Editing Stone Age (section)

====Neolithic====
{{Main|Neolithic}}
[[File:Skara Brae house 9.jpg|thumb|[[Skara Brae]], Scotland: Europe's most complete [[Neolithic]] village]]
[[File:Fleche Cartailhac MHNT PRE 2009.0.9232.1.jpg|thumb|Different views of one arrowhead from [[chert]], 3300 to 2400&nbsp;BC, [[Saint-Léons]], France]]

The [[Neolithic]], or New Stone Age, was approximately characterized by the adoption of agriculture. The shift from food gathering to food producing, in itself one of the most revolutionary changes in human history, was accompanied by the so-called [[Neolithic Revolution]]: the development of [[pottery]], polished stone tools, and construction of more complex, larger settlements such as [[Göbekli Tepe]] and [[Çatalhöyük]]. Some of these features began in certain localities even earlier, in the transitional Mesolithic. The first Neolithic cultures started around 7000&nbsp;BC in the [[fertile crescent]] and spread concentrically to other areas of the world; however, the Near East was probably not the only nucleus of agriculture, the cultivation of maize in Meso-America and of [[Oryza sativa|rice]] in the Far East being others.

Due to the increased need to harvest and process plants, ground stone and polished stone artifacts became much more widespread, including tools for grinding, cutting, and chopping. [[Skara Brae]], located in [[Orkney]], [[Scotland]], is one of Europe's best examples of a Neolithic village. The community contains stone beds, shelves and even an indoor toilet linked to a stream. The first large-scale constructions were built, including settlement towers and walls, e.g., Jericho ([[Tell es-Sultan]]) and ceremonial sites, e.g. [[Stonehenge]]. The [[Ġgantija]] temples of Gozo in the Maltese archipelago are the oldest surviving free standing structures in the world, erected {{Circa|3600}}–2500 BC. The earliest evidence for established trade exists in the [[Neolithic]] with newly settled people importing exotic goods over distances of many hundreds of miles.

These facts show that there were sufficient resources and co-operation to enable large groups to work on these projects. To what extent this was a basis for the development of elites and social hierarchies is a matter of ongoing debate.<ref>{{Cite book | first=Ian | last=Kuijt | editor-first=Ian |editor-last=Kuijt | year=2000 | title=Life in Neolithic Farming Communities: Social Organization, Identity, and differentiation | contribution=Chapter 13: Near Eastern Neolithic Research: Directions and Trends | series=Fundamental Issues in Archaeology | page=317 | location=New York | publisher=Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers }}</ref> Although some late Neolithic societies formed complex stratified chiefdoms similar to Polynesian societies such as the [[Ancient Hawaii]]ans, based on the societies of modern tribesmen at an equivalent technological level, most Neolithic societies were relatively simple and [[egalitarian]].<ref>{{Cite book |title=Evolutionary Origins of Morality: Cross-disciplinary Perspectives | editor-first=Leonard D. | editor-last=Katz |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=inmTyPPdR5oC&q=Neolithic+egalitarianism&pg=RA1-PA158 | year=2000 | first=Christopher | last=Boehm | contribution=The Origin of Morality as Social Control | location=Thorverton | page=158 | publisher=Imprint Academic | series=Journal of Consciousness Studies |volume=7 | isbn=978-0-7190-5612-3 }}</ref> A comparison of art in the two ages leads some theorists to conclude that Neolithic cultures were noticeably more hierarchical than the [[Paleolithic]] cultures that preceded them.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3u6JNwMyMCEC&q=paleolithic+history+violence&pg=PA422 | title=The Nature of Paleolithic Art | first=Russell Dale | last=Guthrie | pages=419–420 | location=Chicago | publisher=University of Chicago Press | year=2005 | isbn=978-0-226-31126-5}}</ref>