The Neolithic Revolution

EDuring the early phase of Epipaleolithic Period, like many other regions in West Asia, the seasonally settled mobile hunter-gatherer groups in Anatolia had regular connection with other prehistoric groups lived in close and distant geographical regions. These mobile hunter-gatherer groups produced various types of tools and material objects, and often involved in exchange activities. There was an increase in exchanging activities of precious and symbolic objects in later period, particularly among the semi-settled Late Epipaleolithic groups. On the other hand, with the beginning of Pre-Pottery Neolithic, the prehistoric people in Anatolia were living sedentary life in the permanent villages, and were deeply involved in exchange of technology, culture as well as regional and inter-regional trade activities. These cultural exchanges, along with the regular trade activities, eventually helped the development and spread of Neolithic way of life all across the Southeast, Central and West Anatolia, and their neighboring regions. The new way of life was primarily based on agriculture and animal husbandry, but had a wide range of production activities related to architecture, pottery, stone tools, bone tools, beads, baskets and also a high number of ritual and symbolic materials. With the help of various examples of material cultures and significant archaeological discoveries, this study aims to evaluate different types of production and trade activities, particularly among the Epipaleolithic and Neolithic people groups in Anatolia.

Şimdiye kadar bu dünyada virüs kaynaklı salgın hastalıkların oluşumu, gelişimi ve küresel yayılımı hakkında üç büyük tarihi dönüşüm olmuştur: Bunlardan ilki, tarım ve hayvancılığın ortaya çıktığı dönem, yani erken Neolitik Dönem’dir. İkincisi, büyük Assur, Roma ya da Çin İmparatorluğu zamanlarında, insanların kıtalararası hareketleri nedeniyle hastalıkları yaymasıdır. Bu da barışçıl dönemlerde ticaret ilişkileri esnasında, saldırgan dönmelerde ise askeri ve ordu hareketlerinin yoğunlaşmasıyla gerçekleşmiştir. Üçüncü ve çağdaş tarihe en yakın olan dönüşüm ise, 1500 civarında ve sonraki dönemde, Avrupa devletlerinin Amerika, Avustralya gibi yeni kıtalara yayılması ve oralarda koloniler kurmasıdır.

Bizim buradaki katkımızın amacı, yukarıda bahsi geçen ilk dönüşüme, yani erken Neolitik Dönem’e daha detaylı bir göz atmaktır. Özellikle türümüz için potansiyel tehlike olan mikrop ve diğer patogenlerin nasıl ve neden insanları etkilemeye başladığı konusuna ışık tutmaktır. Bu hedefe yaklaşmak için de öncelikle günümüzden yaklaşık 12.000 sene öncesine dönüp bugüne kadar devam eden süreç içerisinde, hayat tarzımızı somut bir şekilde irdelemektir

The Çatalhöyük and Sha'ar Hagolan communities faced a new situation in human evolution, namely, the agglomeration of a very large population at one site. Each community developed different strategies to cope with the scalar stress it faced. This analysis concentrates on six different cultural phenomena and discusses the meaning of these differences. Ultimately, they reflect different social structures: the site of Çatalhöyük presents a fascinating large community that struggled with population pressure on the nuclear-family level, while at Sha'ar Hagolan the community was organized on the extended family level.

This paper takes a comparative approach to consider the role of storage technology in early agricultural communities in the Central European Neolithic Linearbandkeramik (LBK) in light of research in the US Southwest. In particular, it outlines likely technological and social factors underlying storage type and location, with particular consideration of surface versus underground storage, and visible versus private storage. Several interpretations of LBK patterns and how they might be evaluated derive from this comparison. In particular, some types of LBK longhouses may have had two storage areas at opposite ends, with grain stored at the back or northwest end of the house, and perhaps fodder in the front southeast end. In addition, the limited use of underground storage in the LBK implies stable and secure settlements composed of relatively autonomous households, though this pattern undoubtedly varied regionally and perhaps deteriorated over time. These conclusions are not intended as definitive, but rather as suggesting directions for further investigation of variation in space and time in the early Central European Neolithic.

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summary – neolithic and eneolithic of caput adriae – the eastern adriatic coast and the caput adriae lie along one of the main routes of the spread of farming into europe. the area in this study covers dalmatia, istria, Karst and friuli which present varied environmental and geomorphological features. recent research has disclosed a complex archaeological picture of neolithic communities well adapted to different local environments. this area is also significant for the understanding of contacts and interactions between the mediterranean world and the continental regions during the development of the neolithic period and in the subsequent prehistoric phases. nevertheless, only dalmatia offers long relatively detailed pottery sequences suitable for building a reliable cultural and chronological framework of the neolithic in several phases between 6000 and ca. 4000 bc. full neolithic evidence is attested to only occasionally in the istria and Karst regions, while it is widespread in the western margin of friulian plain. eneolithic evidence instead is not yet fully attested; its recognition rests almost entirely on certain stylistic traits of pottery and the first appearance of copper objects as isolated artefacts. the paper presents an outline of the emergence of neolithic communities and their economic and social transformations between the sixth and third millennium bc.
riassunto – neolitico ed eneolitico del caput adriae – la costa orientale dell’adriatico e il Caput Adriae sono situati lungo una delle vie principali seguite dal processo di neolitizzazione in europa. l’area esaminata comprende la dalmazia, l’istria, il carso e il friuli che presentano caratteristiche ambientali e geomorfologiche differenti. le ricerche effettuate negli ultimi anni hanno svelato un quadro archeologico complesso costituito da numerose communità neolitiche con sistemi di sussistenza diversificati ben adattati ai differenti ambienti locali. l’area considerata è inoltre di grande interesse per la comprensione dei contatti e delle interazioni intercorse tra il mondo mediterraneo e le regioni più interne nel corso del neolitico e nelle successive fasi preistoriche; tuttavia, solo la dalmazia ha delle sequenze ceramiche relativamente dettagliate che forniscono un quadro cronologico e culturale affidabile delle diverse fasi neolitiche tra il 6000 e il 4000 circa a.c. le evidenze del pieno neolitico sono occasionalmente attestate in istria e nel carso, mentre sono meglio note nelle zone più occidentali del friuli. l’eneolitico non è ancora ben definito ed è conosciuto solo da alcune evidenze ceramiche e dalla comparsa occasionale dei primi manufatti di rame. l’articolo delinea lo sviluppo delle comunità agricole nel corso del neolitico e le loro trasformazioni economiche e sociali tra il vi e il iii millennio a.c.

Lange Version des Katalogartikels zum Neolithikum mit Literaturverzeichnis:

Katalogartikel für das Museum der Westlausitz, Kamenz (Sachsen) zur aktuellen Sonderausstellung "Das Ende der Steinzeit-die ersten Bauern in der Lausitz" 08.02.2020−10.01.2021.
Da ich nicht über die Rechte zu den damals von mir eingeplanten Abbildungen verfüge, sind diese hier entfernt worden. Die Verweise auf die Abbildungen befinden sich aber im Abbildungsverzeichnis.

Hierbei handelt es sich um eine detaillierte Version zum publizierten Katalogbeitrag , welcher um ca. fünf Seiten gekürzt ist. Ferner verfügt dieser Artikel über das dazugehörige Literaturverzeichnis.
Der Artikel liefert eine komprimierte Zusammenfassung zum europäischen Neolithikum, dessen Ausbreitung und Folgen für Mensch und Umwelt. Dabei werden diverse Forschungsmeinungen erwähnt und kritisiert.

Gekürzter Katalogbeitrag:

D. Richardt, Das Neolithikum – Am Beginn der Zivilisation. In: F. Koch-Heinrichs (Hrsg.), Das Ende
der Steinzeit. Die Ersten Bauern in der Lausitz. Begleitband zur Ausstellung „Das Ende der Steinzeit –
Die ersten Bauern in der Lausitz“ vom 08.02.2020−10.01.2021 (Kamenz 2020) 10−19.

The following contribution attempts to reconcile aspects of Cultural Morphology as outlined by Oswald Spengler in his seminal Decline of the West and Man & Technics with archaeological observations dating to the transitional period from the Epipalaeolithic to the Early Holocene in the so-called Fertile Crescent (ca. 10.000 BC). The finds and features of Göbeklitepe and related sites of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic (PPN) in Upper Mesopotamia are reevaluated, to allow a different reading of the emergence of monumental architecture as the cultural climax of a then declining hunter-and-gatherer tradition, and not the prelude for a new era shaped by animal husbandry and agriculture.

The rich collection of bone material of the Neolithic of Shomutepe culture of the South Caucasus is not well understood. Analyzing the collections of materials from the monuments of Azerbaijan’s Shomutepe culture (Shomutepe, Toyretepe, Gargalartepe), we paid attention to the bone objects that we called “Shomutepe type hairpins” that were in the collections of all these monuments.

In the years 1967-1968. I. Narimanov on the Garabagh plain explored a monument of early farmers - the settlement of Ilanlytepe. This was the first settlement of representatives of this culture, fully investigated in this region of Azerbaijan. Among the many discoveries made at the excavations of this monument that were new at that time, the presence of ceramic vessels was noted, part of the edge of the neck of which is concave, which forms a horizontal membrane partially covering the neck. Given the complete absence of handles on the vessels found in this settlement and in general in the already famous Neolithic monuments in the Caucasus, I. Narimanov defined this part as an element that provides ease of capture and carrying. In addition to Ilanlytepe, the presence of such an element was not noted in any other monument of this historical era. For over 40 years, he was considered one of the business cards of this settlement.

First version of the map "Expansion of Farming in Western Eurasia" from 2005. From: D. Gronenborn, Bauern - Priester - Häuptlinge. Die Anfänge der Landwirtschaft und die frühe Gesellschaftsentwicklung zwischen Orient und Europa. In: F. Daim/W. Neubauer (Hrsg.), Zeitreise Heldenberg. Geheimnisvolle Kreisgräben. Katalog zur Niederösterreichischen Landesausstellung 2005 (Horn, Wien 2005) 114–123.

After the first conference on the Neolithic of the Arabian Peninsula in Lyon in 2012, the proceedings of which were published in a special issue of Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy in 2013, a second conference on the same topic was held in Kuwait City in 2018. This present special issue of Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy shows the results of
discussions and debates from this inspiring and successful workshop.