What was life like in the Neolithic?
What was life like in the Neolithic?
The Neolithic period was seen by some as a time of incredible transformation where a shift from hunting and gathering to a farming lifestyle occurred
The Neolithic (or ‘New Stone Age’) is a term used for the period in our past when the shift from hunting and gathering wild animals and plants to a farming lifestyle occurred.
It was also the time when pottery was first used, and in many regions, people also began to live in permanent settlements. This change happened at different times and in subtly different ways throughout the world, beginning around 10000 BC in the Middle East.
At the start of the Neolithic, people began to grow domesticated wheat and barley crops and to herd new animals such as cows, pigs and sheep; they nonetheless seem to have continued to use wild resources, such as hunted deer or gathered wild berries, as well. Pottery was adopted right across the country at this time, beginning with fairly plain styles, and later becoming highly decorated. The introduction of pottery would have radically changed people’s ability to cook and store food. It would also have provided people with new objects to exchange with other groups, and perhaps even to convey social messages through the decoration.
The Early Neolithic (c. 4000-3000 BC) in Britain is well-known for the construction of large-scale monuments such as long barrows (tombs) and causewayed enclosures (large ceremonial meeting places). Long barrows usually contain the skeletal remains of multiple burials (in some case several hundred people). Often bodies were left to decompose within the tomb, before being disturbed at a later date by the insertion of new burials. Sometimes, the bones of some ancestors may even have been removed and circulated amongst the living, perhaps during ceremonies.
The Neolithic came to be called the ‘new stone age’ because of its polished stone tools. This new technique made stone axes a little more hard-wearing and therefore functional, but its main purpose was more likely to make them more visually appealing. Other common Neolithic stone tools include flint blades, arrowheads and scrapers. People would have worn clothes made from animal hide, fur and probably also woven plant fibres.
The Neolithic is seen by some as a period of incredible transformation – the time when humans first brought nature under control with domesticated plants and animals, when large scale alterations in the form of massive monuments were first made to the landscape, and when new beliefs perhaps transformed lives forever. However, at the same time, it is possible to relate very directly to people’s lives at that time – the need to make a simple, bonfire-fired coil pot, to get together with dispersed friends and family once in a while, to bury and to remember forever one’s loved ones.
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