Neolithic Age: Six Transformative Shifts That Shaped Modern Civilization
The Neolithic Age, which commenced approximately 11,700 years ago in the Fertile Crescent during the Holocene, represented a transition from a lifestyle of hunting and gathering to one centered around agriculture. This era followed the Epipaleolithic period (23,000 to 11,500 years ago), associated with the Natufian culture, during which plants such as wheat and barley were domesticated around 10,000 years ago. Independent farming practices also arose in areas like China and the Andes. In Southwest Asia, sheep and cattle were among the domesticated animals. The Natufians initiated sedentism around 15,000 years ago. Tools from this period included polished axes and grinding stones, and pottery was utilized for multiple functions. The rise of larger communities gave way to new social hierarchies, shaping ideas of nationality and citizenship, concluding with the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age.
Key facts
- The Neolithic Age began around 11,700 years ago in the Fertile Crescent of Southwest Asia during the Holocene.
- The Natufian culture, associated with the final Epipaleolithic in the Levant, showed increased sedentism and intensified plant use.
- The earliest domesticated plants—wheat, barley, and pulses—were cultivated in the Fertile Crescent around 10,000 years ago.
- Farming emerged independently: rice in China’s Yangtze River basin, taro in the New Guinea highlands, and potatoes in the Andes.
- Sheep, goats, pigs, and cattle were domesticated in Southwest Asia around 10,000 years ago; pigs in China’s Yellow River valley around 9,000 years ago.
- Sedentism emerged among the early Natufian in southwest Asia 15,000 years ago, linked to a warmer, wetter climate.
- Pottery dates back 20,000 years in East Asia; Yangshao culture is known for painted pottery with red, black, and white pigments.
- Neolithic megasites with thousands of inhabitants led to new kinship practices and social organization, laying foundations for nationality and citizenship.
Entities
Artists
- José Guadalupe Posada
- José Sanchez
Institutions
- The Collector
- Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Xinyang City Museum
- Flickr
- Unsplash
- Wikimedia Commons
- Nature
- PLOS ONE
- ScienceDirect
- PNAS
- Cambridge University Press
- ResearchGate
- Oxford Academic
Locations
- Fertile Crescent
- Southwest Asia
- Levant
- Ohalo II
- China
- Yangtze River basin
- New Guinea highlands
- Andes
- South America
- Yellow River valley
- Japan
- Korean peninsula
- Central Sahara
- Nile Valley
- West Africa
- Mali
- Ounjougou
- Jiahu
- Syria
- Greece
- Netherlands
- Stein
- Eugene
- United States
- Henan Province