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Climates during the Pliocene became cooler and drier, and seasonal, similar to modern climates. Ice
sheets grew on Antarctica. The formation of an Arctic ice cap around three million years ago is
signaled by an abrupt shift in oxygen isotope ratios and ice-rafted cobbles in the North Atlantic and
North Pacific ocean beds.[11] Mid-latitude glaciationprobably began before the end of the epoch. The
global cooling that occurred during the Pliocene may have spurred on the disappearance of forests
and the spread ofgrasslands and savannas.[9]
Neolithic
The Neolithic
or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 10,200
BC, according to the ASPRO chronology, in some parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of
the world[2] and ending between 4,500 and 2,000 BC.
Traditionally considered the last part of the Stone Age, the Neolithic followed the
terminal Holocene Epipaleolithic period and commenced with the beginning of farming, which
produced the "Neolithic Revolution". It ended when metal tools became widespread (in the Copper
Age or Bronze Age; or, in some geographical regions, in the Iron Age). The Neolithic is a progression
of behavioral and cultural characteristics and changes, including the use of wild and domestic crops
and of domesticated animals.[3]
The beginning of the Neolithic culture is considered to be in the Levant (Jericho, modern-day West
Bank) about 10,2008,800 BC. It developed directly from the Epipaleolithic Natufian culture in the
region, whose people pioneered the use of wild cereals, which then evolved into true farming. The
Natufian period was between 12,000 and 10,200 BC, and the so-called "proto-neolithic" is now
included in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic (PPNA) between 10,200 and 8,800 BC. As the Natufians had
become dependent on wild cereals in their diet, and a sedentary way of life had begun among them,
the climatic changes associated with the Younger Dryas are thought to have forced people to
develop farming. By 10,2008,800 BC, farming communities arose in the Levant and spread to Asia
Minor, North Africa and North Mesopotamia. Early Neolithic farming was limited to a narrow range of
plants, both wild and domesticated, which included einkorn wheat, millet and spelt, and the keeping
of dogs, sheep and goats. By about 6,9006,400 BC, it included domesticated cattle and pigs, the
establishment of permanently or seasonally inhabited settlements, and the use of pottery.[4]
Not all of these cultural elements characteristic of the Neolithic appeared everywhere in the same
order: the earliest farming societies in the Near East did not use pottery. In other parts of the world,
such as Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia, independent domestication events led to their own
regionally distinctive Neolithic cultures that arose completely independent of those in Europe and
Southwest Asia. Early Japanese societies and other East Asian cultures used
pottery before developing agriculture.[5][6]
Unlike the Paleolithic, when more than one human species existed, only one human species (Homo
sapiens sapiens) reached the Neolithic.[7] Homo floresiensis may have survived right up to the very
dawn of the Neolithic, about 12,200 years ago.[8]
The term Neolithic derives from the Greek , neolithikos, from neos, "new"
+ lithos, "stone", literally meaning "NewStone Age". The term was invented by Sir John
Lubbock in 1865 as a refinement of the three-age system.