The term “Stone Age” was coined in the late 19th century AD, based on a proposal by scholars to divide the Stone Age into different periods: the Old Stone Age, the Mesolithic, and the Neolithic. The term Neolithic refers to the last stage of the Stone Age, a period Important for the emergence of rock-cut architecture, the spread of agricultural practices, and the use of polished stone tools.
Information about the Neolithic Age:
The Neolithic period went through a period of technological development of man, starting around 10,200 BC according to the Asbro timeline, and in some parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of the world and ending between 4,500 and 2000 BC. It is traditionally considered the last part of the Neolithic, followed by the Holocene Epipaleolithic period that began with the beginning of agriculture, which produced the "Neolithic revolution", and ended when metal tools became widespread "in the Copper or Bronze Age, or, in some geographical areas, in the Ironworks
The Neolithic is an evolution in characteristics and behavioral and cultural changes, including the use of wild and domestic crops and domestic animals. It is considered the beginning of the Neolithic culture in the Levant “Jericho and the West Bank” about 10200-8800 BC, and it directly developed the Natufian Epipaleolithic culture in the region, which was a pioneer in the use of wild grains, which then developed into a real breeding of people. The Natufian period was between 12,000 and 10,200 BC, and is now called "Proto-Neolithic" and in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic "PPNA" between 10,200 and 8800 BC.
As the Natufians became dependent on wild grains for their diet, and a sedentary way of life began among them, climatic changes associated with the Binger Dryas are believed to have forced the people to develop agriculture. During the years 10,200-8,800 BC, agricultural societies arose in the Levant and spread to Asia Minor, North Africa and northern Mesopotamia, and Mesopotamia is the site of the earliest development of the Neolithic revolution from about 10,000 BC. It is recognized as "the source of inspiration for some of the most important developments in human history including the invention of the wheel, the cultivation of the first grain crops and the development of cursive script, mathematics, astronomy and agriculture".
Agriculture was discovered in the Early Neolithic, which was restricted to a narrow range of plants, both wild and domesticated, which included einkorn wheat and millet, and the emergence of dogs, sheep and goats, by about 6,900-6,400 BC, and also included domesticated cattle and pigs, and the establishment of Settlements are permanently or seasonally inhabited, and use pottery.
Not all of these cultural elements are characteristic only of the Neolithic but appear everywhere in the same order: the earliest agricultural societies of the Near East did not use pottery, and in other parts of the world, such as Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia, independent events of Stone Age cultures led Modern, regionally distinct and entirely independent of those in Europe and Southwest Asia, early Japanese societies and other East Asian cultures used pottery before the development of agriculture.
In contrast to the Paleolithic era, when more than one human race existed, only one "Homo sapiens" arrived in the Neolithic era. Where Homo floresiensis survived down to the new dawn of the Neolithic, about 12,200 years ago, the Neolithic term derives from the Greek νεολιθικός, neolithikos, and from νέος 'new' NEO + λίθος LITHOS, 'stone', and this Literally meaning "neolithic", the term was invented by Sir John Lubbock in 1865 to refine and improve the three-year age system
Chronology :
The term Neolithic is used extensively in its connection with agriculture, which is when the cultivation of grain and the domestication of animals came, because agriculture was developed at different times and in different regions of the world and there is no single date for the beginning of the Neolithic era in the Near East, and agriculture has been developed all over the world 9000 BC, and in southeastern Europe by about 7000 BC, and later in other regions, even within specific regions, where agriculture developed during different times, for example, it was first known in southeastern Europe around 7000 BC, and in the middle of Europe around 5500 BC, Northern Europe and East Asia around 4000 BC.
Then pottery appeared in some areas, and it is another element dating back to the Neolithic era, and the emergence of pottery is a symbol of the Neolithic era, but this concept makes the term Neolithic age more ambiguous, because the use of pottery does not always occur after agriculture: because in Japan, it appeared Pottery before agriculture, while near agriculture in the East dates back to before the production of pottery.
All these factors make the starting point of the Neolithic period somewhat ambiguous, and it should be remembered that the origin of the term lies in the late 19th century and the CE classification system “detailed above” and we must take into account its limitations.
revolution
The profound influence that agriculture had on humans is reflected, but the Australian archaeologist Gordon Child popularized the term "revolutionary Neolithic" in the 1940's, however, today it is believed that the impact of agricultural innovation was exaggerated in the past: the development of culture appeared in the Stone Age. The talk took place gradually rather than abruptly, and moreover, before the establishment of agriculture, archaeological evidence showed that there was usually a period of semi-nomadic life, in which pre-agrarian societies may have been a network of camps living in different locations according to how resources responded to changes Seasonal and, at times, these camps can be counted as the base, and the group may spend most of the time there during the year to exploit the local resources, including wild plants: this is a step closer to farming, and foraging is not in ways completely incompatible with life, meaning Another group could perform hunting and gathering activities for part of the year and some farming during the remainder, perhaps on a small scale, rather than revolution. The archaeological record indicates that the dependence on agriculture is the result of small changes and Dregia.
Agriculture has been independently developed in many areas, from the beginning, and the dominant pattern in these separate areas is the spread of agricultural economies and the reduction of hunter-gatherer activities, to the point that fishing economies continue only in marginal areas where agriculture is not possible, such as the polar regions frozen, dense forest areas, or arid deserts.
Major changes were introduced in agriculture, affecting the way human society was organized, how land was used, including deforestation and root crops, and the cultivation of grains that could be stored for long periods of time, along with the development of new farming and grazing technologies such as plows. , irrigation systems, etc., the more intensive agriculture means more food available to more people in most villages, and the move towards a more complex social and political organization, with the increasing population density in the villages, it gradually develops into the cities.
Changes that occurred during the Neolithic period:
By adopting a sedentary way of life, the consciousness of regional groups increased in the Neolithic period, during the period from 9600-6900 BC in the Near East, and there were also innovations of arrowheads for hunting, and after the hunt important changes occurred in the animals that were revealed, and with However, human skeletons were found with blades embedded in them, as well as some settlements such as Jericho that were surrounded by a huge wall and a trench at this time.
It seems that this evidence in this period is a testimony to the conflicts between the sects, not far from organized war, and there were also additional innovations in the production of stone tools that became widespread, and many groups depended on them in distant places, which is evidence of the existence of important networks of exchange and cultural interaction.
Those living in permanent settlements brought new means of social organization, the subsistence strategies of Neolithic societies became more efficient, the population of various settlements increased, and we know from anthropological work that the largest group, those in society who were involved in the management and allocation of food resources are of importance growing social. Archaeological evidence has shown that during the early Neolithic period, homes did not have individual storage facilities: activities associated with preparing food for storage were run at the village level. At the site of El Jurf al-Ahmar, in northern Syria, there is a large subterranean structure that was used as a communal storage facility. This building is in a central location between families, and there is also evidence that several rituals were performed in it.
There is another site in northern Syria, which shows evidence of the transition from using fodder to agriculture: where it was a gradual process that took several centuries, and they are the first inhabitants at the site of hunting deer, wild donkeys and wild cattle, and we see evidence of change: deer consumption decreased and the amount of sheep consumption increased.” The wilderness at the beginning and its settlement in the end.” Sheep grazing became the main source of meat and deer hunting became a secondary activity.
Human remains show an increase in dental wear in all adults, reflecting the importance of ground grain in the diet. Interestingly, once the advent of pottery, tooth wear rates declined, suggesting that bread food made of earth and stone flour largely compensated for the use of Dishes like making porridge, which was boiled in pots.
End of the Neolithic Age:
Towards the end of the Neolithic era, the advent of copper and metallurgy, which marks a transition period to reach the Bronze Age, sometimes referred to as the Copper Age or the Eneolithic Age. Bronze, an alloy of copper and tin, which has greater hardness than copper, better steel properties, and a lower melting point, since bronze can be used to make weapons, which was not possible with copper, which is not hard enough to withstand combat conditions In time, bronze became a primary material for making tools and weapons, and a good part of stone technology became outdated, marking the end of the Neolithic and, therefore, of the Stone Age.
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