Editing Neolithic Europe (section)

==Basic cultural characteristics==
[[Image:Néolithique 0001.jpg|thumb|left|240px|An array of [[Neolithic]] artifacts, including bracelets, axe heads, chisels, and polishing tools]]
Regardless of specific chronology, many European Neolithic groups share basic characteristics, such as living in small-scale, family-based communities, subsisting on [[domesticated]] plants and animals supplemented with the collection of wild plant foods and with hunting, and producing hand-made pottery, that is, pottery made without the [[potter's wheel]]. Polished [[stone axe]]s lie at the heart of the neolithic (new stone) culture, enabling forest clearance for agriculture and production of wood for dwellings, as well as fuel.{{citation needed|date=November 2016}}

[[File:Ancient Greece Neolithic Pottery - 28421665976.jpg|thumb|240px|Ancient [[Neolithic Greece|Greek Early and Middle Neolithic]] pottery 6500–5300 BC. National Museum of Archaeology, Athens]]
There are also many differences, with some Neolithic communities in southeastern Europe living in heavily fortified settlements of 3,000–4,000 people (e.g., [[Sesklo]] in Greece) whereas Neolithic groups in [[Great Britain|Britain]] were small (possibly 50–100 people) and highly mobile cattle-herders.{{original research inline|date=November 2016}}

The details of the origin, chronology, social organization, subsistence practices and ideology of the peoples of Neolithic Europe are obtained from [[archaeology]], and not historical records, since these people left none. Since the 1970s, [[population genetics]] has provided independent data on the population history of Neolithic Europe, including migration events and genetic relationships with peoples in [[South Asia]].{{original research inline|date=November 2016}}

A further independent tool, [[linguistics]], has contributed hypothetical reconstructions of early European languages and family trees with estimates of dating of splits, in particular theories on the relationship between speakers of [[Indo-European languages]] and Neolithic peoples. Some archaeologists believe that the expansion of Neolithic peoples from southwest Asia into Europe, marking the eclipse of Mesolithic culture, coincided with the introduction of Indo-European speakers,{{sfn|Renfrew|1987|}}{{page needed|date=October 2013}}{{sfn|Bellwood|2004|}}{{page needed|date=October 2013}} whereas other archaeologists and many linguists believe the [[Indo-European languages]] were introduced from the [[Pontic–Caspian steppe]] during the succeeding [[Bronze Age]].{{sfn|Anthony|2007|}}{{page needed|date=October 2013}}