The responsibility given by God to the human race to become stewards of the earth's resources is at last being applied. Since the ice cap finally began to recede c. 11000 BC there has been an explosion of human creativity in many places. Animals are being taken from the wild, kept in separate enclosures, and so herded for their food and skins. Domesticated cattle, sheep, goats, pigs and horses have joined the ubiquitous dog, which has been man's friend for many centuries. Indeed, agriculture and community go hand in hand because the new skills require some collaborative activity between different families.
People live in small villages, often near watercourses, and the population is increasing rapidly.
Tools have improved although wall painting is less in evidence. Funerary rituals continue, however. In some European areas the flesh is stripped from the dead and only the skeleton buried. Weapons and food are no longer always buried, and in some places have been replaced by religious objects, perhaps suggesting that the hereafter is now considered to be rather different to the present world. There is some uncertainty as to whether these changes have arisen spontaneously in different areas or if they have spread from what is generally regarded as the cradle of civilisation, the Middle East.