The Neolithic is characterized by fixed human settlements. Reconstruction of Pre-Pottery Neolithic B housing in Aşıklı Höyük, modern Turkey.
Period
Final period of Stone Age
Dates
10,000–4,500 BCE
Preceded by
Mesolithic, Epipalaeolithic
Followed by
Chalcolithic
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Reconstruction of a Neolithic farmstead, Irish National Heritage Park. The Neolithic saw the invention of agriculture.
The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Greek νέοςnéos 'new' and λίθοςlíthos 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Europe, Asia and Africa. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts of the world. This "Neolithic package" included the introduction of farming, domestication of animals, and change from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to one of settlement. The term 'Neolithic' was coined by Sir John Lubbock in 1865 as a refinement of the three-age system.[1]
The Neolithic began about 12,000 years ago when farming appeared in the Epipalaeolithic Near East, and later in other parts of the world. It lasted in the Near East until the transitional period of the Chalcolithic (Copper Age) from about 6,500 years ago (4500 BCE), marked by the development of metallurgy, leading up to the Bronze Age and Iron Age.
In other places, the Neolithic followed the Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age) and then lasted until later. In Ancient Egypt, the Neolithic lasted until the Protodynastic period, c. 3150 BCE.[2][3][4] In China, it lasted until circa 2000 BCE with the rise of the pre-Shang Erlitou culture,[5] as it did in Scandinavia.[6][7][8]
^"Neolithic". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
^Karin Sowada and Peter Grave. Egypt in the Eastern Mediterranean during the Old Kingdom.
^Lukas de Blois and R. J. van der Spek. An Introduction to the Ancient World. p. 14.
^"Neolithic Periods Overview". egyptianmuseum.org. Retrieved 2022-04-20.
^Chang, K.C.: "Studies of Shang Archaeology", pp. 6–7, 1. Yale University Press, 1982.
^Encyclopedia Britannica, "Stone Age"
^Cavalli-Sforza, Luigi Luca; Menozzi, Paolo; Piazza, Alberto (1994). The History and Geography of Human Genes. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. p. 351. at first European contact .... [New Guineans] represented ... modern examples of Neolithic horticulturalists
^Hampton, O. W. (1999). Culture of Stone: Sacred and Profane Uses of Stone Among the Dani. College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press. p. 6.
The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Greek νέος néos 'new' and λίθος líthos 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age...
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Neolithic Tibet refers to a prehistoric period in which Neolithic technology was present in Tibet. Tibet has been inhabited since the Late Paleolithic...
are more generally attributed to the start of the pottery-phase of the Neolithic, when clay tokens were used to record specific amounts of livestock or...
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period in the development of human technology between the Palaeolithic and Neolithic. The Mesolithic period began with the retreat of glaciers at the end of...
period over the Eastern Mediterranean and Levant; "Neolithic pluvial"; "Neolithic Subpluvial"; "Neolithic wet phase"; "Nouakchottien" of the Western Sahara...
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Old World archaeological period between the Upper Paleolithic and the Neolithic. The term Epipaleolithic is often used synonymously, especially for outside...
The Savanna Pastoral Neolithic (SPN; formerly known as the Stone Bowl Culture) is a collection of ancient societies that appeared in the Rift Valley of...
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