction in the size of male population observed worldwide 5000–3000 years ago.
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-Tribal 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 the of the European Bronze Age. Possible exceptions to this include Iraq during the Ubaid period and England beginning in the Early Neolithic (4100–3000 BC).Gil Stein, "Economy, Ritual and Power in 'Ubaid Mesopotamia" in Chiefdoms and Early States in the Near East: The Organizational Dynamics of Complexity.Timothy Earle, "Property Rights and the Evolution of Chiefdoms" in Chiefdoms: Power, Economy, and Ideology. 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. 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 to the rise of patrilineal segmentary groups with varying reproductive success due to polygyny.
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 neologism in the 1920s by the 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.
However, 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 that otherwise may not have been routinely experienced by prior hunter-gatherer communities. 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 extent domesticated animals and animal products. Supplementation of diet by hunting and gathering was to variable degrees precluded by the increase in population above the carrying capacity of the land and a 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 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.
Neolithic people were skilled farmers, manufacturing a range of tools necessary for the tending, harvesting and processing of crops (such as sickle blades and ) 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 , , and . 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 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 and painted with elaborate scenes of humans and animals. In Europe, long houses built from wattle and daub were constructed. Elaborate 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 and for their dead and , 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 and in the Great Lakes region.
| Tell Qaramel | Syria | 10,700 (2025). 9788390379630, Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology, University of Warsaw. . ISBN 9788390379630 | 9400 | |
| Franchthi Cave | Greece | 10,000 | reoccupied between 7500 and 6000 BC | |
| Göbekli Tepe | Turkey | 9600 | 8000 | |
| Nanzhuangtou | Hebei, China | 9500 | 9000 | |
| Byblos | Lebanon | 8800 | 7000 | |
| Jericho (Tell es-Sultan) | West Bank | 9500 | arising from the earlier Epipaleolithic Natufian culture | |
| Pulli settlement | Estonia | 8500 | 5000 | oldest known settlement of Kunda culture |
| Aşıklı Höyük | Central Anatolia, Turkey, an Aceramic Neolithic period settlement | 8200 | 7400 | correlating with the E/MPPNB in the Levant |
| Nevali Cori | Turkey | 8000 | ||
| Bhirrana | India | 7600 | 7200 | Hakra ware |
| Pengtoushan culture | China | 7500 | 6100 | rice residues were carbon-14 dated to 8200–7800 BC |
| Çatalhöyük | Turkey | 7500 | 5700 | |
| Mentesh Tepe and Kamiltepe | Azerbaijan | 7000 | 3000 | |
| 'Ain Ghazal | Jordan | 7250 | 5000 | |
| Chogha Bonut | Iran | 7200 | ||
| Jhusi | India | 7100 | ||
| Motza | Israel | 7000 | ||
| Ganj Dareh | Iran | 7000 | ||
| Lahuradewa | India | 7000 | presence of rice cultivation, ceramics etc. | |
| Jiahu | China | 7000 | 5800 | |
| Knossos | Crete | 7000 | ||
| Khirokitia | Cyprus | 7000 | 4000 | |
| Mehrgarh | Pakistan | 7000 | 5500 | aceramic but elaborate culture including mud brick, houses, agriculture etc. |
| Sesklo | Greece | 6850 | with a 660-year margin of error | |
| Horton Plains | Sri Lanka | 6700 | cultivation of oats and barley as early as 11,000 BC | |
| Porodin | North Macedonia | 6500 Developed Neolithic period, 5500 BC . Eliznik.org.uk. Retrieved on 2011-12-03. | ||
| Padah-Lin Caves | Myanmar | 6000 | ||
| Petnica | Serbia | 6000 | ||
| Stara Zagora | Bulgaria | 5500 | ||
| Cucuteni-Trypillian culture | Ukraine, Moldova and Romania | 5500 | 2750 | |
| Tell Zeidan | northern Syria | 5500 | 4000 | |
| Tabon Cave Complex | Quezon, Palawan, Philippines | 5000 | 2000 | |
| Hemudu culture, large-scale rice plantation | China | 5000 | 4500 | |
| The Megalithic Temples of Malta | Malta | 3600 | ||
| Knap of Howar and Skara Brae | Orkney, Scotland | 3500 | 3100 | |
| Brú na Bóinne | Ireland | 3500 | ||
| Lough Gur | Ireland | 3000 | ||
| Shengavit Settlement | Armenia | 3000 | 2200 | |
| Norte Chico civilization, 30 aceramic Neolithic period settlements | northern coastal Peru | 3000 | 1700 | |
| Tichit Neolithic village on the Tagant Plateau | central southern Mauritania | 2000 | 500 | |
| Oaxaca, state | Southwestern Mexico | 2000 | by 2000 BC Neolithic sedentary villages had been established in the Central Valleys region of this state. | |
| Lajia | China | 2000 | ||
| Mumun pottery period | Korean Peninsula | 1800 | 1500 | |
| Neolithic revolution | Japan | 500 | 300 |
Early Neolithic
Periodization: The Levant: 9500–8000 BC; Europe: 7000–4000 BC; Elsewhere: varies greatly, depending on region.
Middle Neolithic
Periodization: The Levant: 8000–6500 BC; Neolithic Europe: 5500–3500 BC; Elsewhere: varies greatly, depending on region.
Later Neolithic
Periodization: 6500–4500 BC; Neolithic Europe: 5000–3000 BC; Elsewhere: varies greatly, depending on region.
Periodization: Copper Age: 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.
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