How to pronounce “neolith” in English

The Mesolithic is our hunter gatherer days.The Neolithic is the fancy stuff.This is when we come up with the major changes, which are settling down, farming, domesticating animals.

The first and arguably, but actually the most important things humans ever did was to start to farm.The Neolithic Revolution starting about 10,000 years ago and the start of settled agriculture was hugely important.Before that, humans mostly did hunting and gathering.

So these monuments weren't representing the burials of the whole community.So she's a Neolithic individual.

So these monuments weren't representing the burials of the whole community.But people in the Neolithic were very young.

So these monuments weren't representing the burials of the whole community.In the Neolithic, when Newgrange was built in Ireland, a very rough estimate that's been thrown out, about 150,000 people living in Ireland at that time.

So these monuments weren't representing the burials of the whole community.And returning to the Neolithic, the simplicity of life, one thing that we know-- and the commentators often say-- is their monuments, their communal buildings,

Barbara still gets screwed on the whole deal while Frank is everyone's favorite.But in the Neolithic, you move from a relatively egalitarian society to a society where resources are no longer heldin public. These storage bins are in a house.

that's uh very thrilling for an author to see um this is West kennet Long Barrow in Wiltshire it's a chamberedtomb from the Neolithic the late stone age uh which makes it about 5 and a halfthousand years old and I first visited this site when I was about 18 years old on a university field

flesh is rotted away and once the bones are scoured clean they've been collected up and placed into the tombs and it'sthought that in the Neolithic the practice symbolizes that you stop being an individual you stop being maryan youbecome part of the ancestors so walking into the tomb I had

entrance and there were two parallel grooves in the Rock and he said theseare created by late Neolithic people polishing ceremonial ax heads and thegrooves have been created by the thousands of repetitions of of polishing a a heavier

So these monuments weren't representing the burials of the whole community.So what happens in the Neolithic is that people settle down for the first time.

What? No, it just makes for a much cooler story.We're probably in the early Neolithic period, around 9,500 BC.He is out gathering wheat to-- sorry, more likely she-- is out gathering wheat to make bread, when suddenly--

You actually build up more bone if you're an ultimate marathon runner or professional running, you need that tibia, so you have a much larger bone.By time you get to the Neolithic, you can see that first little t-shaped bar there.That's a lower level.

And this is Asiklihoyuk, which I think is pretty much the coolest site ever, so you will all be forced to agree.This is a reconstruction of a Neolithic village.So finally combining all of these sorts of Neolithic things that we've done with settling down, domesticating animals, and domesticating something else,

and try and look at whether those kids are getting sick pretty much all at that same time, which might indicate it's something to do with the way their lives go.And what we find in the Neolithic is a story that we can probably best explain going all the way over to Paraguay.These are actually Ache indigenous people from Paraguay And they are trying to illustrate my point.

So we see you can have more babies.And this is the story of the Neolithic.We have never done anything that is so good for building more humans than just sitting down and making more babies.

Another site that you will all have heard of is Jericho.And Jericho has very important Neolithic levels.Very important concentration of early settled life.

So these monuments weren't representing the burials of the whole community.So death was very much front and center of Neolithic communities.

This is a reconstruction of a Neolithic village.So finally combining all of these sorts of Neolithic things that we've done with settling down, domesticating animals, and domesticating something else,which is, of course, what the Paleo Diet would have you believe is killing you right now.

This is wheat. Well, that's Muge.And Muge is tending to her experimental crop of Neolithic wheat.So not content with building an experimental village, we've now got Muge doing experimental wheat.

So not content with building an experimental village, we've now got Muge doing experimental wheat.And I have to admit that the thing you learn about Neolithic farming is it is boring.Because I watched Muge do this for hours, and I was like, no, I really have to go now.

So we've got shrinking jaws and rotting teeth.So far, the Neolithic is looking great.Now it's looking shiny.

Chimps are terrible, terrible people.But I think farming is actually-- the idea of the Neolithic of settling down and living year round is something that people tried several times.

And what we're finding at Catalhoyuk adds a lot to the story.So this is the mound at Catalhoyuk that is Neolithic in date.And you can see it's in the Konya Plain, which is about-- so the site is about three to four hours south of Ankara

You can either inflate-- whoops, you don't have a printing press.You can cut Greek's public spending to Neolithic levels.

use the microphone so people could hear the questions. And I wouldn't have to maul them, summarizing them.MALE AUDIENCE MEMBER #1: So what was the Neolithic discovery?Sharon Bertsch McGrayne: It was that the--. It had happened all of a sudden, within a short time period five thousand, five hundred years ago. And that instead of their being

when we were primarily hunter gatherers and not Farmers um you will findliterally dozens of mammals in the fire pits um of Neolithic humans um linksmuskrat goats of all kinds different hoofed mammals Predator herbivore didn't matter if if it if it moved and had meat

And this is more or less stabilized because there are a few human beings.10,000 years ago, with the Neolithic age, we settled down.

So these monuments weren't representing the burials of the whole community.Osteologists would be a little bit wary about giving averages for the whole of the Neolithic in Ireland, or a particular region,

So these monuments weren't representing the burials of the whole community.in fact? One thing we can say that Neolithic people were very good at is in acknowledging death.

Together, we can inspire compassion, stop the violence, and bring about a revolution of love.The first domestication-- 10,000 years ago, the Neolithic period, which I mentioned before.

These are storage bins.Storage bins, the Tupperware of the Neolithic.Not very interesting at first glance, and second glance, and when you have to draw it, and when you have to dig it.

Not very interesting at first glance, and second glance, and when you have to draw it, and when you have to dig it.But when in the village, in the Neolithic village, we see a movement from communal activity,egalitarian societies feasting together, sharing resources.

boulders and as you walk in there are two Chambers on each side and a fifth chamber at the very endand these were chambers that were used for burying men women and children from the NeolithicCommunity but not in whole pieces of not

And this was because I had to hang out of the plane in order to get the photograph, and so the wheel's in the way.And these things here, this is a Neolithic long barrow, so about 3,500 BC.This is a Bronze Age round barrow, about to 2,500 BC.

I mean, this has happened before.We talk about the Paleolithic era, the Neolithic era, the classical civilizations, and the modern period.And so it could be that we're just on the cusp of entering another era of humanity.

led to the need for more intensive production, and then ultimately to the domestication of wheat, and of course, sheep, and goat, and the full rangeof domesticates that we know come from the Middle East during the Neolithic.Just to point out, there are a number of other sites, as I've just shown you, but just to show how widespread they

for all sorts of things.So even if you take this imaginary scenario here these two guys in a Neolithic village, one wants a cow, what would really happen?Well, in fact in many human societies it is the case that if you praise somebody else's possession it's almost impossible not to give it to the person who praises it.

called uh a history of domesticated mammals um by an Oxford professor and I came across this great phrase and andand this professor she said um uh if you look at the middens of Neolithic humans you know going back 10,000 years agowhen we were primarily hunter gatherers and not Farmers um you will find

- Well, the interesting thing of the industrial revolution, electricity, like you mentioned, you can go back to, again, the agriculture,the first agricultural revolution, there's what's called the neolithic package over the first agricultural revolution.That it wasn't just that the nomads settled down and started planting food, but all this other kinds of technology was born from that,

I was kidding. And I was also talking about the Neolithic period, so just want to clarify.

And it was domesticated and bred somewhere between 4,000 and 5,000 years ago by Neolithic farmers in China because its

So you can see here the scarab beetle on the left.Or lucky charms. So you have this prehistoric, Neolithic stone tool which would be mounted in metal.But this, I think, was the first time I was introduced to a prehistoric monument.

I'm going to start in Jordan.This is a series of very prominent academics who study this crucial change between the Mesolithic and the Neolithic.The Mesolithic is our hunter gatherer days.

But for your sake, we are not going to go deep into that.But teeth are probably one of the most obvious places to look for changes that happen with the Neolithic.The way we eat changes.

And it's made a huge, huge difference in our lives.So this is Catalhoyuk, which is another one of these Neolithic sites, also Central Anatolia, about 1,000 years later.And this is really coming into the time of villages.

Today with us is Ian Hodder, who is going to talk about the original origins of settled life in the Middle East, specificallyGobekli and Catalhoyuk, two archaeological sites from the early Neolithic.Ian Hodder was trained at the Institute of Archaeology, University College, London and at Cambridge University, where he obtained his Ph.D. In 1975.

But I want to show you some other ways in which I think it was done.Well with that, join me in thanking Ian for sharing the Neolithic story.

And their software calculated the most probable sites for the wreckage, which was found in April after an undersea search of one week. OK? Now, about a month ago, the agency incharge of British archaeological sites announced that a wonderful Bayesian program had shown them that most of what they'd known about Neolithic era in Britain was, in their words,bollocks.