(narrator) As the world left the Paleolithic Period
and traveled through the Mesolithic,
it would not be long, historically speaking,
before humans started to settle down
in permanent farmsteads, villages, and communities.
The Neolithic, or New Stone Age,
was the final chapter of the Stone Age
and the first step towards what we would consider
to be civilization,
loosely.
Part of the Neolithic was the first agricultural revolution,
where many human communities began transitioning
away from life as hunter-gatherers
in favor of farming crops and livestock.
This, in turn, allowed for populations to grow,
and some settlements spread out to support this,
forming the world's first large-scale communities.
The Neolithic began roughly 12,000 years ago,
and is actually marked by the first evidence of farming
taking place in the fertile crescent of Western Asia.
These early farms cultivated a small range of crops,
such as spelt, wheat, einkorn, and millet,
and still kept dogs in their settlements
to assist with hunting for meat.
It wasn't until 8,000 BC
when modern domesticated animals,
such as pigs, goats, and sheep,
were brought into human settlements.
Where the Neolithic ends
depends on where you're located.
These West Asian cultures
were the first to progress out of the Neolithic
with the advent of metallurgy
as they headed into the Bronze Age.
Other regions of the world took longer to advance
with cultures in Africa
first progressing at around 3,150 BC,
and Europe in 2,000 BC.
Today, we will be examining these cultures in greater detail.
How did the Neolithic humans of Europe,
Asia, and Africa live their lives?
How did they progress, learn, and thrive
in the early historical landscapes
they would grow to call home?
Join us as we answer these questions and more
exploring the Neolithic,
the mysterious and ancient New Stone Age.
Asian cultures were by far the first to show evidence
of stable farming communities
and the earliest forms of civilization.
This technology first came to light
in Western Asia and the Levant,
encompassing regions making up modern day Turkey,
Syria, Iraq, and Jordan.
This is suspected to have begun
when hunter-gatherers began to understand the process
in which plants grew.
It is thought that, in the first instance,
these hunter-gatherers would simply scatter seeds
around the region they found them
in order to prompt the growth of more plants,
thus resulting in more food.
There would have been a great deal
of trial and error involved in this,
as is the way with any new technology.
Hunter-gatherers are thought to have finally made the leap
when localized climate change forced parts of the planet
into long dry seasons,
a climate that favors plants,
which complete their life cycle in one year.
Certain grains and pulses were available to be harvested
at differing points in the year,
leading to a wide variety of food ready to eat year round.
It was off the back of this
that the first settlements were able to arise.
Neolithic communities in the Levant
are thought to have had a basic grasp
over seed selection and reseeding,
allowing the finest crops to be cultivated and harvested
based on preferences.
Some grains were ground down into flour
using mortar and pestles,
which, as technology progressed,
would eventually be used to make a range of new foods.
There is evidence from Jericho, however,
that figs were in fact the first crop to be cultivated by humans.
Fig remains were discovered in an ancient settlement
which dated back to around 9,400 BC.
These figs were a domesticated variety
from trees that are only able to reproduce
from cuttings selected by humans.
Unless another crop is discovered that predates them,
scientists have reason to believe
that fig trees were the first domesticated plant.
Agriculture is not a technology
that was discovered once and spread across the globe,
but one that was invented independently
by many different cultures
who were progressing technologically at the same time.
There would have been plenty of spread
in the immediate regions it was developed in,
but agriculture is thought to have been instigated
over 11 separate times by different cultures across the globe,
starting in Western Asia.
Neolithic humans in Asia
were also the first to have set up a place of worship.
A temple-like building located
in the ancient Turkish archeological site of Göbekli Tepe,
established around 9,500 BC,
is thought to have been the first of its kind,
and was actually developed
before the buildings around it were established.
The people who built this structure
were still very much living as hunter-gatherers.
Around the temple lie seven stone circles,
some of which are made up of limestone pillars
engraved with depictions of various species of mammal,
bird, and invertebrate.
Amazingly, hundreds of people
are thought to have worked on these structures,
which may have once been shrines adjacent to the main temple
covered by basic roofing mechanisms.
Similar but slightly younger sites have been uncovered
in what is now Israel, Jordan, and Lebanon.
As Asian settlements in the early Neolithic became long term,
people started to abandon the nomadic lifestyle
in favor of a solid structure
that would keep them warm and sheltered year round.
These early houses were circular in shape,
with only one room that served as a multi-purpose bedroom,
living area, and makeshift kitchen
to prepare food from cultivated crops.
These earliest houses were made of mudbrick,
air-dried blocks composed from mud bound with straw.
In some cases, early communities had basic stone walls
and even stone towers.
These basic defenses were sufficient
to keep communities safe from wild animals,
rival groups of humans,
and natural hazards such as floods and storms.
Smaller walls can be found within
that may have served as animal pens
or food storage areas
that would have been used by the whole settlement.
Around 8,800 BC,
we start to see evidence of what has been coined
"the pre-pottery Neolithic B period."
One major change taking place around this time
is that round houses
typically switch to rectangular or square houses
with multiple rooms.
This would have allowed families residing within further privacy
and would form the bases of the houses we live in today.
We also start to gain a better insight
into early human religions,
beliefs, and cultures at this time.
Figurines of both men and women
found made from gypsum and stone
have been discovered in settlements within what is now Syria,
and there is evidence that these early mudbrick houses
were the places of religious spectacles
that would be considered obscene in the modern day.
Human remains found within and outside these houses
suggest that these people worshiped
or venerated their dead in some way,
preserving their skulls within the houses
and plastering them with dried mud to form facial features.
Perhaps this was a way of keeping the deceased loved one
with them after death, albeit a way
that would be considered very strange in today's world.
When families preserve their loved ones,
they would leave the rest of the body outside to decay
to nothing but bones.
These bones would then be buried
underneath the floor of the abode.
Following on from this period,
we enter the late Neolithic
focused around the Fertile Crescent of the Middle East.
This time is characterized
by the first experiments with pottery,
developed in the southern reaches of the Levant.
These experiments are centered around North Mesopotamia
and include sites such as Tell Hassuna and Jarmo.
Thick, handmade pottery was developed here,
alongside clay figurines of humans and animals,
some of which depict pregnant women,
entities that were revered as fertility goddesses.
Later, pottery would be decorated
with geometric shapes and patterns,
which were traded with other settlements
for food and other resources.
Some early communities within Africa
followed the same processes as the ones listed
in the previous segment of this video,
just after they took place in Western Asia.
Far Eastern Africa, for example,
were the first to develop agriculture and farming capabilities,
and agrarian societies started to appear
around 8,000 BC.
Domestication of more advanced animal species,
specifically sheep and goats,
is thought to have reached Egypt in around 6,000 BC
as a direct spread from Western Asian societies
who were perhaps trading with them
via the land bridge connecting the two continents.
In some regions, however,
the domestication of crops and animals
is thought to have happened independently, with no influence
on early hunter-gatherers from outside cultures.
This is still a topic of debate among scholars,
with some arguing that crops were domesticated indigenously,
and others claiming that migrant farmers
settling in Africa from Asia
brought some technologies with them.
Whilst Egypt and the regions that surrounded it
were the first to enter the Neolithic period in Africa,
other areas of the continent took slightly longer to progress.
In areas such as Algeria and Morocco, for example,
agrarian societies cropped up as a result of farming
being introduced by Europeans
living on the Iberian Peninsula
who had already discovered the technologies.
As humans traveled across to Africa,
they would have brought domesticated grains,
as well as knowledge, with them
to the early African cultures
who adopted the lifestyle for themselves.
This led to some North African societies
leading pastoralist lifestyles,
relying on the wide open plains and scrublands of the continent
to allow their livestock to graze.
Pastoralism is practiced in many modern day mountainous regions,
and was vital to the lifestyles of these early North Africans.
Some pastoralists will occasionally move
with the seasons and availability of resources,
herding their animals to new locations
when pastures are fully grazed.
This leads to a great degree of flexibility,
and, as a result, some of these early people
were not fixed to the regions in which they initially settled.
Morocco was the earliest non-Egyptian region of Africa
to adopt pottery making technologies,
most notably at this site known as Kaf El Ghar
in the modern country's Taza province.
There is also extensive evidence here
for the early adoption of cereal grain domestication,
as well as animal husbandry,
as sheep and goats were brought into the region
from both Europe and the Levant.
The people of Sub-Saharan Africa adopted pastoralism
as their main way of life,
rather than becoming wholly agrarian.
This spread across the regions surrounding the Rif Valley,
where sheep, goats, and eventually cattle
were domesticated for their meat, skins, and milk.
Earthenware pots were developed in these areas,
as were mortars and pestles,
grindstones, and stone bowls.
The dead were buried in "cairns,"
a type of communal indoor graveyard,
as opposed to within the settlements themselves.
Eventually, this way of life would spread south
to tribes such as the KhoeKhoe, a group of people
we have covered previously on this channel.
Farming technologies are thought to have entered Europe
as early as 7,000 years ago,
as the technology spread throughout the Mediterranean
from the Near East and the Levant.
Between 5,000 and 4,000 years ago, this technology
would then reach the western parts of the continent,
running through what is now Germany and Poland,
through to France,
as well as South through Italy and the Iberian Peninsula.
Scandinavia and the British Isles,
as a result of their relative isolation,
were the last to have developed the technology,
as migrant farmers traveled north
from what is today France and Germany.
Regardless of the time they entered the Neolithic,
many cultures and communities
that sprung up across Europe in this time
shared several basic characteristics:
they lived in small villages,
often in family groups,
with a divided labor between both animals and plant farmers,
as well as hunters, potters, and woodworkers.
Wood was chopped using basic stone axes
from the dense surrounding forests of Europe, which was then applied
to the infrastructure of houses and buildings,
as well as fires to keep communities warm
in the long, cold winters.
Some Neolithic communities from around the Mediterranean
took their settlements a step further,
reinforcing their villages with palisade walls and sentry towers,
likely to ward off and scout out approaching invaders
or raiders from neighboring settlements.
Some communities in Neolithic Britain
favored a pastoralist lifestyle.
They would herd cattle across the hills
and forests of this ancient land,
subsiding on their meat
and supplementing their diet with plant matter.
There is also evidence to suggest
that the Neolithic peoples of Europe were religious.
An artifact discovered at an archeological site
in what is now the Vidin province of Bulgaria
was identified in 2018
as the head of a figure that is thought
to have represented a mother goddess.
These figures have been found across Europe and Asia,
and are argued by some to represent the embodiment of fertility.
Others disagree,
stating that these are figurines
that are intended to represent wisdom and wealth.
Some cultures are also known to have constructed huge megaliths.
These structures can be composed of a single or multiple stones,
often arranged in intricate patterns or shapes.
The most famous of the over 35,000 located in Europe alone
is, without a doubt, Stonehenge,
located on what is now the Salisbury Plain
of Wiltshire in England.
Constructed in the late Neolithic, some of the stones
are thought to have been brought to the location
from over 150 miles away.
It was constructed using joints
that are not found in any other megalithic structure,
making it one of the most sophisticated
and advanced pieces of architecture
of the entire Neolithic.
Its purpose is thought to have been religious,
perhaps used as an ancient temple
aligned with the sun's movements.
The sun rises directly over the Heel Stone
on both the shortest and longest days of the year,
the Summer and Winter solstices.
By the time the Neolithic came to an end,
the people of Europe had settled into more agrarian societies,
complete with a whole host of animals on their farms.
As well as cattle, sheep and goats
provided milk, meat, and wool,
whilst wild pigs were kept in the woods
and farmed for their meat.
Dogs, domesticated much longer ago,
were trained to help on farms,
herding sheep and keeping a close eye out
for predators or raiders.
So, that's a rundown of the key events
and happenings of the Neolithic.
The Neolithic was to be the last instance in history
when stones were used as a primary construct in technologies.
The forthcoming Chalcolithic,
the subject of our next part in this series,
would see the introduction of the very first metals
harnessed and applied by ancient peoples:
copper and tin.
As people moved into this new age,
they would experience a whole host of new technologies,
weapons, and ways of living,
all of which would contribute significantly
in laying the foundations of the world we recognize today.