Neolithic age

NEOLITHIC AGE

From the Era of the beginning of the farming to the Metals Age.

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Neolithic Revolution  was the transition of many human cultures from a lifestyle

of hunting and gathering to one of agriculture and

settlement.

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NEOLITHIC TECHNOLOGY• The mankind made

new tools as:– Sickle (hoz, para

segar el cereal).– Hand mill (molino

de mano, para moler el cereal).

– A chopper axe ( un hacha de piedra, pero la piedra está pulimentada).

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It is a hand-held agricultural tool designed with variously curved blades and typically used for harvesting.

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HAND MILL

They were first used in the Neolithic to grind cereals into flour.

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THE DOMESTICATION OF ANIMAL SPECIES AND PLANTS.

Plants.• Wheat (Trigo).• Barley (Cebada).• Lentil (Legumbres

como la lenteja).• Rice (arroz) in Asia. • Corn (maiz) in

America.

Animal species.– VACA (cow). – OVEJA (sheep). – CABRA (goat).– CERDO (pig). – PERRO (dog). – One of the last

animal species domesticated was the cat.

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THE BEGINNING OF POTTERY (cerámica).

• How to make a bowl (vasija):– 1. Clay (barro).– 2. Model the clay. – 3. Make some

geometric paintings on the clay or make some lines or basic symbols.

– We use holes on the ground as ovens to cook the bowls.

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THE MANKIND BECAME SEDENTARY.

• FIRST VILLAGES: mankind built first houses with a circular shape. They hadn't different rooms. In the middle of the house they used to made a circle with stones and they used it as kitchen and heating.

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• After a few centuries the mankind built their houses with a rectangular shape.

• They began to divide the house in different rooms, one of them for the animals.

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NEOLITHIC ARCHAELOGICAL SITES.

• The manking became sedentary (farmers and shepperds) in the Middle East (countries such as Iraq, Israel, Palestine, Syria, south Turkey and west Iran).

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CATAL HÜYÜK (south Turkey).

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Approximately between 7500 BC and 5700 BC.

An average population of between 5,000 and 7,000. The sites were set up as large numbers of buildings clustered together. The inhabitants lived in mudbrick houses that were crammed together in an aggregate structure. There are no footpaths or streets. Houses were clustered in a honeycomb-like maze. Most were accessed by holes in the ceiling, with doors reached by ladders and stairs. The rooftops were streets. The ceiling openings also served as the only source of ventilation.

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CHATAL HUYUK' S TEMPLES-Archeologists found out some houses they identified as temples.

- They found out rooms decorated with paintings and sculptures of heads of bulls.

- In the Ancient Times the bull was identified with the virility (maleness) of the man and in general with fertility.

- Some of the paintings found at Chatal Huyuk show hunting scenes, rituals dance. They also found out some sculptures of heads of bulls, pregnant women and a figure of the “Mother Goddess” (la Diosa Madre).

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Nowadays, some villages in Africa are still built with the same structure of Catal Huyuk. It is a defensive structure.

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NEOLITICH ON EAST MEDITERRANEAN SEA :JERICHO

- The village was surrounded by a wall (3.6 metres high and 1.8 metres thick) but for first time they built a tower to defend themselves.

- Jericho was near the Death Sea and they used to trade with salt.

- Jericho had already 2.000 people. They were the only one sedentary people around the Death Sea; the rest of the people were nomads.

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Founded 9600 BC.

The town contained round mud-brick houses. With the past of the time the architecture changed to rectilinear buildings made of mudbricks on stone foundations. The dead were buried under the floors. This population had domesticated wheat, barley and pulses. The construction of the wall and the tower indicates a complex social organization. Population as much as 2000 people.

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- Archaeologists found some skulls decorated as human heads.- They buried their deads under the ground of the houses.

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The plastered skulls represent some of the earliest forms of burial practices. During the Neolithic period, the deceased were often buried under the floors of their homes.  Sometimes the skull was removed, and its cavities filled with plaster and painted. Some scholars believe that this burial practice represents an early form of ancestor worship, where the plastered skulls were used to commemorate and respect family ancestors.

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