230 CHAPTER 10 | The Neolithic Revolution: The Domestication of Plants and Animals
Throughout the Paleolithic, people depended exclusively
on wild sources of food for their survival. They hunted
and trapped wild animals, fished, and gathered shellfish,
eggs, berries, nuts, roots, and other plant foods, relying
on their wits and muscles to acquire what nature pro-
vided. Whenever favored sources of food became scarce,
people adjusted by increasing the variety of foods eaten
and incorporating less desirable foods into their diets.
Over time, the subsistence practices of some people
began to change in ways that radically transformed their
way of life as they became food producers rather than
food foragers.^1 For some human groups, food production
was accompanied by a more sedentary existence, which in
turn permitted a reorganization of the workload in soci-
ety: Some individuals could be freed from the food quest
to devote their energies to other tasks. Over the course of
thousands of years, these changes brought about an un-
foreseen way of life. With good reason, the Neolithic (lit-
erally, the “New Stone” Age), when this change took place,
has been characterized as revolutionary.
The Mesolithic Roots
of Farming and Pastoralism
As seen in the previous chapter, by the end of the Paleo-
lithic humans had spread throughout the globe. During
this period much of the northern hemisphere was cov-
ered with glaciers. By 12,000 years ago, warmer climates
prevailed, and these glaciers receded, causing changes in
human habitats globally. As sea levels rose throughout the
world, many areas that had been dry land during periods
of glaciation—such as the Bering Strait, parts of the North
Sea, and an extensive land area that had joined the eastern
islands of Indonesia to mainland Asia—flooded.
In some northern regions, warmer climates brought
about particularly marked changes, allowing the replace-
ment of barren tundra with forests. In the process, the herd
animals—upon which northern Paleolithic peoples had
depended for much of their food, clothing, and shelter—
disappeared from many areas. Some, like the caribou and
musk ox, moved to colder climates; others, like the mam-
moths, died out completely. In the new forests, animals
were often more solitary in their habits. As a result, large
cooperative hunts were less productive than before. Diets
shifted to abundant plant foods as well as fish and other
foods around lakeshores, bays, and rivers. In Europe, Asia,
and Africa, this transitional period between the Paleolithic
and the Neolithic is called the Mesolithic, or Middle Stone
Age. In the Americas, comparable cultures are referred to
as Archaic cultures.
New technologies accompanied the changed postgla-
cial environment. Manufacture began of ground stone
tools, shaped and sharpened by grinding the tool against
sandstone, often using sand as an additional abrasive.
These shaped, sharpened stones were set into wooden
or sometimes antler handles to make effective axes and
adzes, cutting tools with a sharp blade set at right angles to
a handle. Though such implements take longer to make,
they are less prone to breakage under heavy-duty usage
than those made of chipped stone. Thus they were help-
ful in clearing forest areas and in the woodwork needed
for the creation of dugout canoes and skin-covered boats.
Evidence of seaworthy watercraft at Mesolithic sites indi-
cates that human foraging for food took place on the open
water as well as on land. Thus it was possible to make use
of deep-water resources as well as those of coastal areas,
rivers, and lakes.
The microlith—a small but hard, sharp blade—was
the characteristic tool of the Mesolithic. Although a mi-
crolithic (“small stone”) tool tradition existed in Central
Africa by about 40,000 years ago,^2 such tools did not
become common elsewhere until the Mesolithic. Micro-
liths could be mass produced because they were small,
easy to make, and could be fashioned from sections of
blades. This small tool could be attached to an arrow or
other tool shaft by using melted resin (from pine trees)
as a binder.
Microliths provided Mesolithic people with an impor-
tant advantage over their Upper Paleolithic forebears: The
small size of the microlith enabled them to devise a wider
array of composite tools made out of stone and wood or
bone. Thus they could make sickles, harpoons, arrows,
knives, and daggers by fitting microliths into slots inNeolithic The New Stone Age; prehistoric period beginning
about 10,000 years ago in which peoples possessed stone-based
technologies and depended on domesticated plants and/or
animals.
Mesolithic The Middle Stone Age period between the end of
the Paleolithic and the start of the Neolithic; referred to as Ar-
chaic cultures in the Americas.
Archaic cultures Term used to refer to Mesolithic cultures in
the Americas.
microlith A small blade of flint or similar stone, which were
hafted together in handles or shafts made of wood, bone, or
antler to make tools; widespread in the Mesolithic.(^1) Rindos, D. (1984). The origins of agriculture: An evolutionary perspective
(p. 99). Orlando: Academic.
(^2) Bednarik, R. G. (1995). Concept-mediated marking in the Lower
Paleolithic. Current Anthropology 36, 606.