Neolithic

Technological History. Archaeologists often divide the neolithic period, the latter part of what used to be called the Stone Age, into pre- and post ceramic, with reference to when ceramics came into production (88—92). Actually, there are occasions of pre-ceramic pyrotechnology, such as in the case of the fifth millenium BC mideastem plaster production (93). So far the eadiest occurrence of ceramics is in the 28th millenium BC in Eastern Europe, although here the technique was not used for the production of vessels but of figurines (94). 

Silica (Si02) and silicates have been intimately connected with the evolution of mankind from prehistoric times the names derive from the Latin silex, gen. silicis, flint, and serve as a reminder of the simple tools developed in paleolithic times (. i00000 years ago) and the shaped flint knives and arrowheads of the neolithic age which began some 20 000 years ago. The name of the element, silicon, was proposed by Thomas Thomson in... 

Neu-prtifung, /. new test, reexamination, -rot, n. new red. -rotolung, /. (Dyeing) new red oiling, -rotverfahren, n. new red process, -schdpftmg, /. new creation, -seeland, n. New Zealand, -silber, n. nickel silver, German silver, -steinzeit, /. New Stone Age, 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-... 

A relatively uncomplicated case is the use of nitrogen fixers as food items. There is abundant archaeological evidence for the importance of pulses in the Mediterranean in Neolithic and later periods. Because pulses have 5 N values of around 0%o, the use of pulses as food stuffs should be detectable. Recently, we have measured human 5 N values in some Greek sites that indicate that a few individuals in the cemetery were almost completely dependent on pulse protein (Van Klinken and Triantaphyllou, in prep.). 

Study, ancient Maya diet shows a A N of 4.5%o (humans-herbivores). The 8 N values for mixed-diet humans in Schoeninger et al. (1983) seem always somewhat too positive for their supposed food European agriculturalists are about 8-10%o. Also, Bocherens et al. (1991) and Lubell et al. (1994) give similar values (aroimd +9%o) for medieval French and Neolithic humans from Portugal, respectively. The 8 N values (+9.3 and 11.6%o) of two human (Neanderthal) samples (Fizet et al. 1995) are very similar to those of associated carnivores but are only slightly higher than those of Neolithic humans. 

Lubell, D., Jackes, M., Schwarcz, H., Knyf, M. and Meiklejohn, C. 1994 The Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in Portugal isotopic and dental evidence oiAiA.Journal of Archaeological Science 21 201-216. 

Noe-Nygaard, N. 1988 8 C values of dog bones reveal the nature of changes in man s food resources at the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition. Isotope Geoscience 73 87-96. 

Liden, K. 1990 A diet study from the Middle Neolithic site Ire. In Arrhenius, B., ed., Laborativ Arkeologi. Stockholm, Stockholm University 21-28. 

Fig. 7. vs gp) mean values for bone collagens of herbivores and omnivores including humans from Great Britain, Hungary, Peru and Canada dating from the Neolithic to the mid-15th century AD (adapted from Reynard Hedges 2008). Error bars indicate one standard error of the mean of 10 to 15 samples per species. 

Wizards have always been powerful iconic figures, whether as Neolithic shamans,... 

Budd, P. and B. Ottaway (1991), The Properties of Arsenical Copper Alloys Implications for the Development of a Neolithic Metallurgy, Oxbow Monograph 9, Oxford. 

Gourdin, W. H. and W. D. Kingery (1975), The beginnings of pyrotechnology -Neolithic and Egyptian lime plaster, /. Field Archaeol. 2, 133-150. 

Perlman, I. and J. Yellin (1980), The provenience of obsidian from Neolithic sites in Israel, Israel Explor. ]. 30, 83-88. 

Shackleton, N. J. (1970), Stable isotope study of the palaeoenvironment of the neolithic site of Nea Nikomedeia, Greece, Nature 227, 943-944. 

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. 

Neolithic 86,500,000 Early villages and small communities, beginnings of many crafts Use of gold Accelerated soil erosion... 

P. Agozzino, G. Avellone, I.D. Donato, F. Filizzola, Mass spectrometry for cultural heritage knowledge gas chromatographic/mass spectrometric analysis of organic remains in Neolithic potsherds, Journal of Mass Spectrometry, 36, 443 444 (2001). 

D. Urem Kotsou, B. Stem, C. Heron, K. Kotsakis, Birch bark tar at Neolithic Makriyalos, Greece, Antiquity, 76, 962 967 (2002). 

J. Connan, O. Kavak, E. Akin, M.N. Yale, K. Imbus, J. Zumberge, Identification and origin of bitumen in Neolithic artefacts from Demirkoy Hoyuk (8100 BC) Comparison with oil seeps and crude oils from southeastern Turkey, Organic Geochemistry, 37, 1752 1767 (2006). 

M. Regert, S. N. Dudd, P. F. van Bergen, P. Petrequin and R. P. Evershed, Investigations of both extractable and insoluble polymeric components organic residues in Neolithic ceramic vessels from Chalain (Jura, France), British Archaeological Reports, S939, 78 90 (2001b). 

Regert et al. studied [9] a series of 30 Neolithic hafting adhesives from lake dwellings at Chalain (France) using an analytical procedure based on GC/MS analysis involving solvent extraction (dichloromethane) and trimethylsilylation. In the majority of the samples a series of triterpenoid compounds with a lupane structure was clearly identified on the basis of their TMS mass spectra. In particular, the presence of betulin, betulone, lupenone, lupeol and lupa-2,20(29)-dien-28-ol allowed birch bark tar to be identified. In other samples the co-occurrence of other plant biomarkers such as a-amyrin,(3-amyrin... 

M. Regert, J. Delacotte, M. Menu, P. Petrequin, C. Rolando, Identification of Neolithic hafting adhesives from two lake dwellings at Chalain (Jura, France), Ancient Biomol., 2, 81 96 (1998). 

Copley, M. S., Berstan, R., Mukherjee, A. J., Dudd, S. N., Straker, V., Payne S. and Evershed R. P. (2005c) Dairying in antiquity. III. Evidence from absorbed lipid residues dating to the British Neolithic. Journal of Archaeological Science 32, 523 546. 

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