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The Neolithic or "New" Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology that is traditionally the last part of the Stone Age.
Neolithic Era
The Neolithic era follows the terminal Holocene Epipalaeolithic periods, beginning with the rise of farming, which produced the "Neolithic Revolution" and ending when metal tools became widespread in the Copper Age (chalcolithic) or Bronze Age or developing directly into the Iron Age, depending on geographical region.
Neolithic Culture
Neolithic culture appeared in the Levant (Jericho, Palestine) about 8500 BC. It developed directly from the Epipaleolithic Natufian culture in the region, whose people pioneered wild cereal use, which then evolved into true farming.
Neolithic everyday objects highlights fishing and hunting were the main occupations of the inhabitants of the forest territories.
Neolithic people decorated clay vessels in a wide variety of ways, created bone, horn and wooden figurines of people and animals. Noteworthy are a number of articles intended for tribal cults; these are polished stone axe-hammers, one end terminating with a bear's or elk's head executed with a considerable degree of realism.
There are very carefully worked small flint figurines of people, animals and birds, which are schematic and stylized and were probably used as amulets.
Proto-Neolithic
The Natufians can thus be called "proto-Neolithic" (11,000-8500 BC). As the Natufians had become dependent on wild cereals in their diet, and a sedentary way of life had begun among them, the climatic changes associated with the Younger Dryas forced people to develop farming. By 8500-8000 BC farming communities arose in the Levant and spread to Anatolia, North Africa and North Mesopotamia.
Neolithic Art
Neolithic art is represented by a number of large and varied collections of objects found in vast isolated areas in Eastern Europe, Siberia and Central Asia.
Archaeological Complexes
Most fully represented are archaeological complexes discovered in the forest regions of European Russia.
The objects found give an idea of the culture and art of Neolithic tribes who, from the 6th millenium to the middle of the 2nd millenium BC, inhabited the country between the rivers Volga and Oka, the Urals, and southern areas of the Pskov region including settlements in Karelia.
Art of a monumental character was familiar to these tribes. On the coast of the White Sea and on the eastern shores of Lake Onega, a large number of petroglyphs were etched into the rock surface.
The petroglyphs are executed in various manners: there are realistic and symbolic petroglyphs, and outline drawings but most are silhouettes.
Further Reading
http://www.hermitagemuseum.org/html_En/03/hm3_2_2.html
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