WHAY IS THE NEOLITHIC?

Neolithic: the period of prehistory when people began to use ground stone tools, to cultivate plants, and to domesticate livestock, but before the use of metal for tools. It is the technical name for the New Stone Age in the Old World following the Mesolithic. In the Neolithic, villages were established, pottery and weaving appeared, and farming began. The Neolithic began about 8000–7000 bc in the Middle East and about 4000–3000 bc in Europe. It was followed by the Bronze Age, which began about 3500–3000 bc in the Middle East and about 2000–1500 bc in Europe. The criteria for “defining” the Neolithic has become progressively more difficult to apply as both food production and metalworking took a long time to develop. In Britain, the Neolithic has other more specific characteristics: the use of pottery and of ground stone (beside the long-employed flaked stone), and the appearance of construction works like the long barrow, causewayed camp, and megalithic tomb. Elsewhere, however, some Mesolithic cultures made use of pottery, in Japan for example; and certain so-called Pre-Pottery Neolithic groups had none, as at Jericho. If the term Neolithic is to be retained at all, it must be based on the appearance of food production (especially cereal grains), sometimes called the Neolithic Revolution, commencing in southwest Asia 9000–6000 bc. This might be considered the most important single advance ever made by man, since it allowed him to settle permanently in one spot. This in turn encouraged the accumulation of material possessions, stimulated trade, and by producing a storable surplus of food allowed a larger population and craft specialization. All these were prerequisite to further human progress. The Neolithic was followed by the Mesolithic period, the Chalcolithic, or the Bronze Age, depending on the terminology used in different areas and the nature of the archaeological sequence itself. The Neolithic followed the Paleolithic period 

WHAT IS THE MICROLITH?

Any of various very small stone tools varying in size from 1 to 5 cm (0.4–2 inches) – mainly thin blades or blade fragments with sharp cutting edges, usually geometric in shape, and set into a wooden handle or shaft or the tip of a bone or antler as an arrow point. They were shaped by abrupt retouch into various shapes like triangles and crescents. Microliths were produced during  the later Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic and were either struck as blades from very small cores or were made from fractured blades using the microburin technique. They are characteristic, for example, of the Azilian culture of the Mesolithic. Microliths represent both a versatile and an economic use of raw material – just as blades yield more cutting edge than flakes per unit weight of raw material, so bladelets improve yet further this advantage, by a factor of something over 100 compared to core tools. [pigmy stone]

WHAT IS THE MICROBLADE?

A small, narrow stone blade, ranging from less than 5 to 11 mm (0.1–0.4 inches) wide and about 15–45 mm (0.6–1.7 inches) long. They were often made from a conical or wedge-shaped microcore, often punch-struck or pressure flaked. Microblades were often retouched into various forms of microliths. Microblades are found in the Upper Paleolithic industries of Eurasia and in the Upper Paleolithic of Siberia, but are also characteristic of the Mesolithic and later industries of the circumpolar regions. Examples are the Eastern Gravettian, the Dyuktai culture, and the Arctic Small Tool tradition.

WHAT IS THE MESOLITHIC?

A time period in human history beginning with the retreat of glacial ice c. 8500 bc and the changing climatic conditions following it; a development in northwestern Europe that lasted until about 2700 bc. This Middle Stone Age followed the Upper Paleolithic and preceded the Neolithic. It was a period of transition in the Early Holocene between the hunter-gatherer existence and the development of farming and pottery production. Glacial flora and fauna were replaced by modern forms and the flint industries are often distinguished by an abundance of microliths. The equipment was designed for fishing and fowling as well as hunting and often included many tiny flints, or microliths, that were set in wooden shafts and hafts, and stone axes or adzes used for woodworking. Forests grew in Europe and people modified their lives accordingly. In the Near East, which remained free of ice sheets, climatic change was less significant than in northern Europe and agriculture was practiced soon after the close of the Pleistocene. In this area the Mesolithic period was short and poorly differentiated. In Britain the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition did not come until around 4000 bc. The dog was domesticated during the Mesolithic. The term is used widely only in European prehistory.

WHAT IS THE AX ?

AX: one of the last major categories of stone tool to be invented, around the end of the last Ice Age in the Paleolithic. It is a flat, heavy cutting tool of stone or metal (bronze) in which the cutting edge is parallel to the haft and which might have the head and handle in one piece. Its main function was for woodworking (hewing, cleaving, or chopping trees) but it was also used as a weapon of war, as the battle ax. There are many forms of ax, depending on the different materials and methods of hafting. The word ax is now used instead of celt. Hand ax is used to denote the earlier implement which was not hafted. In Mesolithic times, stone axes were usually chipped from a block of flint, and could be resharpened by the removal of a flake from the end. In the Neolithic, axes were polished and often perforated to aid hafting. Axes are now usually made of iron with a steel edge or blade and fixed by means of a socket in the handle. Smaller, lighter ones are called hatchets. [axe]