What was the major development of the neolithic age

Recently, a scraper belonging to the Mesolithic age and a celt from the Neolithic age have been found at Vizhuppanur near Srivilliputhur in Virudhunagar district.

The Neolithic Age started in India around 7,000 B.C. It was the third and last part of the Stone Age. The other two parts were -Paleolithic Age (500,000 B.C. to 10,000 B.C.) and Mesolithic Age (9,000 B.C. to 4,000 B.C.). The Neolithic Age is mainly characterized by the development of settled agriculture and the use of tools and weapons made of polished stones.

Important points related to the Neolithic Age

1. The time span of the Neolithic Age in India was around 7,000 B.C. to 1,000 B.C.

2. The Neolithic Age was preceded by Mesolithic Age (9,000 B.C. to 4,000 B.C.) and succeeded by Chalcolithic Age (c.2100 to 700 B.C.).

3. The major crops grown were ragi, horse gram, cotton, rice, wheat, and barley. The people of this age domesticated cattle, sheep, and goats. They resided in pits near a lakeside and had a hunting and fishing economy.

4. The people used microlithic blades in addition to tools made of polished stones as well as bones. They used axes, adzes, chisels, and celts.

5. Pottery first appeared in this age and included grey ware, black burnished ware, and mat-impressed ware.

6. The Neolithic Age is significant for its Megalithic Architecture.

7. The people of this period lived in circular or rectangular houses which were made from mud and reed. At some places, they lived in mud-brick houses.

8. They had common rights over property and led a settled life.

9. The Neolithic settlements have been found in the North-Western part (Such as Kashmir), Southern part (Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra Pradesh), North Eastern frontier (Meghalaya), and Eastern part (Bihar and Odisha) of India.

10. Some of the important Neolithic settlements are Mehrgarh (located in Baluchistan, Pakistan), Burzahom (Kashmir), Gufkral (Kashmir), Chirand (Bihar), and Utnur (Andhra Pradesh).

11. The oldest Neolithic settlement in the Indian Subcontinent was Mehrgarh which is located in Baluchistan, a province of Pakistan.

12. Jarf el Ahmar and Tell Abu Hureyra (both in Syria) were the major Neolithic sites in Asia.

The Neolithic Age was succeeded by the Chalcolithic Age (c.2100 to 700 B.C.) which saw the use of copper; the first metal to be used at the end of the Neolithic Age.

READ| List of the Upper, Middle & Lower Palaeolithic Sites in India

Origin of Neolithic Age

The Neolithic Age started in 9,000 B.C. in the world context but in the Indian context, it was varying from 7,000 B.C. to 1,000 B.C. In South India, the Neolithic settlements are generally considered to be around 2,500 B.C. old while the Neolithic sites discovered on the northern spurs of the Vindhyas are not older than 5,000 B.C. Some Neolithic sites found in parts of Eastern India and South India are only 1,000 B.C. old.

Characteristics of Neolithic Age

The Neolithic Age saw a man turning into a food producer from a food gatherer. It also witnessed the use of pottery for the first time. People used microlithic blades in addition to tools made of polished stone. The use of metal was unknown.

1. Agriculture: The people of the Neolithic Age cultivated ragi, horse gram, cotton, rice, wheat, and barley and hence were termed as food producers. They domesticated cattle, sheep, and goats.

2. Tools: The people used microlithic blades in addition to tools made of polished stones. They used stone hoes and digging sticks for digging the ground. The ring stones of 1-1/2 kg of weight were fixed at the ends of these digging sticks. They also used tools and weapons made of bone; found in Burzahom (Kashmir) and Chirand (Bihar).

3. Weapons: The people primarily used axes as weapons. The North-western part of the Neolithic settlement used rectangular axes having curved cutting edges. The Southern part used axes with oval sides and pointed butt while polished stone axes with rectangular butt and shouldered hoes were used in the north-eastern part.

4. Housing: The people of the Neolithic Age lived in rectangular or circular houses which were made of mud and reed. The people of Mehrgarh lived in mud-brick houses while pit-dwelling is reported from Burzahom, the Neolithic site found in Kashmir.

5. Pottery: With the advent of Agriculture, people were required to store their food grains as well as to do cooking, arrange for drinking water, and eat the finished product. That’s why pottery first appeared in the Neolithic Age. The pottery of the period was classified under grey ware, black-burnished ware, and mat-impressed ware.

6. Architecture: The Neolithic Age is significant for its Megalithic Architecture.

7. Technology: In the initial stage of the Neolithic Age, hand-made pottery was made but later on the foot-wheels were used to make pots.

8. Community Life: Neolithic people had common rights over property. They led a settled life.

READ| Era’s in the Indian History & Time Line of Ancient Indian History

Geographical Location of Neolithic people

The Neolithic people did not live far away from the hilly areas. They habited mainly the hilly river valleys, rock shelters, and the slopes of the hills since they were entirely dependent on weapons and tools made from stone. They inhabited northern spurs of the Vindhyas, Kashmir, South India, Eastern India, Meghalaya (north-eastern frontier of India), and Mirzapur and Allahabad districts of Uttar Pradesh. Some of the important Neolithic settlements are Mehrgarh (located in Baluchistan, Pakistan), Burzahom (Kashmir), Gufkral (Kashmir), Chirand (Bihar), and Utnur (Andhra Pradesh). Jarf el Ahmar and Tell Abu Hureyra (both in Syria) were the major Neolithic sites in Asia.

List of Neolithic sites, their locations, and characteristics

Name of Neolithic Site	Location	Time Span	Characteristics
Mehrgarh	Baluchistan, Pakistan	7,000 B.C.	Produced cotton and wheat and lived in mud-brick houses.
Burzahom (the place of birch)	Kashmir	2,700 B.C.	The people lived on a lake side in pits. Domestic dogs were buried along with their masters in their graves. Used tools and weapons made of polished stone as well as bone.
Gufkral	Kashmir	2,000 B.C.	Practiced both agriculture & domestication of animals. Used tools and weapons made of polished stone as well as bone.
Chirand	Bihar	2,000 B.C.	Used tools and weapons made of bone.
Pikilihal, Brahmagiri, Maski, Hallur, Takkalakota, T. Narsipur, Kodekal, Sanganakallu	Karnataka	2,000 B.C. to 1,000 B.C.	The people in Piklihal were cattle-herders. They domesticated sheep, goats, and cattle. Ash mounds have been found.
Paiyampalli	Tamil Nadu	2,000-1,000 B.C.
Utnur	Andhra Pradesh	2,000-1,000 B.C.

Considerable progress was made in Neolithic Age in terms of technology. The people developed the practices of cultivation, domestication of animals, building houses, pottery, weaving, and writing. This revolutionized man’s life and paved the way for the beginning of civilization.

READ| The Chalcolithic Culture

The Neolithic Revolution—also referred to as the Agricultural Revolution—is thought to have begun about 12,000 years ago. It coincided with the end of the last ice age and the beginning of the current geological epoch, the Holocene. And it forever changed how humans live, eat, and interact, paving the way for modern civilization.

During the Neolithic period, hunter-gatherers roamed the natural world, foraging for their food. But then a dramatic shift occurred. The foragers became farmers, transitioning from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to a more settled one.

Why settle down?

Though the exact dates and reasons for the transition are debated, evidence of a move away from hunting and gathering and toward agriculture has been documented worldwide. Farming is thought to have happened first in the Fertile Crescent of the Middle East, where multiple groups of people developed the practice independently. Thus, the “agricultural revolution” was likely a series of revolutions that occurred at different times in different places.

There are a variety of hypotheses as to why humans stopped foraging and started farming. Population pressure may have caused increased competition for food and the need to cultivate new foods; people may have shifted to farming in order to involve elders and children in food production; humans may have learned to depend on plants they modified in early domestication attempts and in turn, those plants may have become dependent on humans. With new technology come new and ever-evolving theories about how and why the agricultural revolution began.

Regardless of how and why humans began to move away from hunting and foraging, they continued to become more settled. This was in part due to their increasing domestication of plants. Humans are thought to have gathered plants and their seeds as early as 23,000 years ago, and to have started farming cereal grains like barley as early as 11,000 years ago. Afterward, they moved on to protein-rich foods like peas and lentils. As these early farmers became better at cultivating food, they may have produced surplus seeds and crops that required storage. This would have both spurred population growth because of more consistent food availability and required a more settled way of life with the need to store seeds and tend crops.

Animal domestication

As humans began to experiment with farming, they also started domesticating animals. Evidence of sheep and goat herding has been found in Iraq and Anatolia (modern-day Turkey) as far back as about 12,000 years ago. Domesticated animals, when used as labor, helped make more intensive farming possible and also provided additional nutrition via milk and meat for increasingly stable populations.

The agricultural revolution had a variety of consequences for humans. It has been linked to everything from societal inequality—a result of humans’ increased dependence on the land and fears of scarcity—to a decline in nutrition and a rise in infectious diseases contracted from domesticated animals. But the new period also ushered in the potential for modern societies—civilizations characterized by large population centers, improved technology and advancements in knowledge, arts, and trade.