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Common Discoveries of the Neolithic Era

The Neolithic era, or period, is sometimes called the "New Stone Age." Preceding the Bronze Age and following the Mesolithic, it is characterized as the period in which early humans moved away from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle and began to cultivate agriculture and establish farming settlements by using domesticated animals. The Neolithic era began in the Near East in about 10,000 B.C.E. and eventually spread westward through Anatolia and into Europe.

Farming Tools
- In about 8,000 B.C.E. neolithic humans started to develop crop-growing techniques that enabled them to supplement their food supply from hunting, with cereals. To facilitate farming practices, they made specialized tools out of flint stones. They were able to cultivate land for planting by carefully crafting implements to help them knock down trees and clear forests. In Europe, stone was the main material used to create tools and weapons, such as daggers and axes, until the emergence of the Bronze Age.
Pottery
- Ceramic pottery is the form of craft work most commonly associated with the Neolithic era. Its first use in the British Isles came during the Neolithic period, which began there around 3,500 B.C.E. The earliest pottery was simple and unadorned, but during the middle and later stages of the Neolithic a range of diverse styles and decorative techniques can be noted. It is at the end of the Neolithic, where the period overlaps with the Bronze Age, that Beaker pottery, supposedly from continental Europe, is believed to have spread around Britain.
Settlements
- The Neolithic brought about advances in building structures. In warm climates there is evidence of mud brick buildings while in cooler regions ancient timber structures have been observed. Communal stone houses of larger size than has been attributed to earlier periods have been discovered throughout Europe. Also dating back to the Neolithic are elaborate stone monuments, assumed to be connected to sacrificial rituals, such as Stonehenge in southern England.
Metals
- Neolithic man's search for stones necessary for creating tools and jewelry led him to discover areas rich in copper, lead, silver and gold. Their bright colors and malleability made them very appealing throughout the Neolithic period in Greece and Asia Minor. A great number of copper, silver and gold weapons, tools and jewelry items have been unearthed all over Greece. In around 3,500 B.C.E. copper was melted together with tin to form bronze, and a new age dawned.

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