246 CHAPTER 10 | The Neolithic Revolution: The Domestication of Plants and Animals
also reflects the sedentary life of these early people; no-
madic groups, with few exceptions, rarely buried their
dead in a single central location.
Close contact between the farmers of Jericho and other
villages is indicated by common features in art, ritual, use
of prestige goods, and burial practices. Other evidence of
trade consists of obsidian and turquoise from Sinai as well
as marine shells from the coast, all discovered inside the
walls of Jericho.
Neolithic Material Culture
Various innovations in the realms of tool making, pottery,
housing, and clothing characterized life in Neolithic vil-
lages. All of these are examples of material culture.
TOOL MAKING
Early harvesting tools were made of wood or bone into
which razor-sharp flint blades were inserted. Later tools
continued to be made by chipping and flaking stone,
but during the Neolithic period stone that was too hard
to be chipped was ground and polished for tools. People
developed sickles, scythes, forks, hoes, and simple plows
to replace their digging sticks. Mortars and pestles were
used to grind and crush grain. Later, when domesticated
animals became available for use as draft animals, plows
were redesigned. Along with the development of diverse
technologies, individuals acquired specialized skills for
creating a variety of implements, including leatherworks,
weavings, and pottery.
POTTERY
Hard work on the part of those producing the food would
also support other members of the society who could then
apply their skills and energy to various craft specialties
such as pottery. In the Neolithic, different forms of pottery
were created for transporting and storing food, water, and
various material possessions.
Because pottery vessels are impervious to damage by
insects, rodents, and dampness, they could be used for
storing small grain, seeds, and other materials. Moreover,
food can be boiled in pottery vessels directly over the fire
rather than by such ancient techniques as dropping stones
heated directly in the fire into the food being cooked. Pot-
tery was also used for pipes, ladles, lamps, and other ob-
jects, and some cultures used large vessels for disposal of
the dead. Significantly, pottery containers remain impor-
tant for much of humanity today.
Widespread use of pottery, which is made of clay
and fired in very hot ovens, is a good, though not fool-
proof, indication of a sedentary community. It is found
in abundance in all but a few of the earliest Neolithic
settlements. Its fragility and weight make it less practical
for use by nomads and hunters, who more commonly
use woven bags, baskets, and animal-hide contain-
ers. Nevertheless, there are some modern nomads who
make and use pottery, just as there are farmers who do
not. In fact, food foragers in Japan were making pottery
by 13,000 years ago, long before it was being made in
Southwest Asia.
The manufacture of pottery requires artful skill and
considerable technological sophistication. To make a use-
ful vessel requires knowledge of clay: how to remove im-
purities from it, how to shape it into desired forms, and
how to dry it in a way that does not cause cracking. Proper
firing is tricky as well; it must be heated to over 600 de-
grees Fahrenheit so that the clay will harden and resist fu-
ture disintegration from moisture, but care must be taken
to prevent the object from cracking or even exploding as it
heats and later cools down.
Pottery is decorated in various ways. For example, de-
signs can be engraved on the vessel before firing, or special
rims, legs, bases, and other details may be made separately
and fastened to the finished pot. Painting is the most com-
mon form of pottery decoration, and there are literally
thousands of painted designs found among the pottery re-
mains of ancient cultures.HOUSING
Food production and the new sedentary lifestyle empha-
sized another technological development— permanent
house building. Because they move frequently, most
food foragers show little interest in permanent housing.
Cave shelters, pits dug in the earth, and simple lean-tos
made of hides and tree limbs serve the purpose of keep-
ing the weather out. In the Neolithic, however, dwell-
ings became more complex in design and more diverse
in type. Some Neolithic peoples constructed houses of
wood, while others built more elaborate shelters made
of stone, sun-dried brick, or poles plastered together
with mud or clay.
Although permanent housing frequently goes along
with food production, there is evidence of substantial
housing without domestication. For example, on the
northwestern coast of North America, people lived in ex-
tensive houses made of heavy planks split from cedar logs,
yet their food consisted entirely of wild plants and ani-
mals, especially salmon and sea mammals.CLOTHING
During the Neolithic, for the first time in human history,
clothing was made of woven textiles. The raw materials
and technology necessary for the production of clothing
came from several sources: flax and cotton from farming;
wool from domesticated sheep, llamas, or goats; silk from
silk worms. Human invention contributed the spindle for
spinning and the loom for weaving.