Understanding Culture, Society, and Politics 12

Module 3: Human Biocultural and Social Evolution

Subject Teacher: Ms. Coleen E. Omolon

Lesson Description:
After completing this module, the students are expected to have a clear understanding of themselves as legitimate
members of society whose practices and traditions have been developed, if not perfect, for more than 2000 years.

Course Objectives:
By the end of this course, learners are expected to:
a. Trace the biological and cultural evolution of early to modern humans;
b. Explore the significance of human material remains and artefactual evidence in interpreting cultural and
social, including political and economic processes; and
c. Recognize national, local, and specialized museums and archaeological and historical sites as venues to
appreciate and reflect on the complexities of biocultural and social evolution as part of being and becoming
human.

Macroevolution and the Formation of New Species

Macroevolution in the modern sense is an evolution that is guided by selection among interspecific variation, as
opposed to selection among intraspecific variation in microevolution.

Macroevolution focuses on the formation of new species (speciation) and on the evolutionary relationship
between groups of species. The term species is often defined as a population capable of interbreeding – of
producing viable, fertile offspring. These species are reproductively isolated. For example, frogs in a farmer’s
pond are the same species as those in the neighboring pond, even though the two populations may never
interbreed.

Because speciation is a process, it can occur at various rates. Speciation through

the process of adaptive change to the environment as proposed in Darwin’s
Origin of Species (1859) is generally considered to occur at a slow rate. In this
model, speciation happens as organisms become more adapted to their
environment. However, speciation can also take the palace quite rapidly. For
instance, a genetic mutation involving a key regulatory gene can lead to the
formation of a new body plan. Such genetic accidents may involve material that
is broken off, transposed, or transferred from one chromosome to another.

Genes that regulate the growth and development

of an organism may have a major effect on its adult
form. Scientists have discovered a certain type of gene called homeobox that is
responsible for the large-scale effects on the growth and development of organisms.
If a new body plan is adaptive, an organism will maintain its new form during long
periods of time rather than promote change because of natural selection (Haviland,
Prins, Walrath, and McBride, 2010: 72). Natural selection is a process through
which certain environmentally adapted biological features are perpetuated at the
expense of less adaptive features. Hence, the long evolutionary paths of humans
similar to mammals and primates – have set the stage for the cultural beings that we
are today. Evidence from ancient skeletons indicates that the first mammal appeared over 200 million years ago
as small nocturnal creatures.

Earth has changed considerably since the first mammals appeared. During
the past 200 million years, the position of the continents has shifted
through continental drift. This process resulted in the re-arrangement of
adjacent land masses as implied by the theory of plate tectonics.
According to the theory, the continents moved as edges of geological
phenomena, such as earthquakes, volcanic activity, and mountain
formation. Continental drift is important for understanding the
distribution of fossil primate groups as well as climatic changes in the
environment that affected the evolution of primates and other living things.
The earliest primate-like mammals came into being approximately 65 million years ago when a new, mild climate
favored the spread of dense tropical and subtropical forests in most land areas around the world. The change in
climate and habitat favored mammal diversification, including the evolutionary development of arboreal
mammals from which primates evolved.

Approximately 40 million years ago, diurnal anthropoid primates appeared. Then, 23 million years after, at the
start of the geological epoch known as the Miocene, the first fossil apes or hominoids began to appear in Asia,
Africa, and Europe. Hominoids are broad-shouldered tailless primates that include all living and extinct apes and
humans. The world hominoid comes from the Latin root words homo and homi (human being) and the suffix
oxides (resembling). As a group, the first fossil apes were called hominoids because of their resemblance to
humans. Some of these ancient primates were relatively small; some, however, were larger than present-day
gorillas.

During the Miocene period, the African and Eurasian landmasses made
direct contact. The climatic changes set into motion during the Miocene
epoch may have played a role in the success of the human line once it
originated. Miocene fossil remains of apes from this time period have
been found from the caves of China, the forest of France, to Eastern
Africa where the earliest fossil remains of bipeds have been found. So
varied and ubiquitous were the fossil apes of this period that some
primatologists have labeled the Miocene period as the “golden age of
the hominoids.”

Early Humans

Humans and their ancestors are distinct among the hominoids for bipedalism, a special form of locomotion on
two feet. Larger brains and bipedal locomotion constitute the most striking differences between contemporary
people and our closet primate relatives.

Tracing the roots of the human revolution is done by determining whether a fossilized hominoid is bipedal (walks
on two feet). There are several ways to determine bipedalism such as looking at the curves of the spine, shape of
the pelvis, and shape of the foot bones among others (Haviland, Pins, Walrath, McBride, 2008).

As far as research can tell, the earliest ancestors of humans hailed from the australopithecines which were bipedal
but had small brain-size in proportion to their bodies. It is theorized that from one species of Australopithecus,
the Homo Habilis evolved. Compared to the australopithecines, the Homo Habilis had smaller teeth and larger
brains. This implies that the Homo Habilis most probably exercised higher abilities to learn and were better at
processing information than the australopithecines. In addition, dates of the projected time of existence of the
Homo Habilis are close to the dates where early stone tools were discovered (Haviland, Pins, Walrath, McBride,
2008).

Human evolution

Human evolution is the lengthy process of change by which people

originated from apelike ancestors. Scientific evidence shows that
the physical and behavioral traits shared by all people originated
from apelike ancestors and evolved over a period of approximately
six million years.

One of the earliest defining human traits, bipedalism -- the ability

to walk on two legs -- evolved over 4 million years ago. Other
important human characteristics -- such as a large and complex
brain, the ability to make and use tools, and the capacity for
language -- developed more recently. Many advanced traits -- including complex symbolic expression, art, and
elaborate cultural diversity -- emerged mainly during the past 100,000 years.

Humans are primates. Physical and genetic similarities show that the modern human species, Homo sapiens, has
a very close relationship with another group of primate species, the apes. Humans and the great apes (large apes)
of Africa -- chimpanzees (including bonobos, or so-called “pygmy chimpanzees”) and gorillas -- share a common
ancestor that lived between 8 and 6 million years ago. Humans first evolved in Africa, and much of human
evolution occurred on that continent. The fossils of early humans who lived between 6 and 2 million years ago
come entirely from Africa.

Most scientists currently recognize some 15 to 20 different species

of early humans. Scientists do not all agree, however, about how
these species are related or which ones simply died out. Many early
human species -- certainly the majority of them – left no living
descendants. Scientists also debate over how to identify and classify
particular species of early humans, and about what factors
influenced the evolution and extinction of each species.

Early humans first migrated out of Africa into Asia probably

between 2 million and 1.8 million years ago. They entered Europe somewhat later, between 1.5 million and 1
million years. Species of modern humans populated many parts of the world much later. For instance, people first
came to Australia probably within the past 60,000 years and to the Americas within the past 30,000 years or so.
The beginnings of agriculture and the rise of the first civilizations occurred within the past 12,000 years.

Paleoanthropology

Paleoanthropology is the scientific study of human

evolution. Paleoanthropology is a subfield of
anthropology, the study of human culture, society,
and biology. The field involves an understanding of
the similarities and differences between humans and
other species in their genes, body form, physiology,
and behavior. Paleoanthropologists search for the
roots of human physical traits and behavior. They
seek to discover how evolution has shaped the potentials, tendencies, and limitations of all people. For many
people, paleoanthropology is an exciting scientific field because it investigates the origin, over millions of years,
of the universal and defining traits of our species. However, some people find the concept of human evolution
troubling because it can seem not to fit with religious and other traditional beliefs about how people, other living
things, and the world came to be. Nevertheless, many people have come to reconcile their beliefs with scientific
evidence.

Early human fossils and archeological remains offer the most important clues about this ancient past. These
remains include bones, tools, and any other evidence (such as footprints, evidence of hearths, or butchery marks
on animal bones) left by earlier people. Usually, the remains were buried and preserved naturally. They are then
found either on the surface (exposed by rain, rivers, and wind erosion) or by digging in the ground. By studying
fossilized bones, scientists learn about the physical appearance of earlier humans and how it changed. Bone size,
shape, and markings left by muscles tell us how those predecessors moved around, held tools, and how the size
of their brains changed over a long time. Archeological evidence refers to the things earlier people made and the
places where scientists find them. By studying this type of evidence, archeologists can understand how early
humans made and used tools and lived in their environments.

The process of evolution

The process of evolution involves a series of natural changes

that cause species (populations of different organisms) to
arise, adapt to the environment, and become extinct. All
species or organisms have originated through the process of
biological evolution. In animals that reproduce sexually,
including humans, the term species refers to a group whose
adult members regularly interbreed, resulting in fertile
offspring -- that is, offspring themselves capable of
reproducing. Scientists classify each species with a unique, two-part scientific name. In this system, modern
humans are classified as Homo sapiens.

Evolution occurs when there is a change in the genetic material -- the chemical molecule, DNA -- which is
inherited from the parents, and especially in the proportions of different genes in a population. Genes represent
the segments of DNA that provide the chemical code for producing proteins. Information contained in the DNA
can change by a process known as mutation. The way particular genes are expressed – that is, how they influence
the body or behavior of an organism -- can also change. Genes affect how the body and behavior of an organism
develop during its life, and this is why genetically inherited characteristics can influence the likelihood of an
organism’s survival and reproduction.

Evolution does not change any single individual. Instead, it changes the inherited means of growth and
development that typify a population (a group of individuals of the same species living in a particular habitat).
Parents pass adaptive genetic changes to their offspring, and ultimately these changes become common
throughout a population. As a result, the offspring inherit those genetic characteristics that enhance their chances
of survival and ability to give birth, which may work well until the environment changes. Over time, genetic
change can alter a species' overall way of life, such as what it eats, how it grows, and where it can live. Human
evolution took place as new genetic variations in early ancestor populations favored new abilities to adapt to
environmental change and so altered the human way of life.

Source: https://humanorigins.si.edu/education/introduction-human-evolution

Prehistory

Prehistory is the period that begins with the appearance of the human being, about five million years ago, and
finishes with the invention of writing, about 6,000 years ago.

Prehistory is the period that begins with the appearance of the human being,
about five million years ago, and finishes with the invention of writing, about
6,000 years ago.

It is a long period divided into three stages: the Palaeolithic Age, the
NeolithicAge, and the Metal Age.

The Palaeolithic Age began with our first ancestors and finished about 10,000
years ago. During that period, human beings used tools made of stone and lived
on hunting and gathering.

In the Neolithic Age, which began about 10,000 years ago,

human beings lived in villages. Human communities cultivated
the land and raised cattle. Agriculture and cattle raising gave
rise to a productive economy.

We call the Metal Age to the period beginning about 7000 years
ago when human beings started to make objects out of metals.

Omanization is the evolutionary process that results in the present human being. It was a very long process.

The first ancestors of human beings appeared about five

million years ago. We call them Australopithecus. They were
quite similar to chimpanzees.

Two
million years ago a new human species called Homo
Habilis appeared. They made tools of stone and lived on
hunting and gathering. Homo Habilis and Australopithecus
lived in Africa.
 Homo erectus appeared a million and a half years ago. They were
similar to Homo habilis but they made more perfect tools. They had
greater technological development. This species discovered and
learned how to use fire. Home Erectus remains have been found out
of Africa, Europe, and Asia.

Homo antecessor is an
extinct human species
discovered in the
Atapuerca site (Spain). He
appeared about 800,000 years ago. Most probably he is the oldest
European. He is a common ancestor of Homo neanderthalensis and
Homo sapiens.

Then, about 100,000 years

ago Homo sapiens
appeared. This species is
divided into two subtypes:
Homo Sapiens Neanderthalensis or Neanderthal man and Homo
sapiens sapiens.

The neanderthal man looked like us but he was more robust and
sturdier. This species became extinct.

Homo sapiens sapiens is the species we belong to. Archaeologists have found
remains of Homo sapiens in America and Australia.

The continent where human beings first appeared in Africa. Homo erectus was the
first human beings to leave Africa. Their remains have been found in Asia, Europe,
and Africa. In America and Australia, there are no remains of Homo erectus. The only
vestiges that archaeologists have found there belong to Homo sapiens.

There are several characteristics that make human beings different from other similar
species: they invent tools thanks to the evolution of their intellect; they can walk on
two legs (biped walk) so they can work with their hands; they have an opposable
thumb, which, for example, allows them to make tools or write; and., finally, the fact
that learning is possible because human beings develop a symbolic language and have
a long childhood.

Paleolithic Period

The Paleolithic, also called the Old Stone Age, is a period in human prehistory distinguished by the original
development of stone tools that covers 99% of the time period of human technological prehistory.

The Paleolithic (‘Old Stone Age’) makes up the earliest chunk of the
Stone Age – the large swathe of time during which hominins used
stone to make tools – and ranges from the first known tool use roughly
2,6 million years ago to the end of the last Ice Age c. 12,000 years ago,
with part of its stone tool culture continuing up until c. 10,000 years
ago in some areas. As such, it corresponds neatly with the timeframe
of the geological epoch the Pleistocene, which saw waves of glacial
and interglacial sweep across the planet. The term’s connotations
extend beyond the characteristics of its stone industries, however, as
the Paleolithic is also more generally associated with the cultures and
lifestyles of the hunter-gatherers who produced the tools in question.

It is succeeded by the Mesolithic (‘Middle Stone Age’), in which people adapted to the changing environment
after the end of the most recent Ice Age, and the Neolithic (‘New Stone Age’) which saw the spread of agriculture
and ended with the coming of shiny bronze tools. As a measure against current-day self-importance, it might be
interesting to mention that the Stone Age as a whole makes up around 99% of humanity’s technological calling
card - so stone tools were very much in vogue for a long time indeed.

Subdivisions

With the Paleolithic spanning such an almost incomprehensibly huge timeframe, thankfully our organizationally
oriented modern human minds have come up with some subdivisions. Looking at the different ‘stages’ and
characteristics we think we can see in stone tool cultures across the world during this period – and, crucially, not
at absolute chronological boundaries - has produced the following highly unoriginal labels:

Lower- or Early Palaeolithic - From the earliest known tool use

around 2,6 million years ago, with simple cores, flaked pieces, and
later large bifaces, up to roughly 250,000 years ago;

Middle Paleolithic - From c. 250,000 years ago, with a new focus on

retouched flakes and prepared cores, which continued to be popular in
certain areas until as late as c. 30,000 years ago (when other areas had
already made the switch to what we see as Upper Paleolithic tools).

Upper- or Late Paleolithic

- Beginning to pop up around 50,000/40,000 years ago, this industry
saw a huge proliferation with regard to both tool shapes and source
materials (now also a lot of bone, antler, and ivory), which in some
areas was carried on beyond the end of the last ice age all the way up
to c. 10,000 years ago.

Of course, humans would not be humans if they did not also distinguish
some more specific tool industries within these categories, too. As such, the Lower Paleolithic, for example,
houses the Oldowan and Acheulean industries; the Middle Paleolithic basically cries out 'Mousterian'; and the
Upper Paleolithic has too many to name but includes among others the Châtelperronian, Aurignacian, Gravettian,
Solutrean, and Magdalenian in Europe and the Clovis and Folsom cultures in the Americas. It should be noted
that of course, these are artificially constructed boxes, which not only oversimplify things but might also not do
justice to the grey areas and transitional stages. Developments can moreover vary greatly between different places.

Lower- or Early Paleolithic

So far traced back to around a staggering 2,6 million years ago

in Africa is when some early humans first began making simple
stone tools. The first identified industry is the Oldowan industry,
named after Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, in which hunter-
gatherers used simple stone cores as choppers and
hammerstones, for example for butchering animals and crushing
their bones to get at the nutritious marrow, or pounding up plants
and seeds. The Oldowan was mostly found within Africa (in
spots that correspond with, for example, present-day Tanzania,
Kenya, Ethiopia, and South Africa) but was later on found in the
Near East and eastern Asia, too, most likely by courtesy of the long legs of adventurous Homo erectus. It overlaps
a bit with the Acheulean industry which popped up a bit later, around 1,7 million years ago, and has no proper
endpoint; rather, it seems to have gradually petered out in various areas and given way to the Acheulean. To
sustain our box-thinking, though, archaeologists tend to set the general conclusion of the Oldowan around one
million years ago.

The Acheulean, characterized by large bifaces that were turned into all kinds of scary things such as hand axes,
picks, and cleavers, first developed in Africa and then spread through Eurasia. It accompanied the migrations of
such humans like Homo erectus and Homo heidelbergensis across Europe and Asia and enabled them to process
their kills and side-dishes much more effectively. These humans also gradually figured out how to harness fire
properly and by at least 400,000 years ago habitual fire use becomes visible in the archaeological record, allowing
cooking to help kick off all sorts of bodily developments (bigger brains!).
Middle Palaeolithic

The Middle Paleolithic (c. 250,000- c. 30,000 years ago) of Europe,

the Near East, and North Africa is identified when the previously
hugely popular bifaces give up their spot in the limelight for
retouched flakes that are struck from carefully prepared cores
(known as the Levallois technique) to create tools such as side
scrapers, points, and backed knives. Clearly, tools became useful in
more and more different ways as time progressed, and helped
humans around this time conquer ever more challenging
environments throughout almost the entire Old World.

Middle Paleolithic sites moreover show the presence of local traditions and variation. Human groups still mostly
used natural shelters such as caves and rock shelters, but these now slowly began to have separate areas designated
for specific activities, and fire and hearths become much more common. Associated humans are most prominently
the Neanderthals (Mousterian industry) but also early Homo sapiens.

Africa around this time was home to the Middle Stone Age technology (or MSA, not to be confused with the
Mesolithic, and not synonymous with the Middle Paleolithic), which also used prepared core techniques to
produce a range of flake-based tools but more unusually also already showed signs of hafting (attaching points
and flakes to handles, like with a spear), use of bone tools, and use of pigment and shells hinting at symbolic
thought. A prime example is Blombos Cave in South Africa.

Upper- or Late Palaeolithic

The Upper- or Late Paleolithic industry (c. 50,000/40,000- c. 10,000

years ago) represented an explosion in tool diversity. Stone gave up its
status as prime source material to stuff such as bone, antler, and ivory,
which were shaped into intricate needles, points and burins
(engravers/chisels with sharp, chiseled points or edges) – although blade
tools made of stone were still created, too. Sewing was now definitely
within the realm of possibility, and spear throwers, harpoons, and bows
and arrows indicated a serious change to their makers’ way of life,
allowing for much more varied hunting behavior. Ever stronger regional
material cultures became visible so that a lot of areas have their own label
referring to the specific ins and outs of their toolmaking.

The Upper Paleolithic generally goes hand-in-hand with Homo sapiens, but some Neanderthals appear to have
(either directly or indirectly) come into contact with their culture and borrowed some aspects, too (and vice versa,
by the way), and the Upper Paleolithic Châtelperronian industry, distinguished by curved backed blades, was also
likely produced by Neanderthals. Culturally, anatomically modern humans created bucket loads of art and
figurative objects, as symbolic expression becomes unequivocally visible within the framework of this industry,
while Neanderthals also show decorative skills and some burials are known for them.

By the time the glaciers of the last ice age began to recede and the
Holocene epoch began around 12,000 years ago, humans had conquered
not only the Old World but had made it all the way into the southern tip
of Australia and the Americas. This warmer period, sandwiched
between the temperamental climatic conditions accompanying the
Paleolithic cultures and the advent of agriculture that marks the start of
the Neolithic, saw the Upper Paleolithic industry give way to the
Mesolithic. As humans sought to adapt to the post-glacial climate and
changing flora and fauna, different tools (such as forest-clearing axes)
were needed and microliths (small flint blades generally only 5 mm long
and 4 mm thick) became the archetypal tool forms. Luckily, throughout the Paleolithic, various human species
had run the race of developing their technology fast enough to keep up with the challenges nature threw at them,
priming them for these new challenges to come.

Mesolithic Period
The Mesolithic is the Old-World archaeological period between the Upper Paleolithic and the Neolithic.
The Mesolithic Period, or Middle Stone Age, is an archaeological term describing specific cultures that fall
between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic Periods. While the start and end dates of the Mesolithic Period vary by
geographical region, it dated approximately from 10,000 BCE to 8,000 BCE.

The Paleolithic was an age of purely hunting and gathering, but toward the Mesolithic period, the development
of agriculture contributed to the rise of permanent settlements. The later Neolithic period is distinguished by the
domestication of plants and animals. Some Mesolithic people continued
with intensive hunting, while others practiced the initial stages of
domestication. Some Mesolithic settlements were villages of huts, others
walled cities.

The type of tool used is a distinguishing factor among these cultures.

Mesolithic tools were generally composite devices manufactured with
small chipped stone tools called microliths and retouched bladelets. The
Paleolithic utilized more primitive stone treatments, and the Neolithic
mainly used polished rather than chipped stone tools.

The photograph depicts the front and back view of a bladelet

made of what appears to be flint.

Backed edge bladelet: Mesolithic tools were generally

composite devices manufactured with small chipped small
stone tools called microliths and retouched bladelets.

Art from this period reflects the change to a warmer climate

and adaptation to a relatively sedentary lifestyle, population
size, and consumption of plants—all evidence of the
transition to agriculture and eventually the Neolithic period. Still, food was not always available everywhere, and
Mesolithic populations were often forced to become migrating hunters and settle in rock shelters. It is difficult to
find a unique type of artistic production during the Mesolithic Period, and art forms developed during the Upper
Paleolithic (the latest period of the Paleolithic) were likely continued. These included cave paintings and
engravings, small sculptural artifacts, and early architecture.

Mesolithic Rock Art

A number of notable Mesolithic rock art sites exist on the Mediterranean

coast of Spain. The art consists of small painted figures of humans and
animals, which are the most advanced and widespread surviving from
this period in Europe and possibly worldwide. Notably, this collection
is the largest concentration of such art in Europe. The human figure is
frequently the main theme in painted scenes. When in the same scene as
animals, the human runs towards them. Hunting scenes are the most
common, but there are also scenes of battle and dancing, and possibly
agricultural tasks and
managing domesticated
animals. In some scenes
gathering honey is shown,
most famously at Cuevas de la Araña in Bancorp.

Cave painting that depicts a human figure hanging from a vine that holds
a beehive. Several bees surround the figure.

The Man of Bicorp: The Man of Bicorp holding onto lianas to gather
honey from a beehive as depicted on an 8000-year-old cave painting near Valencia, Spain. The painting known
as The Dancers of Cogul is a good example of the depiction of movement in static art. In this scene, nine women
are depicted, something new in the art of this region, some painted in black and others in red. They are shown
dancing around a male figure with the abnormally large phallus, a figure that was rare if not absent in Paleolithic
art. Along with humans, several animals, including a dead deer or buck impaled by an arrow or atlatl, are depicted.

Prehistoric rock art depicts human figures surrounding an animal that has been speared. Other large games with
horns and antlers surround the human figures
 The native Mesolithic populations were slow in assimilating the
agricultural way of life, starting solely with the use of ceramics. It took
a thousand years into the Neolithic period before they adopted animal
husbandry (which became especially important to them) and plant
cultivation. When they eventually developed an interest in the more
fertile areas utilized by the late
Danubian cultures, they
compelled the Danubian
farmers to fortify their
settlements.

Findings from Archaeological Excavations

Excavation of some megalithic monuments in Britain, Ireland,

Scandinavia, and France has revealed evidence of ritual activity,
sometimes involving architecture, during the Mesolithic Period. One
megalith (circa 9350 BCE), found submerged in the Strait of Sicily, was over 39 feet long and weighing nearly
530,000 pounds. Its purpose remains unknown. In some cases, however, megalith monuments are so far removed
in time from their successors that continuity is unlikely. In other cases, the early dates or the exact character of
activity are controversial.

An engraved shale pendant unearthed in Star Carr, England in 2015 is believed to be the oldest Mesolithic art
form on the island of Great Britain. Engraved jewelry from this period outside of Scandinavia is extremely rare.
Although the hole in the upper angle of the rock suggests that it was worn, archaeologists are currently analyzing
the object to determine whether this was the case. The incised patterns are similar to those on pendants found in
Denmark, which suggests contact with cultures on the continent or migration from the continent to Britain.
However, these possibilities remain under investigation.

The photo depicts the front and back view of a shale pendant. The pendant is
shaped like a triangle with rounded edges. There are a series of lines etched into
the stone.

Star Carr pendant: The incised lines bear striking similarities to similar objects
found in Denmark.

In northeastern Europe, Siberia, and certain southern European and North

African sites, a “Ceramic Mesolithic” can be distinguished between 7,000-3,850
BCE. Russian archaeologists prefer to describe such pottery-making cultures as
Neolithic, even though farming is absent. These pottery-making Mesolithic
cultures were peripheral to the sedentary Neolithic cultures. They created a distinctive type of pottery with point
or knob base and flared rims, manufactured by methods not used by the Neolithic farmers. Though each area of
Mesolithic ceramics developed an individual style, common features suggest a single point of origin. The earliest
manifestation of this type of pottery may have been around Lake Baikal in Siberia.

Neolithic Period
The Neolithic, the final division of the Stone Age, began about 12,000 years ago when the first developments of
farming appeared in the Epipalaeolithic Near East, and later in other parts of the world.

The term Neolithic Period refers to the last stage of the Stone
Age - a term coined in the late 19th century CE by scholars
which covers three different periods: Paleolithic, Mesolithic,
and Neolithic. The Neolithic period is significant for its
megalithic architecture, the spread of agricultural practices, and
the use of polished stone tools.

The term Neolithic or New Stone Age is most frequently used in

connection with agriculture, which is the time when cereal
cultivation and animal domestication was introduced. Because agriculture developed at different times in different
regions of the world, there is no single date for the beginning of the Neolithic. In the Near East, agriculture was
developed around 9,000 BCE, in Southeast Europe around 7,000 BCE, and later in other regions. Even within a
specific region, agriculture developed during different times. For example, agriculture first developed in
Southeast Europe about 7,000 BCE, in Central Europe about 5,500 BCE, and Northern Europe about 4,000 BCE.
In East Asia, the Neolithic goes from 6000 to 2000 BCE.

Pottery is another element that makes the dating of the Neolithic problematic. In some regions, the appearance
of pottery is considered a symbol of the Neolithic, but this notion makes the term Neolithic even more ambiguous
since the use of pottery does not always occur after agriculture: in Japan, pottery appears before agriculture, while
in the Near East agriculture pre-dates pottery production.

All these factors make the starting point of the Neolithic somewhat fuzzy. It should be remembered that the origin
of the term lies in a late 19th century CE classification system (detailed above) and we must keep in mind its
limitations.

In order to reflect the deep impact that agriculture had over the
human population, an Australian archaeologist named Gordon
Childe popularized the term “Neolithic Revolution” in the 1940s
CE. However, today, it is believed that the impact of agricultural
innovation was exaggerated in the past: the development of
Neolithic culture appears to have been a gradual rather than a
sudden change. Moreover, before agriculture was established,
archaeological evidence has shown that there is usually a period
of a semi-nomadic life, where pre-agricultural societies might
have a network of campsites and live in different locations
according to how the resources respond to seasonal variations. Sometimes, one of these campsites might be
adopted as a basecamp; the group might spend the majority of the time there during the year exploiting local
resources, including wild plants: this is a step closer to agriculture. Agriculture and foraging are not totally
incompatible ways of life. This means that a group could perform hunter-gatherer activities for part of the year
and some farming during the rest, perhaps on a small scale. Rather than a revolution, the archaeological record
suggests that the adoption of agriculture is the result of small and gradual changes.

Agriculture was developed independently in several regions. Since its origin, the dominant pattern in these
separate regions is the spread of agricultural economies and the
reduction of hunting and gathering activities, to the point that today
hunting economies only persist in marginal areas where farming is not
possible, such as frozen arctic regions, densely forested areas, or arid
deserts.

Major changes were introduced by agriculture, affecting the way

human society was organized and how it used the earth, including
forest clearance, root crops, and cereal cultivation that can be stored
for long periods of time, along with the development of new
technologies for farming and herding such as plows, irrigation
systems, etc. More intensive agriculture implies more food available
for more people, more villages, and a movement towards a more complex social and political organization. As
the population density of the increase of the village, they gradually evolve into towns and finally into cities.

Developments During the Neolithic

By adopting a sedentary way of life, the Neolithic groups

increased their awareness of territoriality. During the 9600-6900
BCE period in the Near East, there were also innovations in
arrowheads, yet no important changes in the animals hunted were
detected. However, human skeletons were found with arrowheads
embedded in them, and also some settlements such as Jericho were
surrounded by a massive wall and ditch around this time. It seems
that the evidence of this period is a testimony of inter-communal
conflicts, not far from organized warfare. There were also
additional innovations in stone tool production that became
widespread and adopted by many groups in distant locations, which is evidence for the existence of important
networks of exchange and cultural interaction.
Living in permanent settlements brought new ways of social organization. As the
subsistence strategies of Neolithic communities became more efficient, the population
of the different settlements increased. We know from anthropological works that the
larger the group, the less egalitarian and more hierarchical a society becomes. Those
in the community who were involved in the management and allocation of food
resources increased their social importance. Archaeological evidence has shown that
during the early Neolithic, houses did not have individual storage facilities: storage
and those activities linked to food preparation for storage were managed at the village
level. At the site of Jarf el Ahmar, in north Syria, there is a large subterranean structure
that was used as a communal storage facility. This construction is in a central location
among the households and there is also
evidence that several rituals were
performed in it.

Another site in northern Syria named Tell Abu Hureyra displays

evidence for the transition from foraging to farming: it was a gradual
process, which took several centuries. The first inhabitants of the site
hunted gazelles, wild asses, and wild cattle. Then, we see evidence of
change: gazelle consumption dropped and the amount of sheep
consumption rose (wild in the beginning and domesticated in the end).
Sheepherding turned into the main source of meat and gazelle hunting
became a minor activity. Human remains show an increase in tooth
wear of all adults, which reflects the importance of ground cereal in
the diet. It is interesting that once pottery was introduced, tooth wear
rates decreased, but the frequency of bad teeth increased, which
suggests that baked food made from stone-ground flour was largely replaced by dishes such as porridge and gruel,
which were boiled in pots.

The End of the Neolithic

Towards the end of the Neolithic era, copper metallurgy is

introduced, which marks a transition period to the Bronze Age,
sometimes referred to as the Chalcolithic or Eneolithic Era.
Bronze is a mixture of copper and tin, which has a greater
hardness than copper, better casting properties, and a lower
melting point. Bronze could be used for making weapons,
something that was not possible with copper, which is not hard
enough to endure combat conditions. In time, bronze became the
primary material for tools and weapons, and a good part of the stone technology became obsolete, signaling the
end of the Neolithic and thus, of the Stone Age.

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