The Neolithic Revolution 231food producers became village dwellers, other groups used
Neolithic tools and settled in villages while still maintain-
ing a foraging lifestyle as some groups do into the present.
The Neolithic revolution was by no means smooth or in-
stantaneous; in fact, the switch to food production spread
over many centuries—even millennia—and was a direct
outgrowth of the preceding Mesolithic. Where to draw the
line between the two periods is not always clear.
The ultimate source of all cultural change is in-
novation: any new idea, method, or device that gains
widespread acceptance in society. Primary innovation
is the creation, invention, or discovery by chance of a
completely new idea, method, or device. A chance dis-
covery, such as the observation that clay permanently
hardens when exposed to high temperatures, is the kind
of primary innovation that likely took place around nu-
merous ancient campfires. This perception allowed our
ancestors to begin to make figurines of fired clay some
35,000 years ago.
A secondary innovation is a de-
liberate application or modifi-
cation of an existing idea,
method, or device. For ex-
ample, ancient people ap-
plied the knowledge about
fired clay to make pottery
containers and cooking
vessels. Recent evidence
from Yuchanyan Cave, lo-
cated in the southwest of
China’s Hunan Province,
indicates the presence of
the earliest pottery ves-
sels; these are radio-carbon dated to between 15,430 and
18,300 years ago.
The transition to relatively complete reliance on domesti-
cated plants and animals took several thousand years. While
this transition has been particularly well studied in South-
west Asia, archaeological evidence for food production alsowood, bone, or antler handles. Later experimentation with
these forms led to more sophisticated tools and weapons
such as bows to propel arrows.
Dwellings from the Mesolithic provide some evidence
of a more sedentary lifestyle during this period. By con-
trast, most hunting peoples, and especially those depend-
ing on herd animals, are highly mobile. To be successful,
hunters must follow migratory game. People subsisting on
a diet of seafood and plants in the milder northern for-
ested environments of this time period did not need to
move regularly over large geographic areas.
In the warmer parts of the world, wild plant foods
were more readily available, and so their collection com-
plemented hunting in the Upper Paleolithic more than
had been the case in the colder northern regions. Hence,
in areas like Southwest Asia, the Mesolithic represents less
of a changed way of life than was true in Europe. Here, the
important Natufian culture flourished.
The Natufians lived between 10,200 and 12,500 years
ago at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea in caves,
rock shelters, and small villages with stone- and mud-
walled houses. They are named after Wadi en-Natuf, a
ravine near Jerusalem, Israel, where the remains of this
culture were first found. They buried their dead in com-
munal cemeteries, usually in shallow pits without any
other objects or decorations. A small shrine is known
from one of their villages—a 10,500-year-old settlement at
Jericho in the Jordan River Valley. Basin-shaped depres-
sions in the rocks found outside homes and plastered stor-
age pits beneath the floors of the houses indicate that the
Natufians were the earliest Mesolithic people known to
have stored plant foods. Certain tools found among Natu-
fian remains bear evidence of their use to cut grain. These
Mesolithic sickles consisted of small stone blades set in
straight handles of wood or bone.
The new way of life of the various Mesolithic and Ar-
chaic cultures generally provided supplies of food suf-
ficiently abundant to permit people in some parts of the
world to live in larger and more sedentary groups. They
became village dwellers, and some of these settlements
went on to expand into the first farming villages, towns,
and ultimately cities.
The Neolithic Revolution
The Neolithic, or New Stone Age, derives its name from
the polished stone tools that are characteristic of this pe-
riod. But more important than the presence of these tools
is the cultural transition from a foraging economy based
on hunting, gathering, and fishing to one based on food
production, representing a major change in the subsis-
tence practices of early peoples. While many of the early
Pa c i fi cOceanRUSSIAMONGOLIAINDIACHINAMYANMAR
(BURMA)Yuchanyan CaveHunan
Province
NEPA
LNatufian culture A Mesolithic culture living in the lands
that are now Israel, Lebanon, and western Syria, between about
10,200 and 12,500 years ago.
Neolithic revolution The profound cultural change begin-
ning about 10,000 years ago and associated with the early do-
mestication of plants and animals and settlement in permanent
villages. Sometimes referred to as the Neolithic transition.
innovation Any new idea, method, or device that gains
widespread acceptance in society.
primary innovation The creation, invention, or discovery
by chance of a completely new idea, method, or device.
secondary innovation The deliberate application or
modification of an existing idea, method, or device.