{"id":69,"date":"2015-10-06T17:38:51","date_gmt":"2015-10-06T17:38:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.candelalearning.com\/zelixart101\/?post_type=chapter&p=69"},"modified":"2018-09-18T12:03:22","modified_gmt":"2018-09-18T12:03:22","slug":"the-neolithic-revolution","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-ncc-zeliart\/chapter\/the-neolithic-revolution\/","title":{"raw":"The Neolithic Revolution","rendered":"The Neolithic Revolution"},"content":{"raw":"

A Settled Life<\/h2>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_70\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"400\"]\"View Stonehenge, c. 3,000 BCE, Salisbury Plain, England[\/caption]\r\n\r\nWhen people think of the Neolithic era, they often think of Stonehenge, the iconic image\u00a0of this early era. Dating\u00a0to approximately 3000 BCE and set on Salisbury Plain in England, it is a structure larger\u00a0and more complex than anything built before it in Europe. Stonehenge is an example of the cultural\u00a0advances brought about by the Neolithic revolution\u2014the most important development in\u00a0human history. The way we live today, settled in homes, close to other people in towns and cities, protected by laws, eating food grown on farms, and with leisure time to learn, explore and invent is all a result of the Neolithic revolution, which occurred approximately\u00a011,500\u20135,000 years ago. The revolution which led to our way of life was the development of the technology needed to plant and harvest crops and to domesticate\u00a0animals.\r\n\u00a0<\/b>\r\nBefore the Neolithic revolution, it's likely you would have lived with your extended family\u00a0as a nomad, never staying anywhere for more than a few months, always living in temporary shelters, always searching for food and never owning anything you couldn\u2019t easily pack in a pocket or a sack. The change to the Neolithic way of life was huge and led to many of the pleasures (lots of food, friends and a comfortable home) that we still enjoy today.\r\n

Neolithic Art<\/h2>\r\nThe massive changes in the way people lived also changed the\u00a0types\u00a0of art they made.\u00a0Neolithic sculpture became bigger, in part, because people didn\u2019t have to carry\u00a0it\u00a0around anymore; pottery became more widespread and was used to store food\u00a0harvested from farms. This is\u00a0when alcohol was invented and when architecture, and its interior and exterior decoration,\u00a0first appears. In short, people settle down and begin to live in one place, year\u00a0after year.\r\n\r\n<\/b>It seems very unlikely that Stonehenge could have been made by earlier, Paleolithic, nomads. It would have been a waste to invest so much time and energy building a monument in a place to which they might never return or might only return\u00a0infrequently. After all, the effort to build it was\u00a0extraordinary. Stonehenge is\u00a0approximately 320 feet in circumference and the stones\u00a0which compose the outer ring\u00a0weigh as much as 50 tons; the small stones, weighing\u00a0as much as 6 tons, were quarried\u00a0from as far away as 450 miles. The use or meaning\u00a0of Stonehenge is not clear, but\u00a0the design, planning and execution could have only been carried out by a\u00a0culture in which authority was unquestioned. Here is a culture that was\u00a0able to rally\u00a0hundreds\u00a0of people\u00a0to perform very hard work for extended\u00a0periods of time.\u00a0This is\u00a0another characteristic\u00a0of the Neolithic era.\r\n

Plastered Skulls<\/h2>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_71\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"400\"]\"Three Skulls with plaster and shell from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B, 6,000\u20137,000 BCE, found at the Yiftah'el archeological site in the Lower Galilee, Israel[\/caption]\r\n\r\nThe Neolithic period is also important because it is when we first find good evidence\u00a0for religious practice, a perpetual inspiration for the fine arts. Perhaps most fascinating\u00a0are the plaster skulls found around the area of the Levant, at six sites,\u00a0including Jericho in Israel. At this time in the Neolithic, c. 7000\u20136,000 BCE, people\u00a0were often buried under\u00a0the floors of homes, and in some cases their skulls were\u00a0removed and covered with\u00a0plaster in order to create very life-like faces, complete with\u00a0shells inset for eyes and\u00a0paint to imitate hair and moustaches.\r\n\r\nThe traditional interpretation of these\u00a0the skulls has been that they offered a means of\u00a0preserving and worshiping male ancestors. However,\u00a0recent research has shown that\u00a0among the sixty-one plastered skulls that have been\u00a0found, there is a generous number\u00a0that come from the bodies of women and children. Perhaps the skulls are\u00a0not so much\u00a0religious objects but rather powerful images made to aid in mourning lost\u00a0loved ones.\u00a0Neolithic peoples didn't have written language, so we may never know.[footnote]The earliest example of writing develops in Sumer in Mesopotamia in the late fourth\u00a0millennium BCE. However, there are scholars that believe that earlier proto-writing developed during the Neolithic period.[\/footnote]","rendered":"

A Settled Life<\/h2>\n
\"View<\/p>\n

Stonehenge, c. 3,000 BCE, Salisbury Plain, England<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

When people think of the Neolithic era, they often think of Stonehenge, the iconic image\u00a0of this early era. Dating\u00a0to approximately 3000 BCE and set on Salisbury Plain in England, it is a structure larger\u00a0and more complex than anything built before it in Europe. Stonehenge is an example of the cultural\u00a0advances brought about by the Neolithic revolution\u2014the most important development in\u00a0human history. The way we live today, settled in homes, close to other people in towns and cities, protected by laws, eating food grown on farms, and with leisure time to learn, explore and invent is all a result of the Neolithic revolution, which occurred approximately\u00a011,500\u20135,000 years ago. The revolution which led to our way of life was the development of the technology needed to plant and harvest crops and to domesticate\u00a0animals.
\n\u00a0<\/b>
\nBefore the Neolithic revolution, it’s likely you would have lived with your extended family\u00a0as a nomad, never staying anywhere for more than a few months, always living in temporary shelters, always searching for food and never owning anything you couldn\u2019t easily pack in a pocket or a sack. The change to the Neolithic way of life was huge and led to many of the pleasures (lots of food, friends and a comfortable home) that we still enjoy today.<\/p>\n

Neolithic Art<\/h2>\n

The massive changes in the way people lived also changed the\u00a0types\u00a0of art they made.\u00a0Neolithic sculpture became bigger, in part, because people didn\u2019t have to carry\u00a0it\u00a0around anymore; pottery became more widespread and was used to store food\u00a0harvested from farms. This is\u00a0when alcohol was invented and when architecture, and its interior and exterior decoration,\u00a0first appears. In short, people settle down and begin to live in one place, year\u00a0after year.
\n
\n<\/b>It seems very unlikely that Stonehenge could have been made by earlier, Paleolithic, nomads. It would have been a waste to invest so much time and energy building a monument in a place to which they might never return or might only return\u00a0infrequently. After all, the effort to build it was\u00a0extraordinary. Stonehenge is\u00a0approximately 320 feet in circumference and the stones\u00a0which compose the outer ring\u00a0weigh as much as 50 tons; the small stones, weighing\u00a0as much as 6 tons, were quarried\u00a0from as far away as 450 miles. The use or meaning\u00a0of Stonehenge is not clear, but\u00a0the design, planning and execution could have only been carried out by a\u00a0culture in which authority was unquestioned. Here is a culture that was\u00a0able to rally\u00a0hundreds\u00a0of people\u00a0to perform very hard work for extended\u00a0periods of time.\u00a0This is\u00a0another characteristic\u00a0of the Neolithic era.<\/p>\n

Plastered Skulls<\/h2>\n
\"Three<\/p>\n

Skulls with plaster and shell from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B, 6,000\u20137,000 BCE, found at the Yiftah’el archeological site in the Lower Galilee, Israel<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The Neolithic period is also important because it is when we first find good evidence\u00a0for religious practice, a perpetual inspiration for the fine arts. Perhaps most fascinating\u00a0are the plaster skulls found around the area of the Levant, at six sites,\u00a0including Jericho in Israel. At this time in the Neolithic, c. 7000\u20136,000 BCE, people\u00a0were often buried under\u00a0the floors of homes, and in some cases their skulls were\u00a0removed and covered with\u00a0plaster in order to create very life-like faces, complete with\u00a0shells inset for eyes and\u00a0paint to imitate hair and moustaches.<\/p>\n

The traditional interpretation of these\u00a0the skulls has been that they offered a means of\u00a0preserving and worshiping male ancestors. However,\u00a0recent research has shown that\u00a0among the sixty-one plastered skulls that have been\u00a0found, there is a generous number\u00a0that come from the bodies of women and children. Perhaps the skulls are\u00a0not so much\u00a0religious objects but rather powerful images made to aid in mourning lost\u00a0loved ones.\u00a0Neolithic peoples didn’t have written language, so we may never know.[1]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n\n\t\t\t

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