Neolithic

NEOLITHIC

Neolithic means Neo: new, and lithic: stone, therefore it is the New Stone Age.

This period can be located from approximately 10,000 B.C to 3,000 B.C. It is important to remember that the dates are estimates and vary from one place to another.

It begins with the discovery of agriculture, and ends with the invention of writing, therefore, with the beginning of HISTORY.

At this time polished stone instruments are used with a more perfect finish than carved stone. To obtain this effect it is necessary to use a new technique: rubbing instead of percussion. Rubbing one stone with the other or with wet sand, polished surfaces are obtained.

But what really stands out in this period is the discovery of agriculture and the domestication of animals (livestock), which leads to a large number of transformations of all kinds, which is why some historians call this era the Neolithic Revolution.

Around 10,000 years ago, the climate became more temperate, the glaciers receded and many animals migrated to colder territories or some others became extinct because they could not adapt to such changes in temperatures and conditions in general (remember Charles Darwin's theory) .

ECONOMY

Human groups that lived by hunting large animals had to dedicate themselves to hunting smaller animals and also fishing. But to complete their diet, they collected fruits and grains.

There are historians who maintain that were women who discovered the cultivation process since they were the ones in charge of the harvesting, while the men would dedicate themselves to hunting.

With cultivation and livestock, humans were able to control nature and collaborate with it in the replacement of food, therefore in the Neolithic the economy is productive.

What advantage does the cultivation and domestication of animals provide? 

With the food surplus, the diet is improved and also the possibility of storing food for times of scarcity. This in turn led to an increase in the population, in addition ceramics and basketry were invented to store surplus food, as well as fabrics for the new type of clothing that was needed for the new prevailing climate.

Other important tools at this time, in addition to arrows, spears, needles and polished stone axes, are added those necessary for cultivation such as hoes to make holes in the ground and put seeds, the sickle to cut the grass or cereals, mortars for grinding grains, spindles for spinning and weaving on looms, and all kinds of vessels and special containers to store surplus food produced.

SOCIETY

The need to take care of crops and livestock, which provided Men with a better life, led to sedentarism, that is, to settle permanently in a certain place, and therefore permanent villages appeared, located near water sources and where the defense of the place is easy. Each village would have approximately 200 people.

The villages were built with the materials offered by each region, such as wood, stone, clay in the form of bricks, some villages were built on the water of rivers or lakes (stilt houses)

With this new social organization, the division of tasks was accentuated, where everyone must work but in different tasks, according to sex and age, and where the elderly played a fundamental role and were the ones who made the decisions.

With task specialization, emerges the group leader, the authority.

Regarding beliefs, religions appear as such, although not priests. Elements of nature are worshiped, such as lightning, rain, and the dead are worshiped, those who are gravediggers with their belongings (trousseau), therefore, they believe in an afterlife (life beyond death) .

ART

As for Neolithic art, they continue to paint walls as in the Paleolithic, but in these times the drawings are not isolated, but rather tell a story, and generally those representations are made on walls that are outdoors, and where they predominate human figures, and no longer animals as was common during the Paleolithic.

Sculptures continue to be made and the ceramics are painted.

But what stands out most at this time are the megaliths (mega: large; lithos: stone)

These stones are supposed to have a funerary purpose and they come in different forms: we find the menhirs (men: stone; hir: long), they are a set of blocks of stones several meters high that form long rows.

The dolmens (dol: table; men: stone) that surely served as collective tombs, were formed by large vertical stones that support another horizontal stone that acts as a roof.

                                     

The cromlechs (crom: curved; lech: stone) are large circles of 50 or 60 meters in diameter formed by large vertical stone blocks, which must also have had a ritual and religious value. A clear example of cromlech is the famous Stonehenge in England.

Stonehenge (Inglaterra)

 

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