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NEOLITHIC PERIOD. NEOLITHIC CULTURE begins 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
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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
Making stone tools by pecking, grinding and polishing is a defining technology for the new stone age, or Neolithic period.
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
Agricultural Revolution • Pastoralism • Domesticated animals • Farming • Weaving • Fired Pottery • Village Life The Agricultural Revolution website
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
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)
Shepherds and Farmers:Cooperation 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.
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.
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,
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.
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
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.
Fired Pottery • Invention of kiln brought about the firing of clay pots • Fired pots were sturdier and allowed for increased storage of agricultural products
The Agricultural Revolution:Village 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
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.
Jericho’s 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.
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.
Çatalhöyükca. 8,000-7,000 bceÇatalhöyük 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.
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.
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
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 .
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.
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.
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. Çatalhöyük Burials
European Megalithic Cultureca. 5000-1500 bce Megalithic Pages
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.
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.
Malta Megaliths The Megalithic Temples of Malta
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
STONEHENGE2750-1500 bp Sacred Sites: Stonehenge
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.
