ARCHAEOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY

UNIT-1.8B
CULTURAL EVOLUTION
NEOLITHIC CULTURE
BY- UTKARSH SINGH
 THE NEOLITHIC CULTURE
(10000 BC-2000 BC)
▪ The term Neolithic was coined by Sir John Lubbock in 1865 in his book
‘Prehistoric Times’ to denote an Age in which the stone implements
were more varied and skillfully made and often polished.
▪ V. Gordon Childe defined the Neolithic-Chalcolithic culture as a self-
sufficient food producing economy.
▪ M.C. Burkitt further outlined some characteristic features for the
Neolithic culture such as –
▪ the practice of agriculture, domestication of animals in terms of
economic life and grinding and polishing of stone tools, and also
manufacture of pottery in terms of technology.
▪ These concepts have been modified time to time with new research
and archaeological evidence found at different sites all over the world.
 CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES

The use of polished stone implements,

development of permanent dwellings,
cultural advances such as pottery making,
domestication of animals and plants,
the cultivation of grain and fruit trees, and weaving.
Shift from hunting/gathering/foraging to primitive farming
 NEOLITHIC – THE ‘REVOLUTION’
The term ‘Neolithic Revolution’ was introduced by V. Gordon Childe in 1936.
The Neolithic revolution led to several changes in human societies which
includes:
1) Creation of cities and permanent dwellings,
2) Food storage and granaries,
3) Pottery making,
4) Labour specialization,
5) Sense of personal property,
6) More complex hierarchical social structures,
7) Non-agricultural crafts specializations,
8) Trade and barter systems, etc.
▪ From being nomads, human adopted the sedentary life style relying on
domestications of plants and animals for their survival.
NEOLITHIC STONE TOOL TECHNOLOGY
▪ A new technique was introduced k/a grinding and polishing technique.
▪ Here, a stone of suitable size is initially trimmed and flaked. Then the
rough edges are made blunt by a technique called pecking. Finally the
tool is ground by using some abrasives like sand and water against a
hard surface like a rock to get a smoother and sharper surface and
edge.
▪ In some tools, only the edge is ground. Thereafter, the tool is polished
either intentionally by using animal fat, or unintentionally after regular
and long use when it accumulates sheen on the surface.
▪ Thus, the grinding and polishing method involves the following steps:
A. a) Flaking - to get the desired shape and size
B. b) Pecking - to blunt the rough edges
C. c) Grinding -to smoothen and sharpen the tool
D. d)Polishing - to acquire sheen or shine on the tool
 CERAMIC TECHNOLOGY
In the following the techniques of making pottery are given:
a)Clay preparation: clay collected from river banks & lakes, are
usually rich in mineral content and capable of being moulded and
have enough plasticity.
The clay first cleaned of straws and other impurities. It is then mixed
with water. However, at times, this clay dough is mixed with a
tempering material such as husks of paddy or sand etc., in order to
lessen its stickiness.
This prepared clay is well-kneaded (squeezed) till it reaches a
consistency. where it can be given shape.
b)Shaping Clay: can be done in two ways - handmade or wheel made.
 TYPES OF POTTERY
Handmade pottery- performed with bare hands. Here, it can be done by the coil-building
method or the mould method.
In the coil building method, the prepared clay is arranged in a long coil first, then the coil is
added on in order to get a basic shape. This basic shape is then beaten with a beater (usually
wooden) and the walls are flattened.
In the mould method, either a basket or an old pot can be used as a mould to give the basic
shape of the pot. Then with the help of the beater and polisher the walls are made thinner and
regular.

Wheel made pottery - In this method, the prepared clay is placed in the central portion of a
wheel which is fixed on a fulcrum. A portion of clay is taken and the wheel rotated regularly. As
the wheel rotates, the clay is given shape with the hands.It is seen that wheel made pottery can
be very thin and can be used to make pots of different shapes and sizes, depending on the
expertise of the potter.
The pots which are made either by hand or wheel can then be burnished and slipped.
Burnishing refers to a glossy feature that appears on the surface of the pot by polishing with a
polisher (in case of handmade pottery), or by repeatedly touching the surface with wet hands (in
case of wheel made pottery).
Slipping, the other hand, is a process by which the pot is dipped in a solution of clay and colour -
this process not only gives a colour to the pot but also closes up all the pores on the surface.
 NEOLITHIC TOOLS
The tools of this period were more durable and took longer time to finish.
Besides stone tools, the people also introduced ceramics, which could be
used for different purposes.
People made tools out of different types of igneous rocks by pecking,
grinding and polishing in order to adapt to their environmental
conditions although the use of earlier tools were still continued.
Surface of a wet sand stone was used as an abrasive. The tools thus made
were more durable and one took longer time to make them.
Thus mostly the Neolithic industry is referred to as pecked and ground
stone tool industry.
a)Celts (a term used for both Adzes and Axes- they constitute the most significant and
major group in the pecked and ground stone industry. They vary in size.
B)Chisels: these are narrow elongated cylindrical or rectangular celts with ground
edges which may be straight or convex. They are actual prototypes of the metal chisels
employed in carpentry. They might have been used for splitting purposes and for
cutting as well.
C)Wedges: These are small, roughly triangular/quadrilateral pieces with wedge
shaped pointed ground edge and pecked surfaces. These were used for splitting wood
and were probably made from broken axes.
D)Grinding or Rubbing stones: These are domestic implements usually found in
association with querns, serving the purpose of grinding and pounding of grains.
E)Saddle Querns or Mills stones: They derive their name from their appearance to
riding saddles. They were used for grinding and pounding grain and other cereals.
Majority of them are long, broad and shallow in depth. Their surfaces were hollowed
out by pecking.
F)Mace heads or ring stones: These are thick massive circular stones with a well-
drilled central hole. The central hole was pecked and drilled alternatively from both
surfaces. Their use as weights for digging sticks suggests they were agricultural
implements.
NEOLITHIC ARCHITECTURE
▪ The Neolithic people in the Levant, Anatolia, Syria,
northern Mesopotamia and central Asia were great
builders, utilising mud-brick to construct houses and
villages.
▪ At Çatalhöyük, houses were plastered and painted
with elaborate scenes of humans and animals.
▪ In Europe, the Neolithic long house with a timber
frame, pitched, thatched roof, and walls finished in
wattle and daub could be very large, presumably
housing a whole extended family. Villages might
comprise only a few such houses.
▪ Neolithic pit dwellings have been excavated in
Sweden.
▪ Elaborate tombs for the dead were also built. These
tombs are particularly numerous in Ireland
 ART & SYMBOLISM
▪ Rock Art and Cave Paintings: depicted animals,
hunting scenes, and symbolic motifs, providing
insights into their spiritual beliefs, daily life, and
environmental surroundings.
▪ Sculptures and Figurines: often representing
humans and animals. These artworks, carved from
stone or moulded from clay, served ritual, decorative,
or symbolic purposes.
▪ Symbolic Representations and Religious Beliefs:
Various symbols, such as geometric patterns and
animal motifs, were employed in art, pottery, and
personal adornments, possibly reflecting spiritual
beliefs or cosmological concepts.
BEGINNING OF THE FOOD PRODUCTION
▪ Possibly it was the women who started the art of cultivation. When man used
to go out for hunting, the women would gather wild plants and fruits from the
forest. They for the first time noted that the seeds falling on the bare ground
grew up into plants from which again seeds could be available. Thereafter, by
continuous trial and error, once they really learnt the art of agriculture.
▪ The earliest experimentation on food-production started in an area
extending eastward from the Mediterranean to the Zagros Mountain of Iran,
and northward from the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf to Anatolia in Turkey.
▪ These experimentation had specially begun from about 10000BC to 8000BC
by the Mesolithic hunters dominated in Palestine region whom we call
Natufians. These first farmers were not the potters. They used to dwell in
caves and in open sites but as the primitive farming was developed in them,
their settlements gradually became permanent.
▪ Several varieties of wheat, barley, lentil, peas were found to be cultivated
among them around 8000BC.
 SOURCE MATERIAL FOR STUDYING ANCIENT AGRICULTURE

▪ Archaeobotany is the study of the preserved seeds, fruits, nutshells, and

other plant macrofossils found in archaeological context which hints us
about the ancient human plant use.
▪ Macrofossils are the plant parts such as seeds, nutshells, and stems, which
are clearly visible to the naked eyes whereas the plant microfossils such as
pollen which contains the male gametes of seed- producing plants and
phytoliths which are the silica structures formed in the cells of many plants
are other important source of data. By studying these plant remains,
archaeo-botanist identifies wild and domestic variety of plants and
reconstruct ancient agricultural pattern.
▪ The identification of these materials can provide a general picture of the
role of plants in ancient diets as well as environmental information.
Flotation is done for obtaining seeds and other organic materials from soil
by using liquids.
CAUSES OF DOMESTICATIONS OF PLANTS
Several hypotheses are made for explaining the causes of domestications of plants
which is the basis of Neolithic Revolution.
V Gordon Childe in 1952 suggested that environmental changes at the end of the
Pleistocene were the impetus towards food production and argued that about 10,000
years ago, the climate in parts of West Asia became drier due to a northward shift of the
summer rains. This drying up led to a concentration of people, plants, and animals close
to water resources such as rivers and oases. This enforced closeness eventually led to
new relationships of dependence between humans, plants, and animals, resulting in
domestication.
Subsequently the theory of Gordon Childe was questioned by Robert J. Braidwood in
1960. Braidwood opined that the environmental changes had occurred within the
Pleistocene as well and had not led to agriculture. According to him, domestication took
place in certain nuclear zones, which supported a variety of wild plants and animals
that had the potential for domestication. In such areas, domestication was the natural
outcome of human experimentation.
Further, the theory of Braidwood was criticized by Lewis R. Binford in 1968 who
emphasized on the external demographic stress and argued that at the end of the
Pleistocene era, as a result of a rise in sea levels, people living along the coasts
migrated to less populated inland areas. This upset the people-food equilibrium in
inland areas and gave an impetus to the search for new strategies to
increase food supplies.
 NEOLITHIC IN ASIA
▪A number of centers have been
discovered from Asia where ancient
farming took place. But the,'Fertile
Crescent' claims the supreme
importance as the birthplace of farming.
▪ The agricultural settlements in the Near
East occurred along an arc of land
(crescent) extending from Palestine, Syria
and Cilicia, through the foot-hill zones of
Turkey and Northern Iraq, went up to Iran
and Capsian shore and Turkestan.
▪ The area included the rich soil valleys of
the rivers namely Tigris and Euphrates
and came to be known as Fertile Crescent
for the extraordinary fertility of the land.
THE NATUFIANS
▪ The Natufians were actually the Mesolithic hunter and gatherer group of Western Asia.
They used to live in rock-shelters but showed a tendency of making settlements at
open stations as primitive farming developed among them.
▪ They exhibited neither Neolithic celts nor pottery as because they were not true
Neolithic people. Instead, they had sickles made of mounted small flints.
▪ Repeated cutting of the siliceous grasses made these sickles considerably
polished.
▪ The Natufians of Near West though maintained their living by hunting and fishing,
occasionally they used to harvest wild grasses for grains.
▪ The area was rich with natural resources; wild ancestors of wheat, barley and millet
were especially abundant. Therefore, the people learnt to utilize these plants.
▪ The Sorghum seems to be most ancient in use.
▪ As soon as the people realized the usefulness of crop, they exerted a steady pull back.
Ultimately they learned on purposeful growing of those plants near their settlement.
▪ The Natufians were more settled than any other Mesolithic communities of the world.
By 7000BC we find a substantial development of settlement at Jericho. A high wall of
tough stone enclosed the town.
▪ This Nautfian culture of Near East bears the concrete evidence of food cultivation,
though in a very incipient form.
▪ The first cultivated grains were the wheat and the barley. Later, the millet, rye, flax
and bean were added.
EVIDENCE FROM JERICHO
▪ The Jordan Valley and the Damascus basin form the
Western part of the Fertile Crescent. It is distinguished
from the Northern and Eastern parts mainly for the
very early domestication of grasses like wheat and
barley.
▪ Clear evidence of domesticated plants has also been
found in Jericho from around 8300 B.C.
▪ Jericho in Palestine became a large village where
agriculture is evidenced but there is no evidence of
animal domestication.
▪ During excavations it was found in the later levels that
Jericho was surrounded by a two metre wide stone wall
with rounded towers. This is one of the earliest
instances of fortification in the world.
 EVIDENCE FROM CATAL HUYUK
▪ The site of Catal Huyuk in Turkey was first excavated by
James Mellaart between 1961 and 1965. It is dated to
7400–6000 BC

▪ Cultivation-Catal Huyuk was a large village in which

wheat, barley and peas were grown and animals like
cattle, sheep and goat were domesticated.

▪ HOUSES The mud houses which were supposed to be

entered through the roof consisted of two rooms and
were built back to back. The Walls of the houses were
found painted with leopards, erupting volcano and
vultures devouring human corpses without heads.

▪ Evidence of Material culture - pottery, stone axes,

stone ornaments, bone tools, wooden bowls and
basketry.
 EVIDENCE FROM JARMO
▪ The site of Jarmo of Northeastern Iraq was
excavated in 1951 by Robert Braidwood is dated to
ca. 7,000 B.C.
▪ The houses were made of adobe (pressed mud); the
earlier structures had no foundations, while later
houses had stone foundations.
▪ At Jarmo there is also evidence of permanently
established farming villages I (6500-5800 B.C.) with
about 20 to 30 mud houses, each with a courtyard
and several rooms associated with ground stone
axes, querns, pottery, etc. The people grew wheat
and barley and domesticated sheep and goat.
OTHER FACETS OF NEOLITHIC AGE
(A) Beginning of the Art of Weaving
▪ Weaving of true textiles originated in Neolithic Age. Like basketry, matting and
netting were known to the Mesolithic people, but weaving, as a fairly
complicated art did not appear until Neolithic. It could be done either by hand
or by the aid of simple tools like net gauges. Weaving also demanded fibers,
which could not be obtained from the hairy coat of wild sheep. Woolly coat or
sheep's body developed after domestication. Therefore, in Neolithic, use of
both cotton and woolen threads were evident.
(B) Manufacture of Boats
Neolithic settlements were generally built close to the shores of lake. Neolithic
people learnt the use of the trunks of trees. They used to tie several logs
together to make a raft and that was used for water-transport. They also used
their axes and fire to hollow out tree trunks. These served as boats to the
Neolithic people. One such dugout canoe has been recovered from Perth.
(C) DEVELOPMENT OF CULTURE

Use of language, and the beginning of religion are the chief indicators
of culture. What we mean by culture today had claimed its beginning
in Neolithic Age. In a more primitive stage i.e. in the Paleolithic Age
men had no language. Ideas and feelings used to be communicated
through signs. Of course they could make some kinds of sound to
express the situations like getting alarmed or delighted. The power of
speech was developed with time and the vocabulary also increased.
Although the cave paintings of Upper Paleolithic time have been
discovered, the New Stone age paintings are much more developed.
Man's love for art has been evident in these paintings. Subjects, forms,
techniques of art provide the information about a higher
level of culture.
 (D)SURPLUS FOOD GRAIN, STORAGE AND TRADE
▪ As agricultural products increased, there was the need for storing the yields which could be
used for the next few months and moreover to keep some grain as seeds for the next agriculture.
If there was more surplus food, those could be given to another person or group in exchange of
other material, known as barter system.
▪ With more perfection of agricultural techniques, early farmers were benefited with surplus
grains which needed storage. Contrast to the hunter gatherers who could not easily store food
for long due to their migratory lifestyle, early farmers with a sedentary dwelling could store
their surplus grain. This resulted in the development of granaries that allowed them to store
their seeds longer.
▪ So with surplus food grains and food security, the population expanded and large populations
could be sustained. This benefit of farming led the community to sustain during drought or
flooding or any other natural calamity. Moreover, these surpluses could also be exchanged with
other communities marking the early beginnings of trade.
▪ Slowly society developed with the surplus food supply which can be considered as the most
significant pre-condition for the emergence and development of cities. Because of these
developments, Neolithic period can be considered as one of the major turning points in human
history. The use of agriculture allowed humans to develop permanent settlements, social classes,
and new technologies.
 (E)INCREASED DISEASE
Another significant feature of the Neolithic revolution is the increase of disease
among the early farmers.
▪ Disease spread more rapidly during this period than hunter-gathering stage.
Inadequate sanitary practices and the domestication of animals were probably
the main causes of this problem of deaths and sickness due to the increase of
disease, probably the diseases jumped from the animal to the human
population.
▪ The diseases like influenza, smallpox, and measles etc. spread from animals to
humans. However, in the process of natural selection, the humans built up
immunities to the diseases.
▪ Research of nutrition and disease based on an analysis of human bones
suggest that hunter-gatherers had a high-protein diet, one that was more
varied, balanced, and healthy compared to that of early farmers, whose diet
tended to be high in carbohydrates, with an emphasis on cereals or root crops.
Paleo-pathology, the study of ancient disease explains the high incidence of
disease reflected in the bones of certain early farming communities.
 (F) DEMOGRAPHIC CHANGES AND SOCIAL TRANSFORMATIONS

▪ Neolithic revolution brought demographic changes to the early societies. The food
production supports higher populations and due to collaborative efforts of the family
members agricultural products increased. As man settled down at one place, they
could afford more children and family expanded.
▪ There were certain social transformations happened in the early societies in terms of
grouping at various organizational level such as families, chiefdoms and finally states.
Social stratification / hierarchy are another important aspect which grew side by side.
▪ The food producers became farmers, craft specialised persons formed craftsmen’s
groups, religious elites possessed the priesthoods, hereditary rulers became kings,
slavery and gender discrimination started and further warfare and trade, law and
defence mechanism formed.
▪ With the development of state, political (territory-based) institutions, organized
religion, urban/administrative centres, hierarchical system of classes, division and
specialization of labour, technological development and trade and at a later stage
writing emerged.
▪ The Neolithic Revolution is not only important for developments in social organization
and technology but also include an increased tendency to live in permanent or semi-
permanent settlements.