Early Neolithic

Early Neolithic peoples domesticated the more productive local plants, cared for them m densely planted plots, protected them from animals and other plants (weeds) and haiwested the results. Likewise they tamed, bred and cared for local animals and ate them as they deemed fit. In the cases of cattle, horses, sheep and goats, milk and its products became staple foods. In some places larger domestic animals became beasts of burden. For very sound ecological reasons, agriculture allowed even early farmers to lib-... 

Tykot, R. H. (2002a), Geochemical analysis of obsidian and the reconstruction of trade mechanisms in the early Neolithic period of the western Mediterranean, Archaeological Chemistry, ACS Symposium Series, Vol. 831, pp. 169-184. 

Yelon, A., A. Saucier, J. P. Lerocque, P. E. L. Smith, and P. Vandiver (1992), Thermal analysis of early Neolithic pottery from Tepe Ganj Dareh, Material Research Society Symp. Proc., Vol. 267, pp. 591-607. 

Bentley, R.A., Price, T.D., Liming, J., Gronenborn, D., Wahl, J. and Fullager, P.D. (2002). Prehistoric migration in Europe strontium isotope analysis of early Neolithic skeletons. Current Anthropology 43 799-804. 

Figure 11.4 Total ion current (TIC) chromatogram of lipid residue extracted from a potsherd of Early Neolithic date (Ecsegfalva, Hungary). Cx y F refer to fatty acids with carbon number (x) and number of unsaturations (y). Cx T refer to triacylglycerols with number of carbon atoms (x). P = plasticizer contamination. (Craig et al., 2007, 354 Figure 18.1, by permission.)...

Figure 11.6 Plot of the difference (A value) between the 513C values of stearic (Ci8 0) and palmitic (C16 0) acid against the 513C value of stearic acid (Ci8 0). The data points represent samples extracted from Early Neolithic pottery in the study published by Craig et al., 2005. A values below —3.3%o are interpreted as ruminant dairy. The inset shows the range and abundance of triacylglycerols preserved in the Early Neolithic vessels from Ecsegfalva, Hungary, (from Craig et al., 2005 Figure 3b, by permission of Antiquity Publications Ltd.)...

Burger, J., Kirchner, M., Bramanti, B., Haak, W. and Thomas, M.G. (2007). Absence of the lactase-persistence-associated allele in early Neolithic Europeans. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA 104 3736-3741. 

Figure I. Location of sites in southwestern Iran mentioned in the text the early Neolithic villages ofAli Kosh and Chagha Sefid and the late Neolithic pastoral encampment ofTepe Tula i.

Phosphates, arsenates, and vanadates contain a simple molecule of oxygen combined with phosphorous, arsenic, or vanadium. Compounds of P04 are most common. Although this is the largest group of non-silicate minerals, only a few of them are found in museums outside of mineral collections. The most notable exception is turquoise, a phosphate of copper. Variscite is a blue-green phosphate sometimes used as an imitation of turquoise. Callais is variscite from Spain and France that was used in the Early Neolithic as a pigment and to make trade beads. 

In Chapter 2, Hancock, Pavlish, and Sheppard give an example of a case in which visual examination of stone tools was not adequate to differentiate between lithic artifacts that were produced from rocks that were very different in their origins. During the Mesolithic and early Neolithic times, the inhabitants of what is now Portugal used a variety of materials. Although most of the stone tools were classified by the archaeologists as sedimentary cherts, Hancock concluded that many tools were made of volcanic rhyolite. 

Lithic Material from the Mesolithic and Early Neolithic Periods of Portugal... 

Central to the argument McKenna makes for a role of psilocybe mushrooms are the facts that Stropharia cubensis grows in cow dung and that cattle were the main source of wealth and livelihood in early Neolithic cultures in Asia and Africa. When McKenna came upon the... 

It is also possible that obsidian came by land from more distant places, or by boat. Before our work started there was some evidence that boats traveled the open seas during Neolithic times. This evidence came from obsidian found in places that could only be reached by water from possible sources. Recently, we analyzed obsidian samples from two early Neolithic sites in Macedonia and found that they matched source material from the island of Milos. From Milos to the closest landfall on the mainland is more than 100 km, and if the obsidian was brought by water to Macedonia the distance would be 500 km. 

Under the microscope, important observations include composition (the mineral and organic contents), texture (size and sorting of sediments), and especially the fabric - the geometric relationships - of the constituents. At the early Neolithic site of Catalhoyuk in Turkey, for example, micromorphology revealed that some of the house floors had been plastered with a thin coat of clay at least 50 times. These thin layers of plaster incorporated many small finds of plant remains and other evidence. 

Time Period Late Mesolithic - Early Neolithic 4000 bc... 

Most of the obsidian in Near East comes from sources either in the mountains of Turkey (Anatolia) or in northern Iran (Armenia), both outside the Eertile Crescent. Information on the sources of obsidian found at early Neolithic sites provides data on both the direction and intensity of trade. Sites in the Levant generally obtained obsidian from Anatolia, while sites in the Zagros used Armenian material. The percentage of obsidian in the total flaked stone assemblage at these sites indicates that sites closest to the sources use a great deal of obsidian, while those furthest away have only a small amount available. At Jericho, for example, 700 km from the Anatolian sources, only about 1% of the stone tools are made from obsidian a similar situation holds at Ali Kosh, 800 km distant from the Armenian sources. 

Fig. 8.11 The location of obsidian sources and samples in the early Neolithic of Southwest Asia. Major rivers shown on the map are the Nile, Tigris, and Euphrates. Two major sources are shown in Anatolia and two in Armenia. The distribution of obsidian from these sources is seen at settlements across the area. The distributions are largely separate with the exception of one site where obsidian from both source areas is found...

The Iceman was approximately 45 years old at the time of his death. He was not a tall man, 159 cm (5 2.5") in height. The more difficult questions about the Iceman include how he died and where he came from. The extent of preservation of his body is remarkable most of the internal organs, as well as the eyeballs, are intact. Although the body was hairless from the effects of freezing and thawing, hair was found around the body. His lungs are black with the hearth smoke that filled early Neolithic houses. Tattoos were clearly visible on his back and right leg. X-rays... 

Pots dating to 6000 bc from the Early Neolithic site of <5atal HbyOk in Turkey were found to have contained a mixture of ruminant and pig fats, but no dairy fats, based on GC-C-IRMS analyses of palmitic (Ci6 o) and stearic (Cig o) fatty acids. 

Bentley, R.A., Krause, R., Price, T.D., Kaufmann, B. (2003) Human mobility at the early Neolithic settlement of Vaihingen, Germany evidence from strontium isotope analysis. Archaeometry, 45(3), 471-486. 

Fig. 1 - (a) The six complete 9,000 year-old flutes found at the early Neolithic site of Jiahu in the Henan Province in China. These flutes, made of hollow bird bones, are between 17 and 24 cm long and have 5, 6, 7 or 8 holes. The best preserved 7-hole flute was tonally analyzed by Huang Xiangpeng from the Art Institute of China, (b) A score of a piece of music played on this flute (Brookhaven National Laboratory, http //www.bnl.gov nlweb/flutes.html). 

In chapter 11, Tykot uses electron microprobe analysis to determine the major and minor elements in obsidian collected from sources throughout the Mediterranean region. Through statistical analysis, he is able to differentiate these sources and, thereby, is able to identify the sources of archaeological obsidian artifacts found in the region. Combining these data with contextual data, the relative frequency of particular obsidians in different sites can be used to infer that complex trade patterns existed in the Early Neolithic. 

Geochemical Analysis of Obsidian and the Reconstruction of Trade Mechanisms in the Early Neolithic Period of the Western Mediterranean... 

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