Editing Neolithic (section)

===Southwest Asia===
{{main|Neolithic in the Near East}}
{{Prehistoric Southwest Asia timeline}}
[[File:Néolithique 0001.jpg|thumb|upright=.9|An array of Neolithic artifacts, including bracelets, axe heads, chisels, and polishing tools]]

In the [[Middle East]], cultures identified as Neolithic began appearing in the 10th [[millennium]] BC.{{sfn|Bellwood|2004|p=384}} Early development occurred in the [[Levant]] (e.g. [[Pre-Pottery Neolithic A]] and [[Pre-Pottery Neolithic B]]) and from there spread eastwards and westwards. Neolithic cultures are also attested in southeastern [[Anatolia]] and northern Mesopotamia by around 8000&nbsp;BC.{{citation needed|date=August 2015}}

[[Prehistory of Anatolia|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.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Krause|first1=Johannes|last2=Jeong|first2=Choongwon|last3=Haak|first3=Wolfgang|last4=Posth|first4=Cosimo|last5=Stockhammer|first5=Philipp W.|last6=Mustafaoğlu|first6=Gökhan|last7=Fairbairn|first7=Andrew|last8=Bianco|first8=Raffaela A.|last9=Julia Gresky|date=2019-03-19|title=Late Pleistocene human genome suggests a local origin for the first farmers of central Anatolia|journal=Nature Communications|language=en|volume=10|issue=1|pages=1218|doi=10.1038/s41467-019-09209-7|pmid=30890703|pmc=6425003|bibcode=2019NatCo..10.1218F |issn=2041-1723|doi-access=free}}</ref>

==== Pre-Pottery Neolithic A ====
{{main|Pre-Pottery Neolithic A}}
[[File:Urfa man.jpg|thumb|upright|The [[Urfa Man]] {{Circa|9000 BC}}.<ref name="RJC">{{cite book |last1=Chacon |first1=Richard J. |last2=Mendoza |first2=Rubén G. |title=Feast, Famine or Fighting?: Multiple Pathways to Social Complexity |date=2017 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-3319484020 |pages=120 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zhT1DQAAQBAJ&pg=PA120 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Schmidt |first1=Klaus |title=Premier temple. Göbekli tepe (Le): Göbelki Tepe |date=2015 |publisher=CNRS Editions |isbn=978-2271081872 |page=291 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M3yUDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT291 |language=fr}}</ref><ref name="AC">{{cite book |last1=Collins |first1=Andrew |title=Gobekli Tepe: Genesis of the Gods: The Temple of the Watchers and the Discovery of Eden |date=2014 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-1591438359 |page=66 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q1koDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT66 |language=en}}</ref> [[Şanlıurfa Archaeology and Mosaic Museum]].]]
The Neolithic 1 (PPNA) period began around 10,000&nbsp;BC in the [[Levant]].{{sfn|Bellwood|2004|p=384}} A temple area in southeastern Turkey at [[Göbekli Tepe]], dated to around 9500&nbsp;BC, may be regarded as the beginning of the period. This site was developed by nomadic hunter-gatherer tribes, as evidenced by the lack of permanent housing in the vicinity, and may be the oldest known human-made place of worship.<ref>{{cite journal |title=The World's First Temple |url=https://archive.archaeology.org/0811/abstracts/turkey.html |journal=[[Archaeology (magazine)|Archaeology]] |date=November 2008 |page=23 |last=Scham |first=Sandra |volume=61 |issue=6 |publisher=[[Archaeological Institute of America]]}}</ref> At least seven stone circles, covering {{convert|25|acre}}, contain limestone pillars carved with animals, insects, and birds. Stone tools were used by perhaps as many as hundreds of people to create the pillars, which might have supported roofs. Other early PPNA sites dating to around 9500–9000&nbsp;BC have been found in [[Palestine]], notably in [[Tell es-Sultan]] (ancient [[Jericho]]) and [[Gilgal I|Gilgal]] in the [[Jordan Valley (Middle East)|Jordan Valley]]; [[Israel]] (notably [[Ain Mallaha]], [[Nahal Oren, archeological site|Nahal Oren]], and [[Kfar HaHoresh]]); and in [[Byblos]], [[Lebanon]]. The start of Neolithic 1 overlaps the [[Tahunian]] and [[Heavy Neolithic]] periods to some degree.{{citation needed|date=August 2015}}

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]]).{{citation needed|date=August 2015}}

In 2006, remains of [[Ficus|figs]] were discovered in a house in Jericho dated to 9400&nbsp;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.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Early Domesticated Fig in the Jordan Valley |journal=[[Science (journal)|Science]] |publisher=[[American Association for the Advancement of Science]] |date=June 2, 2006 |doi=10.1126/science.1125910 |pmid=16741119 |volume=312 |issue=5778 |pages=1372–1374 |last1=Kislev |first1=Mordechai E. |last2=Hartmann |first2=Anat |last3=Bar-Yosef |first3=Ofer |author3-link=Ofer Bar-Yosef|bibcode=2006Sci...312.1372K |s2cid=42150441 }}</ref>

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.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://virtualcopedia.wordpress.com/2015/08/07/neolithic-age/|title=Neolithic Age|date=7 August 2015}}</ref>

==== Pre-Pottery Neolithic B ====
{{main|Pre-Pottery Neolithic B}}
[[File:Neolitico B, fugurine maschile e femminile, da tell fakhariyah, alabastro, bitume e pietra, 9000-7000 ac ca.jpg|left|thumb|Female and male figurines; 9000–7000 BC; [[gypsum]] with [[bitumen]] and stone inlays; from [[Tell Fekheriye]] ([[Al-Hasakah Governorate]] of [[Syria]]); [[University of Chicago Oriental Institute]] (USA)]]
The Neolithic 2 (PPNB) began around 8800&nbsp;BC according to the [[ASPRO chronology]] in the Levant ([[Tell es-Sultan|Jericho]], West Bank).{{sfn|Bellwood|2004|p=384}} As with the PPNA dates, there are two versions from the same laboratories noted above. This system of terminology, however, is not convenient for southeast [[Anatolia]] and settlements of the middle Anatolia basin.{{citation needed|date=November 2016}} A settlement of 3,000 inhabitants called [[Ayn Ghazal (archaeological site)|'Ain Ghazal]] was found in the outskirts of [[Amman]], [[Jordan]]. Considered to be one of the largest prehistoric settlements in the [[Near East]], it was continuously inhabited from approximately 7250&nbsp;BC to approximately 5000&nbsp;BC.<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://www.brown.edu/Departments/Joukowsky_Institute/courses/architecturebodyperformance/326.html |title=Ain-Ghazal (Jordan) Pre-pottery Neolithic B Period pit of lime plaster human figures |last=Feldman |first=Keffie |journal=[[Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World]] |publisher=[[Brown University]] |access-date=March 9, 2018}}</ref>

Settlements have rectangular mud-brick houses where the family lived together in single or multiple rooms. Burial findings suggest an [[ancestor cult]] where people [[Plastered human skulls|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.{{citation needed|date=August 2015}}

====Pre-Pottery Neolithic C====
{{main|Pre-Pottery Neolithic C}}
Work at the site of [[Ayn Ghazal (archaeological site)|'Ain Ghazal]] in [[Jordan]] has indicated a later [[Pre-Pottery Neolithic C]] period. [[Juris Zarins]] has proposed that a Circum Arabian Nomadic Pastoral Complex developed in the period from the climatic crisis of 6200 BC, partly as a result of an increasing emphasis in PPNB cultures upon domesticated animals, and a fusion with [[Harifian]] hunter gatherers in the Southern Levant, with affiliate connections with the cultures of [[Fayyum]] and the [[Eastern Desert]] of [[Egypt]]. Cultures practicing this lifestyle spread down the [[Red Sea]] shoreline and moved east from [[Syria]] into southern [[Iraq]].<ref>Zarins, Juris (1992) "Pastoral Nomadism in Arabia: Ethnoarchaeology and the Archaeological Record", in [[Ofer Bar-Yosef]] and A. Khazanov, eds. "Pastoralism in the Levant"</ref>

==== Late Neolithic ====
{{main|Late Neolithic}}
The Late Neolithic began around 6,400 BC in the [[Fertile Crescent]].{{sfn|Bellwood|2004|p=384}} By then distinctive cultures emerged, with pottery like the [[Halafian]] (Turkey, Syria, Northern Mesopotamia) and [[Ubaid period|Ubaid]] (Southern Mesopotamia). This period has been further divided into '''PNA''' (Pottery Neolithic A) and '''PNB''' (Pottery Neolithic B) at some sites.<ref>{{Cite book|chapter=The Southern Levant (Cisjordan) During the Neolithic Period|last1=Killebrew|first1=Ann E.|last2=Steiner|first2=Margreet|last3=Goring-Morris|first3=A. Nigel|last4=Belfer-Cohen|first4=Anna|year=2013|language=en|doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199212972.013.011|title=The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of the Levant|isbn=978-0199212972}}</ref>

The Chalcolithic (Stone-Bronze) period began about 4500&nbsp;BC, then the [[Bronze Age]] began about 3500&nbsp;BC, replacing the Neolithic cultures.{{citation needed|date=June 2019}}

==== Fertile Crescent ====
[[File:20100923 amman37.JPG|thumb|right|[['Ain Ghazal Statues]], found at [[Ayn Ghazal (archaeological site)|'Ain Ghazal]] in [[Jordan]], are considered to be one of the earliest large-scale representations of the human form dating back to around 7250&nbsp;BC.]]
[[File:Neolithic wall painting in Tell Bouqras, Deir ez-Zor Museum.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Neolithic wall painting from [[Tell Bouqras]] at the [[Deir ez-Zor Museum]], Syria]]
Around 10,000 BC the first fully developed Neolithic cultures belonging to the phase [[Pre-Pottery Neolithic A]] (PPNA) appeared in the Fertile Crescent.{{sfn|Bellwood|2004|p=384}} Around 10,700–9400&nbsp;BC a settlement was established in [[Tell Qaramel]], {{convert|10|mi}} north of [[Aleppo]]. The settlement included two temples dating to 9650&nbsp;BC.<ref name="eduskrypt">[http://www.eduskrypt.pl/yet_another_sensational_discovery_by_polish_archaeologists_in_syria-info-6775.html Yet another sensational discovery by polish archaeologists in Syria] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111001171824/http://www.eduskrypt.pl/yet_another_sensational_discovery_by_polish_archaeologists_in_syria-info-6775.html |date=2011-10-01 }}. eduskrypt.pl. 21 June 2006</ref> Around 9000&nbsp;BC during the PPNA, one of the world's first towns, [[Tell es-Sultan|Jericho]], appeared in the Levant. It was surrounded by a stone wall, may have contained a population of up to 2,000–3,000 people, and contained a massive stone tower.<ref>[https://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9043547/Jericho "Jericho"], Encyclopædia Britannica</ref> Around 6400&nbsp;BC the [[Halaf culture]] appeared in Syria and Northern Mesopotamia.

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.<ref name="boustani">Haïdar Boustani, M. [http://www.usj.edu.lb/mpl/pdf/1.pdf "The Neolithic of Lebanon in the context of the Near East: State of knowledge"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181116043349/https://www.usj.edu.lb/mpl/pdf/1.pdf |date=2018-11-16 }} (in French), ''Annales d'Histoire et d'Archaeologie'', Universite Saint-Joseph, Beyrouth, Vol. 12–13, 2001–2002. Retrieved on 2011-12-03.</ref> In 2002, [[Danielle Stordeur]] and [[Frédéric Abbès]] advanced this system with a division into five periods.
# [[Natufian]] between 12,000 and 10,200&nbsp;BC,
# [[Khiamian]] between 10,200 and 8800&nbsp;BC, [[PPNA]]: [[Sultanian]] (Jericho), [[Mureybet]]ian,
# Early PPNB (''PPNB ancien'') between 8800 and 7600&nbsp;BC, middle PPNB (''PPNB moyen'') between 7600 and 6900&nbsp;BC,
# Late PPNB (''PPNB récent'') between 7500 and 7000&nbsp;BC,
# A PPNB (sometimes called PPNC) transitional stage (''PPNB final'') in which Halaf and [[dark faced burnished ware]] begin to emerge between 6900 and 6400&nbsp;BC.<ref>Stordeur, Danielle., Abbès Frédéric., [http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/bspf_0249-7638_2002_num_99_3_12712 ''"Du PPNA au PPNB: mise en lumière d'une phase de transition à Jerf el Ahmar (Syrie)"''], ''Bulletin de la Société préhistorique française'', Volume 99, Issue 3, pp. 563–595, 2002</ref>
They also advanced the idea of a transitional stage between the PPNA and PPNB between 8800 and 8600&nbsp;BC at sites like [[Jerf el Ahmar]] and [[Tell Aswad]].<ref name="exoriente">[http://www.exoriente.org/associated_projects/ppnd_summary.php PPND – the Platform for Neolithic Radiocarbon Dates – Summary]. exoriente. Retrieved on 2011-12-03.</ref>

==== Southern Mesopotamia ====
Alluvial plains ([[Sumer]]/[[Elam]]). Low rainfall makes [[irrigation]] systems necessary. [[Ubaid period|Ubaid]] culture originated from 6200 BC.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Ubaid Period (5500–4000 B.C.) {{!}} Essay {{!}} The Metropolitan Museum of Art {{!}} Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/ubai/hd_ubai.htm |website=The Met’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History |date=October 2003 |access-date=21 November 2024 |language=en}}</ref>