Neolithic

context: Traditionally considered the last part of the Stone Age, the Neolithic followed the terminal Holocene Epipaleolithic period and commenced with the beginning of farming, which produced the "Neolithic Revolution". It ended when metal tools became widespread (in the Copper Age or Bronze Age; or, in some geographical regions, in the Iron Age). The Neolithic is a progression of behavioral and cultural characteristics and changes, including the use of wild and domestic crops and of domesticated animals.
qas: answers: text: the Neolithic
question: What era is commonly known as the final phase of the Stone Age?

answers: text: Holocene Epipaleolithic period
question: What era preceded the Neolithic?

answers: text: Neolithic Revolution
question: What event is associated with the start of farming?

answers: text: Copper Age
question: What era saw an increase in metal tool use?

context: The beginning of the Neolithic culture is considered to be in the Levant (Jericho, modern-day West Bank) about 10,200 – 8,800 BC. It developed directly from the Epipaleolithic Natufian culture in the region, whose people pioneered the use of wild cereals, which then evolved into true farming. The Natufian period was between 12,000 and 10,200 BC, and the so-called "proto-Neolithic" is now included in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic (PPNA) between 10,200 and 8,800 BC. As the Natufians had become dependent on wild cereals in their diet, and a sedentary way of life had begun among them, the climatic changes associated with the Younger Dryas are thought to have forced people to develop farming.
qas: answers: text: 10,200 – 8,800 BC
question: What time period marks the start of Neolithic culture?

answers: text: Levant (Jericho, modern-day West Bank)
question: Where did the Neolithic culture begin?

answers: text: wild cereals
question: What food item was the key to the evolution of farming?

answers: text: The Natufian period
question: What era lasted between 12,000 and 10,200 BC?

context: Not all of these cultural elements characteristic of the Neolithic appeared everywhere in the same order: the earliest farming societies in the Near East did not use pottery. In other parts of the world, such as Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia, independent domestication events led to their own regionally distinctive Neolithic cultures that arose completely independent of those in Europe and Southwest Asia. Early Japanese societies and other East Asian cultures used pottery before developing agriculture.
qas: answers: text: pottery
question: What objects were not used by early farm societies in the Near East ?

answers: text: agriculture
question: What did the use of pottery help early Japanese societies develop?

answers: text: independent domestication events
question: What trend led to parts of the world developing their own local Neolithic cultures?

context: The Neolithic 1 (PPNA) period began roughly 10,000 years ago in the Levant. A temple area in southeastern Turkey at Göbekli Tepe dated around 9,500 BC may be regarded as the beginning of the period. This site was developed by nomadic hunter-gatherer tribes, evidenced by the lack of permanent housing in the vicinity and may be the oldest known human-made place of worship. At least seven stone circles, covering 25 acres (10 ha), contain limestone pillars carved with animals, insects, and birds. Stone tools were used by perhaps as many as hundreds of people to create the pillars, which might have supported roofs. Other early PPNA sites dating to around 9,500 to 9,000 BCE have been found in Jericho, Israel (notably Ain Mallaha, Nahal Oren, and Kfar HaHoresh), Gilgal in the Jordan Valley, and Byblos, Lebanon. The start of Neolithic 1 overlaps the Tahunian and Heavy Neolithic periods to some degree.[citation needed]
qas: answers: text: roughly 10,000 years ago
question: When did the The Neolithic 1 (PPNA) period start?

answers: text: Turkey
question: Where is the Göbekli Tepe temple located?

answers: text: nomadic hunter-gatherer tribes
question: Who built the Göbekli Tepe temple?

answers: text: Göbekli Tepe
question: What is the name of earliest man made place of worship?

context: The Neolithic 2 (PPNB) began around 8,800 BCE according to the ASPRO chronology in the Levant (Jericho, Israel). As with the PPNA dates, there are two versions from the same laboratories noted above. This system of terminology, however, is not convenient for southeast Anatolia and settlements of the middle Anatolia basin. This era was before the Mesolithic era.[citation needed] A settlement of 3,000 inhabitants was found in the outskirts of Amman, Jordan. Considered to be one of the largest prehistoric settlements in the Near East, called 'Ain Ghazal, it was continuously inhabited from approximately 7,250 – 5,000 B.
qas: answers: text: around 8,800 BCE
question: When did the The Neolithic 2 (PPNB) era start?

answers: text: the Mesolithic era
question: What era followed the  The Neolithic 2 (PPNB) era?

answers: text: 3,000 inhabitants
question: How many settlers were found in Jordan?

answers: text: Ain Ghazal
question: What is the name of one of the biggest prehistoric settlements in the Near East?

context: Around 10,200 BC the first fully developed Neolithic cultures belonging to the phase Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) appeared in the fertile crescent. Around 10,700 to 9,400 BC a settlement was established in Tell Qaramel, 10 miles north of Aleppo. The settlement included 2 temples dating back to 9,650. Around 9000 BC during the PPNA, one of the world's first towns, Jericho, appeared in the Levant. It was surrounded by a stone and marble wall and contained a population of 2000–3000 people and a massive stone tower. Around 6,400 BC the Halaf culture appeared in Lebanon, Israel and Palestine, Syria, Anatolia, and Northern Mesopotamia and subsisted on dryland agriculture.
qas: answers: text: Around 10,200 BC
question: When did the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA)  phase start?

answers: text: Around 10,700 to 9,400 BC
question: When was a settlement developed in Tell Qaramel?

answers: text: 2
question: How many temples were built in Tell Qaramel?

answers: text: Jericho
question: What was the name of the town that first appeared during the PPNA?

answers: text: stone and marble
question: What materials were used to build the wall around Jericho?

context: In 1981 a team of researchers from the Maison de l'Orient et de la Méditerranée, including Jacques Cauvin and Oliver Aurenche divided Near East neolithic chronology into ten periods (0 to 9) based on social, economic and cultural characteristics. In 2002 Danielle Stordeur and Frédéric Abbès advanced this system with a division into five periods. Natufian (1) between 12,000 and 10,200 BC, Khiamian (2) between 10,200-8,800 BC, PPNA: Sultanian (Jericho), Mureybetian, early PPNB (PPNB ancien) (3) between 8,800-7,600 BC, middle PPNB (PPNB moyen) 7,600-6,900 BC, late PPNB (PPNB récent) (4) between 7,500 and 7,000 BC and a PPNB (sometimes called PPNC) transitional stage (PPNB final) (5) where Halaf and dark faced burnished ware begin to emerge between 6,900-6,400 BC. They also advanced the idea of a transitional stage between the PPNA and PPNB between 8,800 and 8,600 BC at sites like Jerf el Ahmar and Tell Aswad.
qas: answers: text: Jacques Cauvin and Oliver Aurenche
question: What are the names of two researchers who divided neolithic chronology into ten periods?

answers: text: social, economic and cultural characteristics
question: What traits did researchers use to divide the ten periods?

answers: text: 2002
question: When was the original division of 10 advanced to a division of 5?

answers: text: Danielle Stordeur and Frédéric Abbès
question: What are the names of two researchers who divided neolithic chronology into five periods?

context: Domestication of sheep and goats reached Egypt from the Near East possibly as early as 6,000 BC. Graeme Barker states "The first indisputable evidence for domestic plants and animals in the Nile valley is not until the early fifth millennium bc in northern Egypt and a thousand years later further south, in both cases as part of strategies that still relied heavily on fishing, hunting, and the gathering of wild plants" and suggests that these subsistence changes were not due to farmers migrating from the Near East but was an indigenous development, with cereals either indigenous or obtained through exchange. Other scholars argue that the primary stimulus for agriculture and domesticated animals (as well as mud-brick architecture and other Neolithic cultural features) in Egypt was from the Middle East.
qas: answers: text: 6,000 BC
question: When did the domestication of sheep first appear in Egypt?

answers: text: fishing, hunting, and the gathering of wild plants
question: How did Egyptians gather food before raising livestock?

answers: text: the Middle East
question: What region do some scholars see as the source for Egypt's start in agriculture?

context: In southeast Europe agrarian societies first appeared in the 7th millennium BC, attested by one of the earliest farming sites of Europe, discovered in Vashtëmi, southeastern Albania and dating back to 6,500 BC. Anthropomorphic figurines have been found in the Balkans from 6000 BC, and in Central Europe by c. 5800 BC (La Hoguette). Among the earliest cultural complexes of this area are the Sesklo culture in Thessaly, which later expanded in the Balkans giving rise to Starčevo-Körös (Cris), Linearbandkeramik, and Vinča. Through a combination of cultural diffusion and migration of peoples, the Neolithic traditions spread west and northwards to reach northwestern Europe by around 4500 BC. The Vinča culture may have created the earliest system of writing, the Vinča signs, though archaeologist Shan Winn believes they most likely represented pictograms and ideograms rather than a truly developed form of writing. The Cucuteni-Trypillian culture built enormous settlements in Romania, Moldova and Ukraine from 5300 to 2300 BC. The megalithic temple complexes of Ġgantija on the Mediterranean island of Gozo (in the Maltese archipelago) and of Mnajdra (Malta) are notable for their gigantic Neolithic structures, the oldest of which date back to c. 3600 BC. The Hypogeum of Ħal-Saflieni, Paola, Malta, is a subterranean structure excavated c. 2500 BC; originally a sanctuary, it became a necropolis, the only prehistoric underground temple in the world, and showing a degree of artistry in stone sculpture unique in prehistory to the Maltese islands. After 2500 BC, the Maltese Islands were depopulated for several decades until the arrival of a new influx of Bronze Age immigrants, a culture that cremated its dead and introduced smaller megalithic structures called dolmens to Malta. In most cases there are small chambers here, with the cover made of a large slab placed on upright stones. They are claimed to belong to a population certainly different from that which built the previous megalithic temples. It is presumed the population arrived from Sicily because of the similarity of Maltese dolmens to some small constructions found in the largest island of the Mediterranean sea.
qas: answers: text: 7th millennium BC
question: When did agrarian societies start to arise in Southeast Europe?

answers: text: Vashtëmi, southeastern Albania
question: Where was one of earliest farming sites in Europe found?

answers: text: Anthropomorphic figurines
question: What type of sculptures were found in the Balkans from 6000 BC?

answers: text: cultural diffusion and migration of peoples
question: What trend led to Neolithic traditions spreading to northwestern Europe by around 4500 BC? 

answers: text: The Vinča culture
question: Who possibly created the earliest system of writing?

context: In 2012, news was released about a new farming site discovered in Munam-ri, Goseong, Gangwon Province, South Korea, which may be the earliest farmland known to date in east Asia. "No remains of an agricultural field from the Neolithic period have been found in any East Asian country before, the institute said, adding that the discovery reveals that the history of agricultural cultivation at least began during the period on the Korean Peninsula". The farm was dated between 3600 and 3000 B.C. Pottery, stone projectile points, and possible houses were also found. "In 2002, researchers discovered prehistoric earthenware, jade earrings, among other items in the area". The research team will perform accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) dating to retrieve a more precise date for the site.
qas: answers: text: 2012
question: When was the earliest known Asian farm site found in South Korea?

answers: text: between 3600 and 3000 B.C.
question: What time period was the Korean farm site dated?

answers: text: Pottery, stone projectile points, and possible houses
question: What items were found on the Korean farm site?

answers: text: accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS)
question: What technology will researchers use to measure a more accurate time period for the farm site?

context: In Mesoamerica, a similar set of events (i.e., crop domestication and sedentary lifestyles) occurred by around 4500 BC, but possibly as early as 11,000–10,000 BC. These cultures are usually not referred to as belonging to the Neolithic; in America different terms are used such as Formative stage instead of mid-late Neolithic, Archaic Era instead of Early Neolithic and Paleo-Indian for the preceding period. The Formative stage is equivalent to the Neolithic Revolution period in Europe, Asia, and Africa. In the Southwestern United States it occurred from 500 to 1200 C.E. when there was a dramatic increase in population and development of large villages supported by agriculture based on dryland farming of maize, and later, beans, squash, and domesticated turkeys. During this period the bow and arrow and ceramic pottery were also introduced.
qas: answers: text: crop domestication and sedentary lifestyles
question: What major trends appeared in Mesoamerica during 4500 BC?

answers: text: Formative stage
question: What term is used to describe the mid-late Neolithic era in American education?

answers: text: Archaic Era
question: What term is used to describe the Early Neolithic era in American education?

answers: text: bow and arrow
question: What hunting weapon was found in the Southwestern US during  500 to 1200 C.E.?

context: During most of the Neolithic age of Eurasia, people lived in small tribes composed of multiple bands or lineages. There is little scientific evidence of developed social stratification in most Neolithic societies; social stratification is more associated with the later Bronze Age. Although some late Eurasian Neolithic societies formed complex stratified chiefdoms or even states, states evolved in Eurasia only with the rise of metallurgy, and most Neolithic societies on the whole were relatively simple and egalitarian. Beyond Eurasia, however, states were formed during the local Neolithic in three areas, namely in the Preceramic Andes with the Norte Chico Civilization, Formative Mesoamerica and Ancient Hawaiʻi. However, most Neolithic societies were noticeably more hierarchical than the Paleolithic cultures that preceded them and hunter-gatherer cultures in general.
qas: answers: text: small tribes
question: What social groups were formed during the Neolithic age of Eurasia?

answers: text: social stratification
question: What cultural trend did not first appear in large amounts until the Bronze Age?

answers: text: Paleolithic cultures
question: What type of cultures preceded Neolithic societies?

context: The domestication of large animals (c. 8000 BC) resulted in a dramatic increase in social inequality in most of the areas where it occurred; New Guinea being a notable exception. Possession of livestock allowed competition between households and resulted in inherited inequalities of wealth. Neolithic pastoralists who controlled large herds gradually acquired more livestock, and this made economic inequalities more pronounced. However, evidence of social inequality is still disputed, as settlements such as Catal Huyuk reveal a striking lack of difference in the size of homes and burial sites, suggesting a more egalitarian society with no evidence of the concept of capital, although some homes do appear slightly larger or more elaborately decorated than others.
qas: answers: text: domestication of large animals
question: What caused a major increase in social inequality?

answers: text: Possession of livestock
question: What started competition between families for wealth?

answers: text: Neolithic pastoralists
question: Who was in possession of large herds that would produce more livestock?

answers: text: Catal Huyuk
question: What settlement featured equal sized homes with little evidence of capital?

context: Families and households were still largely independent economically, and the household was probably the center of life. However, excavations in Central Europe have revealed that early Neolithic Linear Ceramic cultures ("Linearbandkeramik") were building large arrangements of circular ditches between 4800 BC and 4600 BC. These structures (and their later counterparts such as causewayed enclosures, burial mounds, and henge) required considerable time and labour to construct, which suggests that some influential individuals were able to organise and direct human labour — though non-hierarchical and voluntary work remain possibilities.
qas: answers: text: the household
question: What was the cultural aspect was the major center of life?

answers: text: 4800 BC and 4600 BC
question: What time period were the huge circular ditches found in?

answers: text: causewayed enclosures, burial mounds, and henge
question: What did the ditches later evolve into?

answers: text: required considerable time and labour to construct
question: What features about the ditches suggests that it was built by people under a leader's command?

context: There is a large body of evidence for fortified settlements at Linearbandkeramik sites along the Rhine, as at least some villages were fortified for some time with a palisade and an outer ditch. Settlements with palisades and weapon-traumatized bones have been discovered, such as at the Talheim Death Pit demonstrates "...systematic violence between groups" and warfare was probably much more common during the Neolithic than in the preceding Paleolithic period. This supplanted an earlier view of the Linear Pottery Culture as living a "peaceful, unfortified lifestyle".
qas: answers: text: Linearbandkeramik
question: Where was evidence of fortified settlements found?

answers: text: a palisade and an outer ditch
question: What did some villages fortify their settlements with?

answers: text: weapon-traumatized bones
question: What tools were seen as evidence of violence among settlements?

answers: text: the Talheim Death Pit
question: What site in Talheim suggests violent warfare in the Neolithic era?

context: Control of labour and inter-group conflict is characteristic of corporate-level or 'tribal' groups, headed by a charismatic individual; whether a 'big man' or a proto-chief, functioning as a lineage-group head. Whether a non-hierarchical system of organization existed is debatable, and there is no evidence that explicitly suggests that Neolithic societies functioned under any dominating class or individual, as was the case in the chiefdoms of the European Early Bronze Age. Theories to explain the apparent implied egalitarianism of Neolithic (and Paleolithic) societies have arisen, notably the Marxist concept of primitive communism.
qas: answers: text: Control of labour
question: What production trait existed in tribal groups that were controlled by charismatic leaders?

answers: text: Marxist concept of primitive communism
question: What theory describes the implied egalitarianism of Neolithic societies?

answers: text: inter-group conflict
question: What type of disagreement existed in tribal groups that were controlled by charismatic leaders?

context: The shelter of the early people changed dramatically from the paleolithic to the neolithic era. In the paleolithic, people did not normally live in permanent constructions. In the neolithic, mud brick houses started appearing that were coated with plaster. The growth of agriculture made permanent houses possible. Doorways were made on the roof, with ladders positioned both on the inside and outside of the houses. The roof was supported by beams from the inside. The rough ground was covered by platforms, mats, and skins on which residents slept. Stilt-houses settlements were common in the Alpine and Pianura Padana (Terramare) region. Remains have been found at the Ljubljana Marshes in Slovenia and at the Mondsee and Attersee lakes in Upper Austria, for example.
qas: answers: text: shelter
question: What lifestyle element changed significantly from the paleolithic to the neolithic era?

answers: text: paleolithic
question: What era consisted of people living temporary homes?

answers: text: mud brick houses
question: What type of homes were built in the Neolithic era?

answers: text: The growth of agriculture
question: What societal trend was the cause of permanent homes?

answers: text: Doorways were made on the roof
question: Where were entrances located in early homes?

context: A significant and far-reaching shift in human subsistence and lifestyle was to be brought about in areas where crop farming and cultivation were first developed: the previous reliance on an essentially nomadic hunter-gatherer subsistence technique or pastoral transhumance was at first supplemented, and then increasingly replaced by, a reliance upon the foods produced from cultivated lands. These developments are also believed to have greatly encouraged the growth of settlements, since it may be supposed that the increased need to spend more time and labor in tending crop fields required more localized dwellings. This trend would continue into the Bronze Age, eventually giving rise to permanently settled farming towns, and later cities and states whose larger populations could be sustained by the increased productivity from cultivated lands.
qas: answers: text: crop farming and cultivation
question: What trend led to a major shift in the livelihoods of early cultures?

answers: text: nomadic hunter-gatherer subsistence technique
question: What behavior did humans rely on to survive before agriculture?

answers: text: the Bronze Age
question: What era saw an increase in permanently settled farming towns?

context: However, early farmers were also adversely affected in times of famine, such as may be caused by drought or pests. In instances where agriculture had become the predominant way of life, the sensitivity to these shortages could be particularly acute, affecting agrarian populations to an extent that otherwise may not have been routinely experienced by prior hunter-gatherer communities. Nevertheless, agrarian communities generally proved successful, and their growth and the expansion of territory under cultivation continued.
qas: answers: text: drought or pests
question: What were the causes of famine in early farm towns?

answers: text: hunter-gatherer communities
question: What type of societies were not affected by famine?

answers: text: agrarian communities
question: What type of societies were usually still successful after dealing with famine?

context: Another significant change undergone by many of these newly agrarian communities was one of diet. Pre-agrarian diets varied by region, season, available local plant and animal resources and degree of pastoralism and hunting. Post-agrarian diet was restricted to a limited package of successfully cultivated cereal grains, plants and to a variable extent domesticated animals and animal products. Supplementation of diet by hunting and gathering was to variable degrees precluded by the increase in population above the carrying capacity of the land and a high sedentary local population concentration. In some cultures, there would have been a significant shift toward increased starch and plant protein. The relative nutritional benefits and drawbacks of these dietary changes and their overall impact on early societal development is still debated.
qas: answers: text: diet
question: What food related trend was significant in the new agrarian societies?

answers: text: local plant and animal resources
question: What forms of availability dictated Pre-agrarian diets?

answers: text: cereal grains, plants and to a variable extent domesticated animals and animal products.
question: What was included in the Post-agrarian diet?

answers: text: the increase in population
question: What forced the need to supplement food supply with hunting and gathering?

context: Neolithic people were skilled farmers, manufacturing a range of tools necessary for the tending, harvesting and processing of crops (such as sickle blades and grinding stones) and food production (e.g. pottery, bone implements). They were also skilled manufacturers of a range of other types of stone tools and ornaments, including projectile points, beads, and statuettes. But what allowed forest clearance on a large scale was the polished stone axe above all other tools. Together with the adze, fashioning wood for shelter, structures and canoes for example, this enabled them to exploit their newly won farmland.
qas: answers: text: farmers
question: What type of occupation were Neolithic people considered to be proficient at?

answers: text: tending, harvesting and processing of crops
question: What purposes were the production of farm tools used for?

answers: text: sickle blades and grinding stones
question: What types of tools did early farmers use for crops?

answers: text: pottery, bone implements)
question: What types of tools did early farmers use for food production?

answers: text: stone axe
question: What tool allowed early farmers to convert forest into arable land?

context: Neolithic peoples in the Levant, Anatolia, Syria, northern Mesopotamia and Central Asia were also accomplished builders, utilizing mud-brick to construct houses and villages. At Çatal höyük, houses were plastered and painted with elaborate scenes of humans and animals. In Europe, long houses built from wattle and daub were constructed. Elaborate tombs were built for the dead. These tombs are particularly numerous in Ireland, where there are many thousand still in existence. Neolithic people in the British Isles built long barrows and chamber tombs for their dead and causewayed camps, henges, flint mines and cursus monuments. It was also important to figure out ways of preserving food for future months, such as fashioning relatively airtight containers, and using substances like salt as preservatives.
qas: answers: text: houses and villages
question: What did Neolithic people use mud-brick to build?

answers: text: humans and animals
question: What scenes did the paintings on homes depict?

answers: text: wattle and daub
question: What were European homes constructed from?

answers: text: Elaborate tombs
question: What types of sites were built for the deceased?

answers: text: Ireland
question: Where do thousands of early tombs still exist?

context: Most clothing appears to have been made of animal skins, as indicated by finds of large numbers of bone and antler pins which are ideal for fastening leather. Wool cloth and linen might have become available during the later Neolithic, as suggested by finds of perforated stones which (depending on size) may have served as spindle whorls or loom weights. The clothing worn in the Neolithic Age might be similar to that worn by Ötzi the Iceman, although he was not Neolithic (since he belonged to the later Copper age).
qas: answers: text: animal skins
question: What did early humans use to make clothing?

answers: text: finds of large numbers of bone and antler pins
question: What evidence suggested that humans used animal products for clothing?

answers: text: spindle whorls or loom weights
question: What were perforated stones used for?

answers: text: Ötzi the Iceman
question: What famous figure of the Copper Age wore clothes similar to the Neolithic Era?