Timeline of the Neolithic Phase

Around 7,000 B.C., the Neolithic phase started in India. It was the Stone Age’s third and last phase. The Paleolithic Age and Mesolithic Age were the other two parts. Sir John Lubbock coined the word Neolithic in his publication, Prehistoric Times, in 1865 to describe an era in which stone tools were more diversified, skillfully crafted, and frequently polished. Following the first two periods, the Neolithic or New Stone Age was characterised by the use of polished stone implements, the development of permanent dwellings. 

Much progress was seen in the Neolithic age, such as pottery making, animal husbandry of animals and plants, grain and fruit tree farming, and weaving. With progress, there were many limitations seen in the Neolithic phase too. Let us discuss them in detail.

Origin of the Neolithic Age

There was no specific reason for people to start farming around 12,000 years ago. The Neolithic Revolution’s origins may have differed from place to place.

Around 14,000 years ago, near the end of the last Ice Age, when the Earth began to warm, wild wheat and barley began to grow when the temperature rose in the Fertile Crescent, bordered on the west by the Mediterranean Sea and the east by the Persian Gulf. Natufians, a pre-Neolithic culture, began constructing permanent residences in the area.

The Prehistoric Period, or when human life existed before records chronicled human behaviour, lasted around three million years and ended around 1,200 B.C. The Stone Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age are the three archaeological periods commonly recognised.

Neolithic Age- part of the Stone Age

The Stone Age is divided into further three ages, which are as follows:

1. Palaeolithic Age – Old Stone Age
2. Monolithic Age – Middle Stone Age
3. Neolithic Age – New Stone Age

The Neolithic Era, generally known as the New Stone Age, was the period following the Stone or Ice Age and preceding the Copper and Bronze Ages in some regions. The era lasted from around 9,000 B.C. to around 3,000 B.C.

Timeline of the New Stone Age

9500 BCE- Farming
The food supply changed dramatically from Paleolithic to Neolithic when agriculture was established, bringing the Neolithic Revolution. Humans were Nomads throughout the Paleolithic Age, continuously travelling around the world searching for vegetables to eat and hunt. When the Neolithic Age began, everything altered dramatically. After agriculture was invented, most of the food supply was produced, not harvested. Many types of grain were gathered, allowing for huge food production without the need to remain nomadic. 

Overall, the food supply shifted from a meat/wild plant-based diet to a diet consisting entirely of what they were growing.

4000 BCE- Agricultural tools
People began to make significant technological achievements around 6000 years after cultivation was developed. Advanced farming tools were among these advancements utilised to speed up the harvesting and sowing of crops. Humans used twigs and their hands to harvest before these tools. This was a significant transition from the Palaeolithic period when there was no farming and hence no need for this technology. Humans had spears to hunt animals in the pre-agriculture era but no farming tools.

3500 BCE- Beginning of civilisation
In contrast to the New Stone Age, humans in the Paleolithic Age used to roam for food. Humans began to build civilisations after agriculture was invented, and people’s food supply could be found in a single spot during the Neolithic revolution. Houses made of mud bricks abound in these early civilisations in the Fertile Crescent. These communities brought with them organised power, sometimes known as a hierarchy.

3000 BCE-Communication through writing
The Neolithic Age saw a tremendous technological leap with the advent of writing, sometimes regarded as the beginning of history. Civilisations were able to communicate more effectively thanks to writing, and historians now have reliable evidence of how the world was hundreds of years ago.

2500 BCE- Trading
When people learned that self-sufficiency was not necessary, they began to trade. Farmers exchanged their grains for the clothing of a weaver, while potters exchanged their pots for the farmer’s figs. Although intra-civilisation trade was prevalent, long-distance trade between the Indus Valley and Mesopotamia was the first. Long-distance trade was a huge step forward because different regions supplied diverse items. There were no civilisations during the Paleolithic Age, and it’s possible that no two groups would remember each other if they met again. Long-distance trading was impossible, since none of this existed.

Conclusion

The Neolithic Revolution resulted in many changes that made a mark in history. There was much progress as well as limitations seen in the Neolithic phase. There were changes like, large groups of people establishing permanent communities based on agriculture and farming. It prepared the phase for the successive Bronze Age and Iron Age breakthroughs, when progress in farming implements and art swept the world, bringing civilisations together through commerce. Copper metallurgy was introduced around the end of the Neolithic era, signalling the start of the Bronze Age, also known as the Chalcolithic Era.