Editing Neolithic (section)

==Cultural characteristics==
=== Social organization ===

[[File:Smac Neolithikum 122.jpg|thumb|300px|Model of a [[Linear Pottery culture]] settlement, showing [[Neolithic long house|longhouses]], [[Neolithic circular enclosures in Central Europe|circular enclosures]], and fields]]
[[File:MotherGoddessFertility.JPG|thumb|150px|Anthropomorphic Neolithic ceramic figurine]]

During most of the Neolithic age of [[Eurasia]], people lived in small [[tribe]]s composed of multiple bands or lineages.<ref name="Leonard D. Katz Rigby 2000 352">{{cite book |author = Leonard D. Katz Rigby |author2 = S. Stephen Henry Rigby |title = Evolutionary Origins of Morality: Cross-disciplinary Perspectives |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=6wFHth05xkoC&pg=PA158 |year = 2000 |publisher = Imprint Academic |location = United Kingdom |isbn = 0-7190-5612-8|page = 158 }}</ref> There is little [[scientific evidence]] of developed [[social stratification]] in most Neolithic societies; social stratification is more associated with the later [[Bronze Age]].<ref>{{cite book| last1 = Langer| first1 = Jonas| last2 = Killen| first2 = Melanie| title = Piaget, evolution, and development| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=aF5MHvaju9cC&pg=PA258| access-date = 3 December 2011| year = 1998| publisher = Psychology Press| isbn = 978-0-8058-2210-6| pages = 258– }}</ref> Although some late Eurasian Neolithic societies formed complex stratified chiefdoms or even [[State (polity)|states]], generally states evolved in Eurasia only with the rise of metallurgy, and most Neolithic societies on the whole were relatively simple and egalitarian.<ref name="Leonard D. Katz Rigby 2000 352" /> Beyond Eurasia, however, states were formed during the local Neolithic in three areas, namely in the [[Cultural periods of Peru|Preceramic Andes]] with the [[Caral–Supe civilization|Caral-Supe Civilization]],<ref>{{cite web |title=The Oldest Civilization in the Americas Revealed |url=http://charlesmann.org/articles/Norte-chico-Science-01-05.pdf |website=CharlesMann |publisher=Science |access-date=9 October 2015 |archive-date=10 October 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151010195731/http://www.charlesmann.org/articles/Norte-chico-Science-01-05.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=First Andes Civilization Explored |url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4115421.stm |access-date=9 October 2015 |agency = BBC News |date=22 December 2004}}</ref> [[Mesoamerican chronology|Formative Mesoamerica]] and [[Ancient Hawaii|Ancient Hawaiʻi]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hommon |first1=Robert J. |title=The ancient Hawaiian state: origins of a political society |date=2013 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York |isbn = 978-0-19-991612-2 |edition=First}}</ref> However, most Neolithic societies were noticeably more hierarchical than the [[Upper Paleolithic]] cultures that preceded them and hunter-gatherer cultures in general.<ref>[http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761555928_5/Stone_Age.html#howtocite "Stone Age", Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2007] © 1997–2007 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Contributed by Kathy Schick, B.A., M.A., Ph.D. and Nicholas Toth, B.A., M.A., Ph.D. [https://web.archive.org/web/20091101033221/http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761555928_5/Stone_Age.html Archived] 2009-11-01.</ref><ref name="b1">{{cite book| author = Russell Dale Guthrie| title = The nature of Paleolithic art| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=3u6JNwMyMCEC&pg=PA420| access-date = 3 December 2011| year = 2005| publisher = University of Chicago Press| isbn = 978-0-226-31126-5| pages = 420– }}</ref>
[[File:Clay human figurine (Fertility goddess) Tappeh Sarab, Kermanshah ca. 7000-6100 BCE Neolithic period, National Museum of Iran.jpg|thumb|150px|Clay human figurine (Fertility goddess) Tappeh Sarab, Kermanshah c. 7000–6100 BC, National Museum of Iran]]
The [[Domestication of animals|domestication]] of [[Megafauna|large animals]] (c. 8000&nbsp;BC) resulted in a dramatic increase in social inequality in most of the areas where it occurred; [[Agriculture in Papua New Guinea|New Guinea]] being a notable exception.<ref>{{cite web |title=Farming Pioneered in Ancient New Guinea |url = https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg17824012.300-farming-pioneered-in-ancient-new-guinea/ |website=New Scientist |access-date=9 October 2015}}</ref> Possession of livestock allowed competition between households and resulted in inherited inequalities of wealth. Neolithic pastoralists who controlled large herds gradually acquired more livestock, and this made economic inequalities more pronounced.<ref name="Bahn, Paul 1996">Bahn, Paul (1996) "The atlas of world archeology" Copyright 2000 The brown Reference Group plc</ref> However, evidence of social inequality is still disputed, as settlements such as [[Çatalhöyük]] reveal a lack of difference in the size of homes and burial sites, suggesting a more egalitarian society with no evidence of the concept of capital, although some homes do appear slightly larger or more elaborately decorated than others.{{citation needed|date=September 2023}}

Families and households were still largely independent economically, and the household was probably the center of life.<ref>{{cite web|url = http://www.mama.org/exhibits/ancient/prehistoric/|title = Prehistoric Cultures|publisher = Museum of Ancient and Modern Art|year = 2010|access-date = 5 September 2013|archive-date = 3 August 2018|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180803074340/https://www.mama.org/exhibits/ancient/prehistoric/|url-status = dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url = http://archaeology.about.com/cs/religionandmagic/a/catalhoyuk.htm|title = Çatalhöyük: Urban Life in Neolithic Anatolia|publisher = About.com|website = About.com Archaeology|last = Hirst|first = K. Kris|access-date = 5 September 2013|archive-date = 21 October 2013|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20131021212318/http://archaeology.about.com/cs/religionandmagic/a/catalhoyuk.htm|url-status = dead}}</ref> However, excavations in [[Central Europe]] have revealed that early Neolithic [[Linear Ceramic culture]]s ("''Linearbandkeramik''") were building large arrangements of [[circular ditches]] between 4800 and 4600&nbsp;BC. These structures (and their later counterparts such as [[causewayed enclosure]]s, [[burial mound]]s, and [[henges|henge]]) 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.<ref>[http://www.holysmoke.org/fem/fem0156.htm Idyllic Theory of Goddess Creates Storm] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080219152657/http://www.holysmoke.org/fem/fem0156.htm |date=2008-02-19 }}. Holysmoke.org. Retrieved on 2011-12-03.</ref><ref>Krause (1998) under External links, places.</ref> 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.<ref name="b1" /> This supplanted an earlier view of the [[Linear Pottery culture|Linear Pottery Culture]] as living a "peaceful, unfortified lifestyle".<ref>Gimbutas (1991) page 143.</ref> Violence increased toward the end of this culture which existed at 5500–4500 BCE.<ref>{{cite web |title=Linear Pottery culture |url=https://archaeologymag.com/encyclopedia/linear-pottery-culture/ |website=Archaeology News |access-date=6 February 2025}}</ref> In 2024, a study suggested a peaceful explanation to the reduction in the size of male population observed worldwide 5000–3000 years ago.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Guyon |first1=Léa |last2=Guez |first2=Jérémy |last3=Toupance |first3=Bruno |last4=Heyer |first4=Evelyne |last5=Chaix |first5=Raphaëlle |title=Patrilineal segmentary systems provide a peaceful explanation for the post-Neolithic Y-chromosome bottleneck |journal=Nature Communications |date=24 April 2024 |volume=15 |issue=1 |page=3243 |doi=10.1038/s41467-024-47618-5 |pmid=38658560 |pmc=11043392 |bibcode=2024NatCo..15.3243G }}</ref>

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 (anthropology)|big man]]' or a proto-[[Tribal chief|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 [[chiefdom]]s of the European [[Bronze Age|Early Bronze Age]].<ref>{{cite book |last = Kuijt |first = Ian |title = Life in Neolithic farming communities: social organization, identity, and differentiation |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=COrVxJI3iNUC&pg=PA317 |access-date = 3 December 2011| year= 2000 |publisher = Springer |isbn = 978-0-306-46122-4 |pages = 317– }}</ref> Possible exceptions to this include Iraq during the [[Ubaid period]] and England beginning in the Early Neolithic (4100–3000 BC).<ref>Gil Stein, "Economy, Ritual and Power in 'Ubaid Mesopotamia" in ''Chiefdoms and Early States in the Near East: The Organizational Dynamics of Complexity''.</ref><ref>Timothy Earle, "Property Rights and the Evolution of Chiefdoms" in ''Chiefdoms: Power, Economy, and Ideology''.</ref> Theories to explain the apparent implied egalitarianism of Neolithic (and Paleolithic) societies have arisen, notably the [[Marxist]] concept of [[primitive communism]].{{Citation needed|date=October 2024}}

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.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Karmin |first=Monika |display-authors=etal |date=13 March 2015 |title=A recent bottleneck of Y chromosome diversity coincides with a global change in culture |journal=[[Genome Research]] |language=en |volume=25 |issue=4 |pages=459–66 |doi=10.1101/gr.186684.114 |pmid=25770088 |pmc=4381518}}</ref> 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 <ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Zeng |first1=Tian Chen |last2=Aw |first2=Alan J.|last3=Feldman |first3=Marcus |date=25 May 2018 |title=Cultural hitchhiking and competition between patrilineal kin groups explain the post-Neolithic Y-chromosome bottleneck |journal=[[Nature Communications]] |language=en |volume=9 |issue=1 |pages=2077 |doi=10.1038/s41467-018-04375-6 |pmid=29802241 |pmc=5970157|bibcode=2018NatCo...9.2077Z }}</ref> to the rise of patrilineal segmentary groups with varying reproductive success due to polygyny.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Guyon |first1=Léa |last2=Guez |first2=Jérémy |last3=Toupance |first3=Bruno |last4=Heyer |first4=Evelyne |last5=Chaix |first5=Raphaëlle |date=24 April 2024 |title=Patrilineal segmentary systems provide a peaceful explanation for the post-Neolithic Y-chromosome bottleneck |journal=[[Nature Communications]] |language=en |volume=15 |issue=1 |pages=3243 |doi=10.1038/s41467-024-47618-5 |pmid=38658560 |pmc=11043392 |bibcode=2024NatCo..15.3243G |issn=2041-1723 }}</ref>

===Shelter and sedentism===
[[File:Neolithic house.JPG|thumb|Reconstruction of Neolithic house in [[Tuzla]], [[Bosnia and Herzegovina]]]]{{See also|Neolithic architecture|History of construction}}
The shelter of early people changed dramatically from the [[Upper Paleolithic]] to the Neolithic era. In the Paleolithic, people did not normally live in permanent constructions. In the Neolithic, mud brick houses started appearing that were coated with plaster.<ref name="firstcity">[http://www2.bc.edu/~mcdonadh/course/huyuk.html Shane, Orrin C. III, and Mine Küçuk. "The World's First City."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080315174222/http://www2.bc.edu/~mcdonadh/course/huyuk.html |date=2008-03-15 }} Archaeology 51.2 (1998): 43–47.</ref> This increased use of clay for building, along with the development of pottery and other clay-based artifacts, has led some to refer to the Neolithic period as the '''Age of Clay'''.<ref name="f818">{{cite web | last=Gillespie | first=Susan D. | title=Clay: The Entanglement of Earth in the Age of Clay | publisher=LibraryPress@UF | date=November 10, 2019 | url=https://ufl.pb.unizin.org/imos/chapter/clay/ | access-date=May 4, 2025}}</ref> The growth of agriculture made permanent houses far more common. At [[Çatalhöyük]] 9,000 years ago, doorways were made on the roof, with ladders positioned both on the inside and outside of the houses.<ref name="firstcity" /> [[Stilt-houses|Stilt-house]] settlements were common in the [[Alps|Alpine]] and [[Pianura Padana]] ([[Terramare]]) region.<ref name="Ertl2008">{{cite book |author = Alan W. Ertl |title = Toward an Understanding of Europe: A Political Economic Précis of Continental Integration |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=X9PGRaZt-zcC&pg=PA308 |access-date = 28 March 2011| year=2008 |publisher = Universal-Publishers |isbn = 978-1-59942-983-0| page = 308 }}</ref> Remains have been found in the [[Ljubljana Marsh]] in [[Slovenia]] and at the [[Mondsee (lake)|Mondsee]] and [[Attersee (lake)|Attersee]] lakes in [[Upper Austria]], for example.

=== Agriculture ===
{{Main|Neolithic Revolution}}
[[File:CucuteniAgriculture.JPG|thumb|A [[Cucuteni-Trypillian culture]] [[antler|deer antler]] [[Ard (plough)|plough]]]]
[[File:HMB Essen und Kochgerät Jungsteinzeit.jpg|thumb|Food and cooking items retrieved at a European Neolithic site: [[millstone]]s, charred bread, grains and small apples, a clay cooking pot, and containers made of antlers and wood]]
A significant and far-reaching shift in human [[subsistence]] and lifestyle was to be brought about in areas where crop [[farm]]ing and cultivation were first developed: the previous reliance on an essentially [[nomad]]ic [[hunter-gatherer]] [[list of subsistence techniques|subsistence technique]] or [[Transhumance|pastoral transhumance]] was at first supplemented, and then increasingly replaced by, a reliance upon the foods produced from cultivated lands. These developments are also believed to have greatly encouraged the growth of settlements, since it may be supposed that the increased need to spend more time and labor in tending crop fields required more localized dwellings. This trend would continue into the Bronze Age, eventually giving rise to permanently settled farming [[town]]s, and later [[city|cities]] and [[State (polity)|states]] whose larger populations could be sustained by the increased productivity from cultivated lands.

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|coined]] 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|pests]]. 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.<ref name="Bahn, Paul 1996" /> 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 (nutrition)|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]].

=== Lithic technology ===
{{Main|Stone tool#Neolithic industries}}
{{Unreferenced section|date=April 2021}}
The identifying characteristic of Neolithic technology is the use of polished or ground stone tools, in contrast to the flaked stone tools used during the Paleolithic era.

Neolithic people were skilled farmers, manufacturing a range of tools necessary for the tending, harvesting and processing of crops (such as [[sickle]] blades and [[grinding stone]]s) 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 [[projectile point]]s, [[bead]]s, and [[statuette]]s. 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 [[canoe]]s 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 [[plaster]]ed and painted with elaborate scenes of humans and animals. In [[Europe]], [[Neolithic long house|long houses]] built from [[wattle and daub]] were constructed. Elaborate [[tomb]]s 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 [[long barrow]]s and [[chamber tomb]]s for their dead and [[causewayed camp]]s, 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 [[hatchet]]s and [[spear]]heads in the [[Great Lakes (North America)|Great Lakes]] region.

=== Clothing ===
Most clothing appears to have been made of animal skins, as indicated by finds of large numbers of bone and antler pins that are ideal for fastening leather. [[woolen|Wool]] cloth and [[linen]] might have become available during the later Neolithic,<ref>{{Cite journal |url = https://www.academia.edu/203730 |title = Smooth and Cool, or Warm and Soft: Investigating the Properties of Cloth in Prehistory |last = Harris |first = Susanna|year = 2009 |website = North European Symposium for Archaeological Textiles X|access-date = 5 September 2013 |publisher = Academia.edu}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.mitchellteachers.org/WorldHistory/MrMEarlyHumansProject/PDFs/PaleolithictoNeolithicDescriptions.pdf |title = Aspects of Life During the Neolithic Period |access-date = 5 September 2013 |publisher = Teachers' Curriculum Institute |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160505105137/http://www.mitchellteachers.org/WorldHistory/MrMEarlyHumansProject/PDFs/PaleolithictoNeolithicDescriptions.pdf |archive-date = 5 May 2016 }}</ref> as suggested by finds of perforated stones that (depending on size) may have served as [[Spindle (textiles)|spindle whorls]] or [[loom]] weights.<ref>{{cite journal|url = https://www.academia.edu/1587878|title = Pierced clay disks and Late Neolithic textile production|publisher = Academia.org|last = Gibbs|first = Kevin T.|access-date = 5 September 2013|year = 2006|website = Proceedings of the 5th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=Unraveling the Enigma of the Bi: The Spindle Whorl as the Model of the Ritual Disk |year=1993 |last=Green |first=Jean M |journal=Asian Perspectives |publisher=University of Hawai'i Press |issue=1 |volume=32 |pages=105–24 |hdl=10125/17022 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |title = The clay loom weight, in: Early Neolithic ritual activity, Bronze Age occupation and medieval activity at Pitlethie Road, Leuchars, Fife |year = 2007 |journal = Tayside and Fife Archaeological Journal |last = Cook |first = M |volume = 13 |pages = 1–23}}</ref>