What is the significance of the neolithic period

The traditional view is that the shift to agricultural food production supported a denser population, which in turn supported larger sedentary communities, the accumulation of goods and tools, and specialization in diverse forms of new labor.

Overall a population could increase its size more rapidly when resources were more available. The resulting larger societies led to the development of different means of decision making and governmental organization. Food surpluses made possible the development of a social elite freed from labor, who dominated their communities and monopolized decision-making.

Social class was determined by occupation, with farmers and craftsmen at the lower end, and priests and warriors at the higher. Neolithic populations generally had poorer nutrition, shorter life expectancies, and a more labor-intensive lifestyle than hunter-gatherers. Diseases jumped from animals to humans, and agriculturalists suffered from more anemia, vitamin deficiencies, spinal deformations, and dental pathologies.

The way we live today is directly related to the advances made in the Neolithic Revolution. From the governments we live under, to the specialized work laborers do, to the trade of goods and food, humans were irrevocably changed by the switch to sedentary agriculture and domestication of animals.

Human population swelled from five million to seven billion today. Boundless vets and curates high-quality, openly licensed content from around the Internet. This particular resource used the following sources:. Privacy Policy. Skip to main content. Search for:. Key Points During the Paleolithic Era, humans grouped together in small societies and subsisted by gathering plants, and fishing, hunting or scavenging wild animals. The Neolithic Revolution references a change from a largely nomadic hunter-gatherer way of life to a more settled, agrarian-based one, with the inception of the domestication of various plant and animal species—depending on species locally available and likely also influenced by local culture.

The shift to agricultural food production supported a denser population, which in turn supported larger sedentary communities, the accumulation of goods and tools, and specialization in diverse forms of new labor. Permanent settlements resulted in the construction of megalithic monuments requiring considerable time and effort that was unavailable to nomads.

Neolithic societies produced female and animal statues, engravings , and elaborate pottery decoration. In Western Europe, though, this period is best represented by the megalithic large stone monuments and passage tomb structures found from Malta to Portugal, through France and Germany, and across southern England to most of Wales and Ireland.

Perhaps the best known megalithic henge is Stonehenge, located on Salisbury Plain in the county of Wiltshire in south central England. The surrounding circular earth bank and ditch, which constitute the earliest phase of the monument, have been dated to about BCE. Radiocarbon dating suggests that the first bluestones in the innermost ring of Stonehenge were raised between and BCE, although they may have been at the site as early as BCE.

Although human remains have been found at the site, archaeologists are uncertain whether the site served funerary purposes, ritual purposes, or both. Its alignments with the sunrise of the summer solstice and sunset of the winter solstice present the possibility that the site served as a rudimentary astronomical calendar to help early agrarian societies acclimate to the approaching growing season and harvest.

Even the smallest bluestones weigh several tons each. These stones, so-called because they appear blue when wet, were quarried approximately miles away in the Prescelli Mountains in southwest Wales. Even more impressive, the quarrying and transport of the stones took place without the aid of the wheel, requiring a sophisticated method of transport and construction involving felled trees and earthen mounds. The larger Sarcen stones that form the post-and-lintel ring and he free-standing trilithons were quarried approximately 25 miles to the north of Salisbury Plain, requiring the same transport system of felled trees and earthen mounds.

One of the best known prehistoric sites in the United Kingdom, Avebury contains the largest stone circle in Europe. Located in the same county as Stonehenge, Avebury lies north of the better-known site. Constructed over several hundred years in the third millennium BCE, the monument comprises a large henge with a large outer stone circle and two separate smaller stone circles situated inside the center of the monument.

Its original purpose is unknown, although archaeologists believe that it was likely used for ritual or ceremony. The Avebury monument was part of a larger prehistoric landscape containing several older monuments. It was not designed as a single monument but was the result of various projects undertaken at different times during late prehistory.

The construction of Avebury and Stonehenge indicate that a stable agrarian economy had developed in this region of England by to BCE. Passage tombs or graves consist of narrow passages made of large stones and one or multiple burial chambers covered in earth or stone. Megaliths were commonly used in the construction of passage tombs and typically date to the Neolithic.

A common layout is the cruciform passage grave, characterized by a cross-shaped structure. View of Newgrange, Ireland : Newgrange is more than five hundred years older than the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt and predates Stonehenge by about a thousand years.

The Newgrange monument is comprised of a large mound built of alternating layers of earth and stones, covered with growing grass and with flat white quartz stones studded around the circumference.

The mound covers square meters of ground. Within, a passage stretches through the structure ending at three small chambers. Newgrange contains various examples of abstract Neolithic art carved onto its rocks.

These are separated into 10 categories consisting of curvilinear forms like circles, spirals, arcs, serpentiforms, and dot-in-circles, as well as rectilinear examples such as chevrons, lozenges, radials, parallel lines , and offsets.

There is no agreement as to what the site was used for, but it has been speculated that it had some form of religious significance due to its alignment with the rising sun which floods the stone room with light on the winter solstice. Knowth is a Neolithic passage grave and monument located in the valley of the River Boyne in Ireland. Located in close proximity to similar sites such as Newgrange, Knowth consists of one large cruciform passage tomb and 17 smaller satellite tombs, estimated to date between and BCE.

View of the eastern passage, Knowth, Ireland : The east-west orientation of the passages at Knowth suggests astronomical alignment with the equinoxes.

Additionally, the monument contains three recesses and basin stones into which the cremated remains of the dead were placed. The right recess is larger and more elaborately decorated than the others, a typical trait of Irish passage graves. The reason, however, remains unknown. Many monuments at Knowth were megalithic tombs, and archaeologists speculate that most have religious significance. Knowth is reputed to have approximately one-third of all megalithic art in Western Europe carved into its rock faces.

Typical motifs include spirals, lozenges, and serpentiform markings. Much of the art was carved on the backs of stones, a phenomenon known as hidden art. There are many theories about the function of hidden art, including a desire to hide images or the recycling of stones in order to use both sides.

The megalithic temple complexes of Ggantija on the Mediterranean islands of Gozo and Malta are notable for their gigantic Neolithic structures dating to 3, BCE. Situated at the end of the Xanghra plateau and facing the southeast, the temples are built in a clover-leaf shape, with inner facing blocks marking the outline which was then filled with rubble.

They lead to a series of semi-circular apses connected by a central passage. Evidence of sheep and goat herding has been found in Iraq and Anatolia modern-day Turkey as far back as about 12, years ago. Domesticated animals, when used as labor, helped make more intensive farming possible and also provided additional nutrition via milk and meat for increasingly stable populations. The agricultural revolution had a variety of consequences for humans.

But the new period also ushered in the potential for modern societies—civilizations characterized by large population centers, improved technology and advancements in knowledge, arts, and trade. All rights reserved. Why settle down? Share Tweet Email.

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