Neolithic era

Another promising application of NMR spectrometry to archaeological problems deals with fossil resins. These terpenoid polymers, the best known of which is amber, have played a large role in trade relations during prehistoric times since at least the neolithic era, and the determination of their geographic and botanical origin can contribute to our knowledge of this early commerce. 

Human culture can be observed in the physical artifacts of the past. Even without recorded histories, the partial record of materials that have survived the ravages of time provides us with insight into ancient times. The oldest surviving materials are human bones and the simple stone artifacts that are evidence of ancient workmanship. The stone (or lithic) tools can be used to describe early culture. Whether we study the rough chipped-stone implements of the Paleolithic era or the finer microblade tools of the Neolithic era, it is clear that early humans knew the mechanical properties of many natural materials. It was not until much later that the methods of chemical transformation were learned. 

Human bones painted in red in tombs of the Chinese neolithic era]. In I eda Suetoshi ha ase o i inen jigyo ai... 

As early as the first potteries, decoration was immediately an essential element, a symbolic system with which a whole culture identified itself. The simplest shapes are incisions, nail marks, scratches, etc. An example taken from the old Neolithic era [MOH 98] will illustrate the importance of the study of decoration in the knowledge of cultmes. Along the Mediterranean, around 6,000 BC, ceramics with cardial decorations flourished we can trace the expansion of the culture between 5,000 and 4,500 BC towards the Massif Central and the Atlantic coasts by discovering the presence of ceramics in the excavated sites. 

As early as the end of the Neolithic era, Chinese kilns were veiy sophisticated. The ovoid kilns of Jingdezhen are often cited. The sizes of these kilns, their firing chamber being in the form of an egg, made it possible to reach more than 1,350°C everywhere in the kiln. Temperature control, essential for performing the firing, was done by an ingenious system of windows. The fuel used was made up of small branches and pinewood [HUL 97]. The ceramics were placed in saggers, a kind of small refractory terra cotta boxes which insulated them and which also allowed better heat distribution. 

The appearance of domesticated species (Neolithic Period, Iron Age) and the gradual extermination of the large mammals (aurochs, wisent, moose, bear) which survived the Pleistocene and adapted to the Holocene are characteristic of the late period of this era. Those data are supplemented, among others, by botanical and archaeological remains, which, when combined, will lead to a better understanding of the events of the last phase of palaeohistory. 

---