Our Prehistory - the Neolithic Revolution

Paleolithic People emerged from the Stone Age learning how to fend for themselves, and make tools. As the new age began to dawn, it would become known as the Neolithic Revolution. (8000 to 4000 B.C) Neolithic is Greek, meaning "New Stone". Perhaps the most significant change from the Stone Age to the Neolithic Revolution was how people went from hunting animals that migrated to growing food and obtaining food on a regular basis. --This would become known as systematic farming.

Farming as we know it today originated from systematic farming when the earliest of our people planted grains and vegetables for a regular supply of food. Also, instead of hunting wild animals, which where constantly migrating, humans were able to domesticate animals, so there would always be a steady supply of numerous products such as milk, meat, and wool.

At this period in time, we also underwent the agricultural revolution, and it was a very important development in human history. With food now being in constant supply, humans could settle down and live in communities.

Farming developed in different ways across the world between 8000 to 5000 B.C. In southwest Asia, they were growing wheat and barley. They also had tamed pigs, cows, goats, and sheep. In Southeast Europe and Coastal regions of the Mediterranean Sea had also established farming.

These "Neolithic farming villages" began sprouting up everywhere, and humans began to from societies, as they began to have a feel for a greater control over their environment. With settlement also came consequences, and new problems. For example, the need for shelter, houses, and storages for food.

Artisans began to develop skills; and began to sue theses skills to create crafts. For example, they began to use fibers from plants (such as cotton) to spin yarn and make into cloth. This caused trade to develop. Neolithic people traded amongst themselves for the things they needed, and this was done with the earliest forms of "valuables". Instead of money, for example, they would exchange pigs (meat) for cotton (cloth).

As the Neolithic Revolution began to take full effect, the relationship between men and women began to change. Men became more active in the farming field, and women were left behind to tend to the children and play more traditional roles that even exist today still. Men had become more dominant, compared to the "rough equality" that men and women had previously shared during the Stone Age.

The use of the first metal, Copper, to make tools, marked the end of the Neolithic Age. Thus began the Bronze Age (3000 to 1200 B.C)