NEOLITHIC AGE :-

BETWEEN 4500-2000
BC.
 INDEX
NEOLITHIC REVOLUTION
AGRICULTURE
RELIGION
TECHNOLOGY
ART
DOMESTICATION OF ANIMALS
NEOLITHIC CULTURE
 NEOLITHIC REVOLUTION:-
 Neolithic Period, also called New Stone Age, final stage
of cultural evolution or technological development
among prehistoric humans. It was characterized by
stone tools shaped by polishing or grinding, dependence
on domesticated plants or animals, settlement in
permanent villages, and the appearance of such crafts
as pottery and weaving. The Neolithic followed the
Paleolithic period, or age of chipped-stone tools, and
preceded the bronze age, or early period of metal tools.
 The Neolithic stage of development was attained during
the Holocene Epoch (the last 11,700 years of history).
The starting point of the Neolithic Period is much
debated, with different parts of the world having
achieved the Neolithic stage at different times, but it is
generally thought to have occurred sometime about
10,000 BCE. During that time, humans learned to raise
crops and keep domestic livestock and were thus no
longer dependent on hunting, fishing, and gathering wild
plants. Neolithic cultures made more-useful stone tools
by grinding and polishing relatively hard rocks rather
than merely chipping softer ones down to the desired
shape. The cultivation of cereal grains enabled Neolithic
peoples to build permanent dwellings and congregate in
villages, and the release from nomad-ism and a hunting-
gathering economy gave them the time to pursue
specialized crafts.
Archaeological evidence indicates that the transition
from food-collecting cultures to food-producing ones
gradually occurred across Asia and Europe from a
starting point in the Fertile Crescent. The first
evidence of cultivation and animal domestication in
southwestern Asia has been dated to roughly 9500
BCE, which suggests that those activities may have
begun before that date. A way of life based on
farming and settled villages had been firmly achieved
by 7000 BCE in the Tigris and Euphrates valley (now
in Iraq and Iran) and in what are now Syria, Israel,
Lebanon, and Jordan Those earliest farmers raised
barely and wheat and kept sheep and goats, later
supplemented by cattle and pigs.
The Neolithic revolution (New Stone Age) was the first
agricultural revolution. It was a gradual change from
nomadic hunting and gathering communities and bands to
agriculture and settlement. This period is described as a
"revolution" because it changed the way of life of
communities which made the change. It occurred in
different prehistoric human societies at different times.
Many societies changed 9–7 thousand years ago .
The term refers to the general time period over which
these developments took place. It also applies to the
changes which took place: the adoption of early farming
techniques, crop cultivation, and the domestication of
animals. The Neolithic Revolution is important for
developments in social organization and technology.
AGRICULTURE
INVENTIONS
PLANT DOMESTICATION:- CEREALS SUCH AS
EMMER WHEAT, EINKORN WHEAT AND BARLEY
WERE AMONG THE FIRST CROPS DOMESTICATED
BY NEOLITHIC FARMING COMMUNITIES IN THE
FERTILE CRESCENT.
THESE EARLY FARMERS ALSO DOMESTICATED
LENTILS, CHICKPEAS, PEAS AND FLAX.
DOMESTICATION IS THE PROCESS BY WHICH
FARMERS SELECT FOR DESIRABLE TRAITS BY
BREEDING SUCCESSIVE GENERATIONS OF A PLANT
OR ANIMAL. OVER TIME, A DOMESTIC SPECIES
BECOMES DIFFERENT FROM ITS WILD REALTIVE.
NEOLITHIC FARMERS SELECTED FOR CROPS THAT
HARVESTED EASILY. WILD WHEAT, FOR INSTANCE FALLS
TO THE GROUND AND SHATTERS WHEN IT IS RIPE.
EARLY HUMANS BRED FOR WHEAT THAT STAYED ON THE
STEM FOR EASY HARVESTING.

AROUND THE SAME TIME THAT FARMERS WERE

BEGINNING TO SOW WHEAT IN THE CRESECENT FERTILE,
PEOPLE IN ASIA STARTED TO GROW RICE AND, MILLET.
SCIENTISTS HAVE DISCOVERED ARCHAELOGICAL
REMNANTS OF STONE AGE RICE PADDIES IN CHINESE
SWAMPS DATING BACK AT LEAST 7,700 YEARS.
IN MEXICO, SQUASH, CULTIVATION BEGAN ABOUT
10,000 YEARS AGO, WHILE MAIZE-LIKE CROPS EMERGED
AROUND 9,000 YEARS AGO.
 LIVESTOCK: THE FIRST LIVESTOCK WERE
DOMESTICATED FROM ANIMALS THAT NEOLITHIC
HUMANS HUNTED FOR MEAT. DOMESTIC PIGS WERE
BRED FROM WILD BOARS, FOR INSTANCE, WHILE
GOATS CAME FROM THE PERSIAN IBEX.
 THE FIRST FARM ANIMALS ALSO INCLUDED SHEEP
AND CATTLE. THESE ORGINATED IN MESOPOTAMIA
BETWEEN 10,000 - 13,000 YEARS AGO. WATER
BUFFALO AND YAK WERE DOMESTICATED SHORTLY
AFTER IN CHINA, INDIA AND TIBET.
 DRAFT ANIMALS INCLUDING OXEN, DONKEYS AND
CAMEL APPEARED MUCH LATER AROUNG 4,000 B.C. –
AS HUMANS DEVELOPED TRADE ROUTES FOR
TRANSPORTING GOODS.
 THE EARLY FARMERS WENT FOR A HUNTING AND
GATERING IN SEARCH OF BERRIES AND NUTS.
 RELIGION
CHANGING BELIEFS

 THE PALEOLITHIC MAN HAD MANY HUNTING-REALTED

RITIUALS AND BELIEVED IN THE INFLUENCE OF THE
WILD ANIMALS SPIRIT ON MEN. IN THE NEOLITHIC ERA,
PEOPLE FOCUSED MORE ON THE IMPORTANCE OF
FERTILITY. THE FERTILITY OF THE LAND THAT ALLOWS
THE CROPS TO GROW, THE FERTILITY OF THE DOMESTIC
ANIMALS THAT FEED THE PEOPLE AND THE FERTILITY
OF WOMEN, SO THAT CHILDREN COULD HELP IN THE
TASKS OF THE FIELD AND IN THE OLD AGE OF THE
PARENTS. WERE ALL MAJOR CONCERNS DURING THIS
TIME.
 THUS, THE NEOLITHIC PEOPLE WORSHIPED THE
MOTHER GODDESS, GODDESS OF EARTH FERTILITY,
WHO ALSO REPRESENTED THE LIFE CYCLE OF
PLANTS: SHE DIED AND DISAPPEARED IN COLD TIMES
AND WAS REBORN IN SPRING. THE MOTHER GODDESS
IS THE MISTRESS OF NATURE, THE PROTECTOR OF
ANIMALS AND CROPS. SHE USED TO BE REPRESENTED
AS A SMALL CLAY STATUE THAT COULD HAVE THE
SHAPE OF A GIRL OR A WOMAN GIVING BIRTH.
 IN THE NEOLITHIC AGE, THERE WAS NUMEROUS
RELIGIOUS RITES REALTED TO THE CLIMATE AND TO
THE CROPS: THEY DID RITUALS SO THAT IT RAINED;
THE SUN ROSE OR PESTS DID NOT AFFECT THE
CROPS. ALSO, THE FIRST PLACE OF WORSHIP, THE
FRST TEMPLES AND FIRST PRIESTS WERE CREATED.
 FUNERY RITES

ONE VERY INTRESETING ASPECT THAT ALLOWS US TO

STUDY THE RELIGION OF PRIMITIVE PEOPLES ARE
FUNERARY SITES. FUNERARY RITES ALREADY EXISTED
DURING THE PALEOLITHIC PERIOD.
IN THE NEOLITHIC AGE, PEOPLE BURIED THE DEAD
UNDER THE HOUSES. THEY USED TO BURY THEM IN A
SHRUNKEN POSITION AND WITH THEIR HEADS IN A
CERTAIN ORIENTATION. THE BODIES WERE BURIED
WITH OBJECTS OF DAILY USE, WHICH ALLOWS US TO
SUPPOSE THAT THE NEOLITHIC PEOPLE BELIEVED IN A
LIFE AFTER DEATH. FUNERARY RITES VARIED
DEPENDING ON EACH MOMENT OF THE NEOLITHIC
PERIOD AND THE GEOGRAPHICAL AREA.
 NEOLITHIC TECHNOLOGY
 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 stones) 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 points, beads, and
statuettes. 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 canoes for
example, this enabled them to exploit their newly won farmland.
 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 hatchets and spearheads in
the Great Lakes region.
 In earlier periods of time, people usually lived in non-
permanent structures, such as tents, that could be picked
up and transported very easily. Now with the development
of agriculture, technology and the inventions of more
sophisticated tools used in agriculture, people of the
Neolithic Era were able to build permanent shelters. This
gave them the ability to grow crops in the surrounding area.
People started to develop their control over fire, which
allowed for different uses soon after this. One of these uses
of fire was the early stages of pottery. Humans began to dry
clay for uses around the household. Hunting also became
much easier to accomplish with the introduction new of
stone tools. The most common tools used were daggers and
spear points, used for hunting, and hand axes, used for
cutting up different meats, and scrappers, which were used
to clean animal hides.
Advances in tool-making and domestic technology led to
advances in agriculture. Farming started a revolution in
the world and helped set us on a path that would
eventually lead to the technological revolution and
invention of different things. Inventions such as the plow
helped in the planting of seeds. One essential benefit of
the development of farming technology was the possibility
of producing surplus crops, or food supplies that surpassed
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 farming in one place
resulted in population growth far beyond that of hunters
and gatherers. Soon after plant domestication began,
animal domestication followed.
Draggers and spear points
 Neolithic art
 AS HUMANS BEGAN PRACTICING AGRICULTURE , IT SAVE
THEM THE TIME THEY OTHERWISE WASTED ROAMING
FROM ONE PLACE TO ANOTHER IN SEARCH OF FOOD.
ALONG WITH DEVELOPMENT IN AGRICULTURE, THIS
PERIOD WAS ALSO MARKED BY THE USE OF REFINED
WEAPONS AND TOOLS, WHICH COULD BE USED TO DO A
LOT MORE THAN MERELY DIGGING THE GROUND OR
HUNTING ANIMALS. AS TIME ELAPSED, MAN LEARNED
MANY NEW THINGS, WHICH INCLUDED THE USE OF NEW
TOOLS FOR SCULPTING, CREATING POTTERY, PAINTINGS,
ETC.
NEOLITIC ART PREDOMINANTLY CONSISTED OF
SCULPTURE , POTTERY, PAINTINGS AND ARCHITECTURE.
 IT WAS IN THIS PERIOD THAT MAN HAS MASTERED
THE ART OF PREPARING STATUETTES OF CLAY BY
BAKING THEM. YOU WILL NOTICE THAT STATUETTES
BELONGING TO THIS ERA ARE NOT RESTRICTED TO
ROCK CARVING. EVEN THE FIELD OF PAINTING WAS
SUBJECTED TO SAME REFINMENT, AS THIS FORM OF
ART MOVED FROM CAVES TO PROPER SETTELMENT
WALLS.
 THE JOURNEY FROM CAVE PAINTING TO WALL
PAINTINGS DURING THE NEOLITHIC PERIOD ADDED A
DECORATIVE ELEMENT TO HUMAN SETTLEMENTS.
EVEN THE PRACTICE OF MAKING POTTERY GOT A
MAJOR BOOST WHEN MAN REALISED THAT CLAY
COULD BE GIVEN DESIRED SHAPE AND BAKED TO
MAKE IT MORE DURABLE.
 THE MOST IMPORTANT CHARACTERISTIC TRAIT OF
NEW STONE AGE ART WAS THE FACT THAT ALL
THE ARTIFACTS FROM THIS PERIOD WERE
CREATED FOR A CERTAIN PURPOSE, RANGING
FROM USE IN DAY-TO-DAY LIFE TO DECORATION,
AND THAT IS THE BEST EVIDENCE OF OUR
EVOLUTION DURING THIS PERIOD.
 DOMESTICATION OF ANIMALS

It was a complicated affair as instead of killing animals

directly for food, species were reared for their produce: milk,
eggs, wool, and meat.
The animals were not allowed to interbred with the wild types
and remained in close contact with humans.
Once they had shed their wild traits, they were crossbred so
as to improve certain features.
Their objective was to enhance yield of milk, eggs, wool or
meat.
The dog was the first animal to be domesticated. They
assisted upper Paleolithic humans with hunting. Reindeers
were also domesticated.
 During Neolithic relatively large number of animals
could be maintained. Seventies provided the
necessary conditions for rearing animals over long
period.
 During the early Neolithic, sheep and goat were two
main animals that were domesticated. Apart from
this, pigs were also domesticated.
 Domestication of cattle came later as wild cattle was
more difficult to tame.
 The presence of these animals gave the region a large
advantage in cultural and economic development.
 Animal agriculture spread by trading and migrations.
 NEOLITHIC CULTURES
 The cultural achievements of the Neolithic society are
impressed on the material remains bequeathed to us
and which have been revealed through excavations.
Architecture, burials, tools, pottery, figurines and
jewelry demonstrate, after a silence of thousands of
years, with a unique eloquence and descriptiveness the
natural environment and its economic exploitation, the
ways of disposing farming products, the structure of
society and codes of behavior, the channels of artistic
expression and, finally, the contacts and exchanges,
that reveal new worlds, beyond the confines of the
small settlements.
 The above mentioned features were shaped on matter,
since they were not expressed in written speech. The
wooden tablet, with the incised linear symbols, from the
lakeside settlement of Dispilio- Kastoria (5260 BC), is
likely to be an early form of written speech as
conjectured about similar symbols incised on clay,
discovered in settlements of the southern Balkans (Vince
culture).
 Pottery, an inseparable element of the Neolithic man's
every day life, became a form of artistic expression, on
which a variety of colors and decorative styles and
themes could be impressed. The exceptional quality of
Neolithic vases is attributed to the developments in
pottery know-how and pyro technology (composition of
clays and earth pigments, firing). Weaving and basketry
also favored artistic creation.
 THANKS FOR WATCHING.
 GROUP MEMBERS NAME :-
1. ELMA NAAZ
2. AASTHA MALIK
3. SUNDUS
4. AYUSHI
5. ANANYA
6. HARMEET
7. AANSHITA