Neolithic

The Neolithic, (Greek neos=new, lithos=stone, or "New Stone Age") was a period in the development of human technology that is traditionally the last part of the Stone Age. The name was invented by John Lubbock in 1865 as a refinement of the three-age system. The term is more commonly used in the Old World and its application to cultures in the Americas and Oceania is problematic. It follows the terminal Pleistocene Epipalaeolithic and early Holocene Mesolithic periods, beginning with the start of farming and ending when metal tools became widespread in the Copper Age (chalcolithic), Bronze Age or Iron Age, depending on geographical region. The term "Neolithic" thus does not refer to a specific chronological period but a suite of behavioural and cultural characteristics including the use of (both wild and domestic) crops and the use of domesticated animals. Some archaeologists have long advocated replacing "Neolithic" with a more descriptive term, such as "Early Village Communities", although this has not gained wide acceptance.

Social organization

There is little evidence for developed hierarchies in the Neolithic, which is a cultural phenomenon more closely associated with the Bronze Age. Families and households were still largely economically independent. Excavations in Central Europe have also revealed that early Neolithic Linear Ceramic cultures were building large arrangements of circular ditches between 4800 BC and 4600 BC. These stuctures (and their later Neolithic equivalents such as causewayed enclosures, burial mounds, and henges) required considerable time and labour to construct, which suggests that some influential individuals were able to organise and direct human labour. There is also good evidence for fortified settlement at Linearbandkeramic sites along the Rhine, as well as evidence for inter-group conflict from Neolithic sites in Britain. Control of labour and inter-group conflict is characteristic of corporate-level or 'tribal' groups, headed by a charismatic individual (e.g., a 'big man', or proto-chief) such as a lineage group head. These sociopolitical entities later developed into the chiefdoms of the European Early Bronze Age. The Iroquois, Pueblo people, Maya civilization and the Maori are examples of stone-tool-dependent cultures with complex social and political systems.

Related Topics:
Evidence - Hierarchies - Bronze Age - Central Europe - Linear Ceramic culture - Circular ditches - 4800 BC - 4600 BC - Causewayed enclosure - Burial mound - Henge - Linearbandkeramic - Rhine - Big man - Chief - Chiefdoms - Iroquois - Pueblo people - Maya civilization - Maori

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