Introduction
The Neolithic Revolution is humans’ transition from appropriating natural food through hunting, fishing, and gathering to reproducing it through agriculture and animal husbandry. Consequently, this revolution laid the foundation for the modern development of society. Accordingly, the essay will identify the main features of the Neolithic Revolution, including its primary centers, settlements, and notable cultural achievements. Thus, the Neolithic Revolution changed how people obtained food and cultural characteristics.
Characteristics of the Neolithic Revolution
It is essential to acknowledge that climate change has significantly impacted people’s lives. Approximately 11,500 years ago, the Earth began to warm sharply, and the glacier located on a vast territory of northern Eurasia began to retreat rapidly. It was followed by numerous herds of large animals, which were a primary food source for humans during the glaciation period. Some humans started to leave, settling in new lands, and humanity explored new territories in search of the most convenient areas for habitation.
However, many communities did not leave their places of residence. They were now forced to explore new sources of food within their regions. This process resulted in a transition to a new type of farming.
Approximately 10,000 years ago in the Middle East and Mesopotamia, the transition from a subsistence economy, characterized by hunting, fishing, and gathering, to a productive economy, namely farming and stockbreeding, began. These changes were global throughout human history, and modern scholars have referred to this process as the Neolithic Revolution. Indeed, people have always wanted to provide for themselves with food. When they were in a subsistence economy, they did not influence the restoration of natural resources. Consequently, everything depended on nature, and humans only used what was already available.
However, they established a productive economy in the favorable climates of the Near East and Mesopotamia. This area was also known as the “Fertile Crescent” and was characterized by favorable conditions for human habitation. Cultivation of various crops was more labor-intensive than gathering. Nevertheless, farming provided a stable crop, protected from natural disasters such as droughts or heavy rains. This allowed people to utilize cattle breeding, which ensured a steady meat supply.
It is essential to note that nearly all modern cultivated plants originated during the Neolithic Revolution. Wheat, barley, and horticultural crops were grown on the territory of the Fertile Crescent, and goats, sheep, pigs, and cattle were bred. During the Neolithic Revolution, the first crafts appeared. As a result, the cultivation of flax made it possible to produce light and comfortable clothing. Furthermore, using earthenware made preserving food supplies and preparing various dishes possible.
Moreover, spinning became a new type of economy. It prompted the invention of the first wheel, which served as a flywheel and a weight for the spindle. Along with spinning came weaving, which resulted in the creation of another manufactured product, fabric.
The first loom accompanied the emergence of weaving in the Northern Black Sea region. The emergence of these new industries gave rise to the concepts of the thread of fate and the divine weavers associated with them, including the idea that the thread serves as the basis of the universe and the fabric represents the universe itself. Water and land transportation developed significantly in the Neolithic period. Boats made of tree trunks became commonplace, and sleds and carts, which may have been harnessed to bulls, were used as land transportation. From this era, cattle became a source of meat, bones, horns, wool, and traction.
The transition to agriculture facilitated the formation of a settled way of life. Large settlements with permanent dwellings, storage facilities for agricultural products, and buildings for housing livestock emerged. Thriving farmers’ communities attracted people from other clans who wished to live there. The clan societies were replaced by neighborhood communities, which consisted of large patriarchal families headed by a clan elder. Therefore, this arrangement of society made it possible to conduct a productive economy in the most efficient manner.
The Main Centers of Early Agricultural Cultures in Asia and Africa
The most famous region for the cultivation of agricultural plants and the domestication of animals is the Fertile Crescent in the Near East. Initially, these processes took place in the foothills of modern-day Turkey, Israel, Iraq, and Iran, where favorable conditions existed for the development of agriculture. Somewhat later, agriculture was developed in Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, on the territory of modern Turkmenistan, and in the Caucasus. In addition, it gradually spread to Europe, first in the Balkan Peninsula and then throughout the entire territory.
However, the fertile crescent was not the only region where plant cultivation occurred. The cultivation of plants occurred independently in different regions of the world. Animals were domesticated everywhere, and native plant species were also cultivated. These were different plants or one plant but of different varieties, such as wheat.
People began to use selection to obtain the most productive varieties, selecting and cultivating the most fruitful and persistent plants. Therefore, other cultivation centers were the Indian, Central Asian, Chinese, and Southeast Asian regions. Although initially influenced by the Middle East and its fertile crescent, the Mediterranean center was subsequently adopted by many plants.
Ethiopia was Africa’s most important and only center of origin of cultivated plants. However, several significant centers emerged in the Americas, most notably the Central American and South American (Andean) centers. Moreover, they all developed independently.
Individuals cultivated plants at different times, sometimes for extended periods, and it was in these regions that the agricultural society later formed. State formations began to form based on the development of agriculture in these centers. Additionally, wildlife began to retreat from the regions inhabited by farming communities. Landscapes, not adapted for human life during economic activity, were transformed into comfortable living and permanently cultivated areas.
The First Proto-City Settlements
It is significant to emphasize that human settlements were accumulated on a particular territory, which served as a prototype. The first proto-urban settlements appeared approximately 10,000-9,500 years ago in the Middle East, including Jericho, Göbekli Tepe, and Çatalhöyük. Protohorods are permanent settlements where inhabitants built houses, developed agricultural and cattle-breeding economies, gradually mastered various crafts, and engaged in trade.
The population of those proto-towns was not yet socially divided and had no social structure or state organization. The population of such settlements was several thousand people, and the number of houses at their heyday was more than 2 thousand. Protohorod settlements determined the need for a settled way of life in the new farming conditions.
However, Jericho in Palestine is now recognized as the first proto-town. Jericho appeared more than 10 thousand years ago, and for a long time, it was unique. At the initial stage of the existence of this city, its inhabitants did not use pottery; that is, they did not even know pottery. Therefore, the advancements brought by the Neolithic Revolution had not yet been fully adopted. In contrast, Jericho was surrounded by a wall, probably to protect it from enemies, although this is an exception for pro-Hellenistic settlements. Around the city, there was an agricultural area where primitive irrigation was used; as for cattle breeding, sheep had already been domesticated.
Besides, proto-towns began to produce metalwork for the first time. Copper was the first metal to be processed 8 thousand years ago. It was melted into special forms. This metal was unsuitable for heavy work due to its softness, but it was easy to forge or remelt. Two thousand years later, they learned to make a complex alloy of copper and tin, bronze. Many achievements of the Neolithic Revolution were mastered in such pro-town settlements in the Fertile Crescent, and farming became the principal food source.
The Beginning of the Calendar
A calendar is a system for calculating time based on the periodicity of celestial bodies’ movements. It was during the Neolithic period that the prosperity of these tribes depended largely on the success of their crops. At that time, the role of the calendar in life, a kind of cult of the calendar, emerged. This scientific elaboration of the notion of time and its measurement is connected to the psychological breakdown in relation to time, as well as the notion of the value of time, which the first philosophers only weakly developed.
Observations of the solar calendar are much more difficult, as they must be kept for 365 days. At the same time, people were already using this calendar in the Neolithic era. They could use their knowledge to build elaborate structures that allowed them to celebrate the summer and winter solstices. Evidence of their excellent knowledge of the calendar is the famous construction of Stonehenge in the south of modern England, made up of enormous stone blocks called megaliths. The megaliths are arranged so that it is possible to determine the time of the summer and winter solstice.
Calendar knowledge became significant in the development of agriculture. In fact, a farmer had to know exactly when to prepare for the beginning of work, considering the development of weather phenomena for each season. For instance, the calendar was required to gather the harvest before the onset of unfavorable periods. The use of the calendar was a required outcome of the Neolithic Revolution. Then, calendars formed further during the establishment of the first civilizations.
Neolithic Art
Massive changes in how people lived also changed the kinds of art they made. Neolithic sculpture became larger, partly because people no longer had to carry it around. In addition, pottery became more widespread and was used to store food gathered from farms. Art began to emerge among the Cro-Magnon people, including a developed visual art characterized by realistic forms.
People mostly depicted animals they hunted: bison, deer, horses, mammoths, wild boars, etc. There are over 70 ancient caves where paintings were found, the most famous being the paintings in caves in France and Spain, for example, the Cave of the Three Brothers in France and the Altamira Caves in Spain. Torchlight was believed to be used for religious rituals here, and some images had magical significance.
The material and spiritual culture of the primitive system reached its most significant development in the Neolithic period. At this time, the technique of making tools from stone improved. All of them were processed by grinding and polishing, sawing and drilling, allowing people to shape the stone into the required shape with greater success. The axe was the most effective tool for the Neolithic period, which greatly facilitated human labor in cutting down forest areas for agriculture, harvesting building materials, constructing houses, boats, and more.
One of the most prominent features of the Neolithic period, common to all cultures, was ceramic ware production. Ceramics became a new artificial product for making tools. As a result, a new set of ideas in the spiritual culture came to life. The shape and ornamentation of pottery from different cultures reflected 300 anthropomorphic characters, plants, and cosmic symbols.
Numerous examples prove that tableware has become one of the most important symbols of the Sun, the sky, and the Universe. Ceramics were made by specially appointed people on certain days of the year, accompanied by special rituals. The main gods were often considered the household patrons, and potters were highly respected.
Consequently, people not only made tools but also decorated them. This means that they developed an artistic taste, thanks to which they sought to design the things they used aesthetically. The Cro-Magnons also began to pay attention to their appearance; men and women wore various jewelry pieces, painted their bodies, and decorated their clothes. Therefore, the emergence of art during the Neolithic Revolution testified to the formation of abstract thinking in humans and, subsequently, creativity in various forms.
The thinking and sound language significantly contributed to the formation of man during the Neolithic Revolution. It was probably from this time that language systems began to form, which are not much different from today’s. Eventually, with the transformation of tribal languages into languages of nationalities and the decay of primitive society, language families began to form, meaning groups of languages with a typical grammatical structure and a basic vocabulary derived from common roots. The most prominent language families already existed at the end of primitive society.
Conclusion
In summary, the material and spiritual culture of the people who lived during the Neolithic Revolution developed according to the new socio-economic situation. The development of agriculture marked it and, hence, the gradual transition of tribes to a sedentary lifestyle. The improvement of the culture of agriculture led to the development of crafts, which, in turn, contributed to the development of applied art. At the same time, samples of oral language inherent in the primary language families first appeared. Thus, the Neolithic culture and the Neolithic Revolution became a significant period of human development.
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