Lecture 7 : The Neolithic Overview

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Lecture 7 The NeolithicOverview

• INTRODUCTION POPULATION GROWTH
• THE MESOLITHIC
• THE NEOLITHIC / AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION
• Developments in technology etc.
• Health and disease

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Population Changes

• The worlds population is estimated as
• 4 million by 10,000 BC
• 5 million by 5,000 BC
• 100 million by 500 BC
• There were two major developments
• The Neolithic revolution / agricultural
  revolution ca. 9,000 7,000 BC
• The urban revolution ca. 3,000 BC

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The Mesolithic

• Found in temperate parts of Europe and Asia where
  it preceded the Neolithic.
• Wildfowl, fish and molluscs were added to the
  diet.
• Skeletons were about 2 inches shorter than in the
  Palaeolithic.
• Mesolithic was contemporaneous with the Neolithic
  in the Middle East.
• First people arrived in Ireland about about
  8,000BC. Mount Sandel (near Coleraine) Mesolithic
  site 7,000 BC.
• Neolithic diffused across Europe, reaching
  Ireland sometime after 4,000 BC

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The Agricultural Revolution

• Began in the hilly regions of the Middle East
  about 9,000 to 7,000 BC.
• Developed out of the domestication of animals
  such as cattle, sheep, pigs and goats, and the
  cultivation of grasses (e.g. wheat, barley) and
  legumes (e.g. peas, lentils).
• May have emerged elsewhere around the same time.

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Settlement

• Agriculture was probably transitory to begin
  with, but it eventually resulted in permanent
  villages.
• It is generally believed that some villages grew
  into towns and then eventually cities about
  3,000BC as they acquired other functions (e.g.
  trade).
• However, some towns (e.g. Jericho, Catal Huyuk)
  are much older. There is a counter theory that
  towns based on trade developed first, and that
  agriculture was invented to feed the urban
  populations.

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Health And Disease(1)

• Various factors contributed to worsening health
• Population density Agriculture supported much
  higher population densities 10x to 100x hunter
  gathering.
• Diet Diets deteriorated due to dependence upon
  cereals, resulting in beri-beri, pellagra,
  riboflavin deficiency rickets and kwashiorkor.
• Permanent settlements water-borne infections due
  to sewerage contamination of water supplies
  rodent transmission of disease due to stored food.

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Health And Disease(2)

• Animal contacts Diseases such as flu, the common
  cold, smallpox, measles, and mumps mutated from
  animal diseases.
• Land clearances Mosquito transmitted diseases
  such as yellow fever, malaria, dengue and several
  kinds of viral encephalitis.
• Scrub Rickettsial diseases transmitted by ticks
  (e.g. scrub typhus, endemic typhus).
• Fertilisers Night soil increased faecal
  bacterial and worms.

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Summary

• Increased population, but declining diet and
  health.
• More labour intensive.
• Still vulnerable to famine.
• Why? Probably necessitated by declining game
  species and population increases.