Stone Age and Neolithic Revolution

Study Notes

The Stone Age is a period of prehistory in which humans used primitive stone tools.
The Stone Age ended around 5,000 years ago when humans in the Near East began working with metal and making tools and weapons from bronze.
Some experts believe the use of stone tools may have developed even earlier in our primate ancestors, since some modern apes, including bonobos, can also use stone tools to get food.
Stone artifacts tell anthropologists a lot about early humans, including how they made things, how they lived and how human behavior evolved over time.
The growing of crops on a regular basis gave rise to more permanent settlements. Historians refer to these settlements as Neolithic farming villages.
Jericho is located in Palestine near the Dead Sea and began its existence around 8000 B.C. Jericho consisted of about eight to ten acres on which an estimated two to three thousand people lived. It was inhabited by people who depended on collecting wild seeds for their food. It is probable that they did not plant seeds in reality, but owned scythes with flint edges, straight bone handles to harvest wild seeds, and stone mortars with handles for grinding them. Some of these groups lived in caves, while other groups occupied primitive villages excelling in the art of architecture. They started to build round huts from sun-dried bricks. They buried their dead with their jewelry in graves made out of rock.
Çatal Hüyük is located in modern day Turkey, and was even larger than the civilization of Jericho. Its walls enclosed 32 acres, and its population reached at its height around 6,000 inhabitants. People lived in simple mud brick houses built so close to one another that there were few streets. To get to their homes people walked on rooftops and enter through the ceiling.
Their diet consisted of at least twelve products such as fruits, nuts, and three kinds of wheat. People grew their own food and kept it in storerooms in their homes. They also domesticated animals, especially cattle, which produced meat, milk and hides. As a result of this food production, people often had more food than they needed so they created food surpluses. This allowed people to do things other than farming. Some people became artisans. These workers made jewelry and weapons to trade with neighboring peoples. The people of this area also built shrines and temples containing figures of gods and goddesses.
Agriculture brought with it further transformations. To tend their fields, people had to stop wandering and move into permanent villages, where they developed new tools and created pottery.
The Neolithic Revolution marked the beginning of agriculture, which allowed for the mass establishment of permanent settlements and the domestication of plants and animals.
This revolution led to advancements in tools for farming, war and art.