Editing 9th millennium BC

{{Short description|Millennium between 9000 BC and 8001 BC}}
{{Good article}}
{{Millenniumbox|-9}}
[[File:Göbekli Tepe, Urfa.jpg|right|thumb|[[Göbekli Tepe]], Şanlıurfa, 2011]]
[[Image:8500bce.PNG|thumb|right|Europe and surrounding areas in the 9th millennium BC. Blue areas are covered in ice. {{ordered list| [[Upper Palaeolithic]] cultures. | [[Mesolithic]] cultures. | [[Swiderian culture]]s. | [[Black Sea|Pontic]] [[Tardenoisian]] cultures. | [[Iberians|Iberian]] [[Capsian culture]]s. | [[Oranian]] cultures. | Lower [[Capsian culture]]s. | The [[Fertile Crescent]].}}]]
{{Stone Age}}

The '''9th millennium BC''' spanned the years 9000 BC to 8001 BC (11 to 10 thousand years ago). In chronological terms, it is the first full millennium of the current [[Holocene]] epoch that is generally reckoned to have begun by 9700 BC (11.7 thousand years ago). It is impossible to precisely date events that happened around the time of this millennium and all dates mentioned here are estimates mostly based on geological and anthropological analysis, or by radiometric dating.

In the [[Near East]], especially in the [[Fertile Crescent]], the transitory [[Epipalaeolithic Near East|Epipalaeolithic]] age was gradually superseded by the [[Neolithic]] with evidence of agriculture across the [[Levant]] to the [[Zagros Mountains]] in modern-day [[Iran]]. The key characteristic of the Neolithic is agricultural settlement, albeit with wooden and stone tools and weapons still in use. It is believed that agriculture had begun in China by the end of the millennium. Elsewhere, especially in Europe, the [[Palaeolithic]] continued.

==Global environment==
In the [[geologic time scale]], the first [[stage (stratigraphy)|stratigraphic stage]] of the [[Holocene]] is the "[[Greenlandian]]" from about 9700 BC to the fixed date 6236 BC and so including the whole of the 9th millennium. The starting point for the Greenlandian has been correlated with the end of the [[Younger Dryas]] and a climate shift from near-glacial to interglacial, causing glaciers to retreat and sea levels to rise.<ref name="ICC">{{cite web |url=http://www.stratigraphy.org/ICSchart/ChronostratChart2019-05.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.stratigraphy.org/ICSchart/ChronostratChart2019-05.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |title=International Chronostratigraphic Chart |publisher=International Commission on Stratigraphy |last1=Cohen |first1=K. M. |last2=Finney |first2=S. C. |last3=Gibbard |first3=P. L. |last4=Fan |first4=J.-X. |date=May 2019 |access-date=13 November 2019}}</ref><ref name="FRS">{{cite journal |url=http://quaternary.stratigraphy.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Walker-et-al.-2018_Episodes_online.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://quaternary.stratigraphy.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Walker-et-al.-2018_Episodes_online.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |title=Formal ratification of the subdivision of the Holocene Series/Epoch (Quaternary System/Period) |author=Mike Walker & others |journal=Episodes |publisher=Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy (SQS) |date=14 June 2018 |access-date=11 November 2019}} ''This proposal on behalf of the SQS has been approved by the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) and formally ratified by the Executive Committee of the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS)''.</ref>

It has been estimated that the [[Bering Land Bridge]] was inundated around 8500 BC by the rising sea levels so that North America and Asia were again separated by the waters of the [[Bering Strait]] and the [[Chukchi Sea]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sfu.museum/journey/an-en/postsecondaire-postsecondary/pont_beringie-beringia_bridge |title=Bering Land Bridge |first=Barbara |last=Winter |publisher=SFU Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology |access-date=2 March 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150428231158/http://www.sfu.museum/journey/an-en/postsecondaire-postsecondary/pont_beringie-beringia_bridge |archive-date=28 April 2015 |url-status=dead }}</ref> It is generally believed that there was a migration across the land bridge from eastern Siberia into North America during the [[Last Glacial Maximum]]. Sometime after the American glaciers melted, these peoples expanded southward into the wider continent to become the [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native Americans]]. After the land bridge was inundated by the rising sea water, no further migration was possible from Siberia.<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1038/382060a0 |title=Life and Times of the Bering Land Bridge |journal=Nature |volume=382 |issue=6,586 |page=60 |year=1996 |last1=Elias |first1=Scott A. |last2=Short |first2=Susan K. |last3=Nelson |first3=C. Hans |last4=Birks |first4=Hilary H. |bibcode=1996Natur.382...60E|s2cid=4347413 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Goebel |first=Ted |author2=Waters, Michael R. |author3=O'Rourke, Dennis H. |year=2008 |title=The Late Pleistocene Dispersal of Modern Humans in the Americas |journal=Science |volume=319 |issue=5,869 |pages=1497–1502 |doi=10.1126/science.1153569 |pmid=18339930 |bibcode=2008Sci...319.1497G |citeseerx=10.1.1.398.9315 |s2cid=36149744 }}</ref>

During the millennium, there were [[List of Quaternary volcanic eruptions|three known volcanic eruptions]] which registered magnitude 5 or more on the [[volcanic explosivity index]] (VEI). These were at [[Ulleungdo]] (''aka'' Ulreung), an island east of the [[Korean Peninsula]] about 8750 BC; [[Grímsvötn]], north east Iceland about 8230 BC; and [[Taupo Caldera]], New Zealand about 8130 BC.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://volcano.si.edu/list_volcano_holocene.cfm |title=Holocene Volcano List |work=Global Volcanism Program |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |year=2013 |access-date=2 June 2020}}</ref> The biggest eruption was at Grímsvötn, VEI 6, producing some {{convert|15|km3|abbr=on}} of [[tephra]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://volcano.si.edu/volcano.cfm?vn=373010 |title=Grímsvötn |work=Global Volcanism Program |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |year=2013 |access-date=2 June 2020}}</ref>

==Population and communities==
As the Neolithic began in the Fertile Crescent, most people around the world still lived in scattered [[hunter-gatherer]] communities which remained firmly in the [[Palaeolithic]]. The [[World population estimates|world population]] was probably stable and slowly increasing. It has been estimated that there were some five million people in 10,000 BC growing to forty million by 5000 BC and 100 million by 1600 BC. That is an average growth rate of 0.027% per annum from the beginning of the Neolithic to the Middle Bronze Age.<ref name="JNB">{{cite journal |last1=Biraben |first1=Jean-Noël |year=1979 |title=Essai sur l'évolution du nombre des hommes |journal=Population |volume=34 |issue=1 |pages=13–25|doi=10.2307/1531855|jstor=1531855 }}</ref>

===Near East===
From the beginning of the 9th millennium, [[Göbekli Tepe]] was inhabited after possibly being first occupied during the previous millennium.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Oliver Dietrich |author2=Çigdem Köksal-Schmidt |author3=Jens Notroff |author4=Klaus Schmidt |title=Establishing a Radiocarbon Sequence for Göbekli Tepe. State of Research and New Data |journal=NEO-LITHICS 1/13 the Newsletter of Southwest Asian Neolithic Research |date=2016 |url=https://www.academia.edu/4386577}}</ref> It is a carved stone hilltop sanctuary in south-eastern [[Anatolia]] which includes the world's oldest known [[megaliths]].<ref name="Smithsonian">{{cite web |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/gobekli-tepe-the-worlds-first-temple-83613665/ |title=Gobekli Tepe: The World's First Temple? |last=Curry |first=Andrew |date=November 2008 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2 March 2019}}</ref> As with Göbekli Tepe, the site at [[Tell Qaramel]], in north-west [[Syria]], was inhabited from 9000 BC following possible first occupation in the previous millennium.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://journals.uair.arizona.edu/index.php/radiocarbon/article/viewFile/3532/3047|title=Tell Qaramel 1999–2007. Protoneolithic and early Pre-Pottery Neolithic settlement in Northern Syria.|publisher=Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology, University of Warsaw|year=2012|isbn=978-83-90379-63-0|editor1-last=Mazurowski|editor1-first=Ryszard F.|series=PCMA Excavation Series 2|location=Warsaw, Poland|editor2-last=Kanjou|editor2-first=Youssef}}</ref> In the same region, the settlement at [[Nevalı Çori]] has been dated about 8500 BC.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Tobolczyk |first1=Marta |title=The World's Oldest Temples in Göbekli Tepe and Nevalı Çori, Turkey in the Light of Studies in Ontogenesis of Architecture |journal=Procedia Engineering |date=2016 |volume=161 |pages=1398–1404 |doi=10.1016/j.proeng.2016.08.600 |doi-access=free }}</ref> Elsewhere in the Fertile Crescent, there is evidence of settlements at [[Mureybet]] and [[Ganj Dareh]] from around 8500 BC. Towards the end of the millennium, by 8200 BC, the site of [[Aşıklı Höyük]] in central Anatolia was first occupied (until around 7400 BC).<ref>Thissen, L. 2002. Appendix I, "The CANeW 14C databases, Anatolia 10,000-5000 cal. BC". In "The Neolithic of Central Anatolia. Internal developments and external relations during the 9th–6th millennia cal BC", ''Proc. Int. CANeW Round Table'', Istanbul 23–24 November 2001, edited by F. Gérard and L. Thissen. Istanbul: Ege Yayınları.</ref>

===Europe===
It is believed that European sites settled before 8500 were still Palaeolithic, or at best [[Mesolithic]], communities. At [[Star Carr]] in North Yorkshire, the results of [[radiocarbon]] analysis in 2018 indicate that occupation first commenced between 9335 and 9275&nbsp;BC, lasting for a period of around 800 years until 8525–8440&nbsp;BC, although such occupations may have been episodic in nature, varying in intensity between different periods.{{sfn|Milner|Conneller|Taylor|2018|pp=225–244}} Archaeological excavations at [[Cramond]] in [[prehistoric Scotland]] have uncovered evidence of habitation dating to around 8500 BC.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/1352091.stm |title=Nuts give clue to 'oldest' Scots site |work=BBC News |date=26 May 2001 |access-date=24 May 2019}}</ref> Another settlement may have been established at [[Ærø]] in [[Denmark]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.aeroeisland.com/aero_history.php |title=Aeroe History |publisher=Aeroe Island |date=11 November 2015 |access-date=27 May 2019 |archive-date=29 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150929153930/http://www.aeroeisland.com/aero_history.php |url-status=usurped }}</ref>

===Japan===
In Japan, the [[Jōmon]] culture had probably been established by small communities on the Pacific side of [[Honshu]] by this time. The word means "cord-pattern", referring to the distinctive pottery of the period. As there was no potter's wheel, the clay was prepared in the shape of a rope and manually coiled upwards to create a vessel that was baked in an open fire. At first, the vessels were simple bowls and jars but later became artistic. Proposed dates for the start of the Jomon are wildly variable, ranging from the Ice Ages to as late as c. 4500. It is generally accepted that the period ended c. 300 BC when it was superseded by the [[Yayoi period|Yayoi culture]].<ref name="perri2016">{{cite journal |doi=10.15184/aqy.2016.115 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/F1469BF53172B3C30B7E9B5F9B67C701/S0003598X16001150a.pdf/hunting-dogs-as-environmental-adaptations-in-jomon-japan.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/F1469BF53172B3C30B7E9B5F9B67C701/S0003598X16001150a.pdf/hunting-dogs-as-environmental-adaptations-in-jomon-japan.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |title=Hunting dogs as environmental adaptations in Jomon Japan |journal=Antiquity |volume=90 |issue=353 |pages=1166–1180 |year=2016 |last1=Perri |first1=Angela R.|doi-access=free }}</ref>

===Americas===
In North America, the Paleo-Indian [[Clovis culture]] is believed to have ended around 8800 BC having fathered numerous local variants. One of these was the [[Folsom tradition|Folsom complex]] which was centred in the [[Great Plains]] and is dated from c.9000 to c.8000 BC. The people were hunter-gatherers who hunted the now-extinct ''[[Bison antiquus]]''.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Folsom-complex |title=Folsom complex |publisher=Encyclopaedia Britannica |location=Edinburgh |access-date=22 July 2020}}</ref>

In [[Patagonia]], the Fell's Tradition prevailed through the millennium at [[Cueva Fell]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Roosevelt |first=Anna C. |title=Travels and Archaeology In South Chile |journal=The Latin American Anthropology Review |volume=2 |issue=2 |pages=72–74 |year=1990 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons, Inc. |location=Hoboken, New Jersey |doi=10.1525/jlca.1990.2.2.72}}</ref> Another Paleo-Indian site in the region is the Las Cuevas Canyon near [[Los Toldos (Santa Cruz)]] where rock art has been found.<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/latin-american-antiquity/article/nuevos-datos-sobre-las-pinturas-rupestres-de-los-toldos-santa-cruz-argentina-bases-para-un-enfoque-comparativo-en-patagonia-meridional/61C331AF1D4318734A2574411470493D |url-access=subscription |first1=Natalia M. |last1=Carden |first2=Laura L. |last2=Miotti |first3=Rocío V. |last3=Blanco |title=New data on the rock paintings of Los Toldos |journal=Latin American Antiquity |volume=29 |issue=2 |date=June 2018 |pages=293–310 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |access-date=23 July 2020|doi=10.1017/laq.2017.83|s2cid=165615499 |hdl=11336/88211 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>

In Central America, remains of three prehistoric human fossils have been discovered since 2006 in the cave system at [[Chan Hol]] in [[Quintana Roo]], Mexico. All have been dated to around the 9th millennium.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Stinnesbeck |first1=Wolfgang |display-authors=etal |title=New evidence for an early settlement of the Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico: The Chan Hol 3 woman and her meaning for the Peopling of the Americas |journal=PLOS ONE |language=en |volume=15 |issue=2 |date=5 February 2020 |pages=e0227984 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0227984 |issn=1932-6203 |pmc=7001910 |pmid=32023279|bibcode=2020PLoSO..1527984S |doi-access=free }}</ref>

===Early warfare===
Evidence of a precursor to warfare has been found at [[Nataruk]] in Kenya. Remains of at least 27 individuals have been found and dated to 7550–8550 BC.<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=AONE&sw=w&issn=00280836&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA440918913&sid=googleScholar&linkaccess=abs|title=Inter-group violence among early Holocene hunter-gatherers of West Turkana, Kenya|first1=M. Mirazon|last1=Lahr|first2=F.|last2=Rivera|first3=R. K.|last3=Power|first4=A.|last4=Mounier|first5=B.|last5=Copsey|first6=F.|last6=Crivellaro|first7=J. E.|last7=Edung|first8=J. M. Maillo|last8=Fernandez|first9=C.|last9=Kiarie|first10=J.|last10=Lawrence|first11=A.|last11=Leakey|first12=E.|last12=Mbua|first13=H.|last13=Miller|first14=A.|last14=Muigai|first15=D. M.|last15=Mukhongo|first16=A. Van|last16=Baelen|first17=R.|last17=Wood|first18=J.-L.|last18=Schwenninger|first19=R.|last19=Gran|first20=H.|last20=Achyuthan|first21=A.|last21=Wilshaw|first22=R. A.|last22=Foley|date=21 January 2016|journal=Nature|volume=529|issue=7586|pages=394–411|doi=10.1038/nature16477 |pmid=26791728 |bibcode=2016Natur.529..394L |accessdate=26 March 2023|via=go.gale.com}}</ref> The condition of the skeletons indicates that a massacre took place as hands were bound and skulls were smashed by blunt force. Communities in Africa at the time would have been nomadic hunter-gatherers.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/ancient-brutal-massacre-may-be-earliest-evidence-war-180957884/ |last=Handwerk |first=Brian |title=An Ancient, Brutal Massacre May Be the Earliest Evidence of War |work=Smithsonian Magazine |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |location=Washington, DC |date=20 January 2016 |access-date=22 July 2020}}</ref>

==Rise of agriculture==
The [[Natufian culture]] continued to prevail in the [[Levant]]ine and upper [[Mesopotamia]]n areas of the [[Fertile Crescent]] with their most significant site at [[Tell es-Sultan|Jericho (Tell es-Sultan)]] in the [[Jordan Valley]]. The Natufian people had been [[sedentism|sedentary or semi-sedentary]] through the 10th millennium, even before the introduction of [[agriculture]].<ref>{{cite book |title=Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible |author-link1=David Noel Freedman |first1=D. N. |last1=Freedman |first2=Allen C. |last2=Myers |first3=Astrid B. |last3=Beck |publisher=William B. Eerdmans Publishing |year=2000 |isbn=978-08-02824-00-4 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/eerdmansdictiona0000unse/page/689 689–691] |url=https://archive.org/details/eerdmansdictiona0000unse/page/689 }}</ref>

By about 8500 BC, the Natufians were harvesting [[wild wheat]] with [[flint]]-edged [[sickle]]s.{{sfn|Bronowski|1973|p=65}} It was around that time, or soon afterwards, that the wild wheat crossed with a natural [[Aegilops|goat grass]] to form [[emmer]], the seeds of which could scatter in the wind to spread naturally. Later, emmer crossed with another goat grass to form the even larger hybrid that is [[Common wheat|bread wheat]]. The Natufians learned how to harvest the new wheat, grind it into flour and make [[bread]]. The early bread was unleavened, with the dough allowed to dry on hot stones.{{sfn|Bronowski|1973|pp=64–69}} Writing in 1973, [[Jacob Bronowski]] argued that the combination of wheat and water at Jericho enabled man to begin civilisation. Jericho, having a natural spring, was an oasis on the edge of the [[Syrian Desert]] and, although similar developments occurred elsewhere, Bronowski called Jericho "a microcosm of history".{{sfn|Bronowski|1973|p=69}}

The earliest known cultivation of [[lentil]]s was at [[Mureybet]] in Syria, where wheat and [[barley]] were also grown. Lentils were later (by 7500 BC) found at [[Hacilar]] and [[Çayönü]] in Turkey.<ref>''Pulses, Sugar and Tuber Crops'' by Chittaranjan Kole, 2007, Introduction 5.1.1, page 91, quoting Cubero JI (1981) Origin, taxonomy and domestication. In: Webb C, Hawtin G (eds) ''Lentils''. CAB, Slough, UK, pp. 15–38.</ref> Ganj Dareh, in Iranian Kurdistan, has been cited as the earliest settlement to domesticate animals, specifically the goat, towards the end of the millennium.<ref name="zeder-sci-2000">{{cite journal |last1=Zeder |first1=M. A. |title=The Initial Domestication of Goats (Capra hircus) in the Zagros Mountains 10,000&nbsp;Years Ago |journal=Science |date=24 March 2000 |volume=287 |issue=5461 |pages=2254–2257 |doi=10.1126/science.287.5461.2254 |pmid=10731145 |bibcode=2000Sci...287.2254Z }}</ref><ref name="goats1">[http://discovermagazine.com/2000/jul/breakbone What's Bred in the Bone], ''[[Discover (magazine)]]'', July 2000 ("After investigating bone collections from ancient sites across the Middle East, she found a dearth of adult male goat bones—and an abundance of female and young male remains—from a 10,000-year-old settlement called Ganj Dareh, in Iran's Zagros Mountains. This provides the earliest evidence of domesticated livestock, Zeder says".)</ref>

Agriculture may have begun in the [[Far East]] before 8300 BC, the estimated date for the earliest cultivation of common [[millet]]. Proso millet (''[[Panicum miliaceum]]'') and foxtail millet (''[[Setaria italica]]'') were important crops beginning in the [[Early Neolithic]] of China. Some of the earliest evidence of millet cultivation in China was found at [[Cishan culture|Cishan]] (north), where proso millet husk [[phytoliths]] and biomolecular components have been identified around 10,300–8,700 years ago in [[storage pit (archaeology)|storage pits]] along with remains of pit-houses, pottery, and stone tools related to millet cultivation.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Lu |first1=Houyuan |last2=Zhang |first2=Jianping |last3=Liu |first3=Kam-biu |last4=Wu |first4=Naiqin |last5=Li |first5=Yumei |last6=Zhou |first6=Kunshu |last7=Ye |first7=Maolin |last8=Zhang |first8=Tianyu |last9=Zhang |first9=Haijiang |last10=Yang |first10=Xiaoyan |last11=Shen |first11=Licheng |last12=Xu |first12=Deke |last13=Li |first13=Quan |title=Earliest domestication of common millet (Panicum miliaceum) in East Asia extended to 10,000 years ago |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America |date=5 May 2009 |volume=106 |issue=18 |pages=7367–7372 |doi=10.1073/pnas.0900158106 |pmid=19383791 |pmc=2678631 |bibcode=2009PNAS..106.7367L |doi-access=free }}</ref>

==Pottery and dating systems==
Beginning with China c.18,000 BC, [[pottery]] is believed to have been invented independently in various places – for example, at [[Ounjougou]] in central Mali (dated c.9400 BC). These early innovations were probably created accidentally by fires lit on [[clay]] soil.{{sfn|Chazan|2017|p=197}}<ref name="PNAS09">{{Cite journal |date=June 2009 |pages=10966–10970 |issn=0027-8424 |last1=Kuijt |first1=I. |last2=Finlayson |first2=B. |doi=10.1073/pnas.0812764106 |pmc=2700141 |pmid=19549877 |issue=27 |volume=106 |title=Evidence for food storage and predomestication granaries 11,000 years ago in the Jordan Valley |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America |bibcode=2009PNAS..10610966K|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://antiquity.ac.uk/projgall/ozkaya/|title= Körtik Tepe, a new Pre-Pottery Neolithic A site in south-eastern Anatolia |last=Ozkaya |first=Vecihi |date=June 2009|publisher=Antiquity Journal, Volume 83, Issue 320}}</ref>{{sfn|Richard|2004|p=244}} The [[potter's wheel]] had not yet been invented and, where pottery as such was made, it was still hand-built, often by means of [[Coiling (pottery)|coiling]], and [[Pit fired pottery|pit fired]].{{sfn|Bellwood|2004|p=384}}

The first chronological pottery system was the Early, Middle and Late Minoan framework devised in the early 20th century by Sir [[Arthur Evans]] for his [[Bronze Age]] findings at [[Knossos]] for the period c. 2800 BC to c. 1050 BC.{{sfn|Bury|Meiggs|1975|p=6}} Dame [[Kathleen Kenyon]] was the principal archaeologist at [[Tell es-Sultan]] (ancient Jericho) and she discovered that there was no pottery there.{{sfn|Mithen|2003|p=60}}<ref name="Dever">{{cite journal |last=Dever |first=William G. |title=Kathleen Kenyon (1906–1978): A Tribute |journal=Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research |volume=232 |publisher=American Schools of Oriental Research |pages=3–4 |year=1978|doi=10.1086/BASOR1356696 |s2cid=167007661 }}</ref> The vessels she found were made from stone and she reasonably surmised that others made from wood or vegetable fibres would have long since decayed.{{sfn|Mithen|2003|p=60}}<ref name="Dever"/> Using Evans' system as a benchmark, Kenyon divided the Near East Neolithic into phases called [[Pre-Pottery Neolithic A]] (PPNA), from c. 10,000 BC to c. 8800 BC; [[Pre-Pottery Neolithic B]] (PPNB), from c. 8800 BC to c. 6500 BC; and then [[Pottery Neolithic]] (PN), which had varied start-points from c. 6500 BC until the beginnings of the [[Bronze Age]] towards the end of the [[4th millennium BC|4th millennium]]. At the beginning of the 9th millennium, the Natufian culture co-existed with the PPNA which prevailed in the Levantine and upper Mesopotamian areas of the Fertile Crescent.{{sfn|Bellwood|2004|p=384}}{{sfn|Mithen|2003|p=60}}

==Metallurgy==
[[Copper]] (Cu, 29) was originally found in [[native copper|raw surface lumps]] and first used in the Middle East. It was later extracted from ores such as [[malachite]].{{sfn|Bronowski|1973|p=125}} A copper pendant from Mesopotamia is dated 8700 BC.<ref>{{cite book |author=Hesse, Rayner W. |title=Jewelrymaking through History: an Encyclopedia |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |date=2007 |page=56 |isbn=978-03-13335-07-5}}</ref> The use of copper and, from the eighth millennium, [[lead]] (Pb, 82) was gradual – it could not become widespread until [[smelting|systematic processes]] had been developed for extraction of the metals from their ores; this did not happen until about the sixth millennium.{{sfn|Bronowski|1973|p=125}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
* {{cite book |last=Bellwood |first=Peter |author-link=Peter Bellwood |title=First Farmers: The Origins of Agricultural Societies |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k1mzyCEOAUIC |date=November 30, 2004 |publisher=[[Wiley-Blackwell]] |pages=384 |isbn=978-06-31205-66-1 }}
* {{cite book |last=Bronowski |first=Jacob |author-link=Jacob Bronowski |title=The Ascent of Man |year=1973 |publisher=BBC |location=London |isbn=978-18-49901-15-4 }}
* {{cite book |last1=Bury |first1=J. B. |author1-link=J. B. Bury |last2=Meiggs |first2=Russell |author2-link=Russell Meiggs |title=A History of Greece |year=1975 |orig-year=first published 1900 |publisher=Macmillan Press |location=London |isbn=978-03-33154-92-2 |edition=Fourth }}
* {{cite book |last1=Chazan |first1=Michael |title=World Prehistory and Archaeology: Pathways Through Time |date=2017 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-13-51802-89-5 |page=197 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j3BQDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA197 |language=en }}
* {{cite book |author=Richard, Suzanne |title=Near Eastern Archaeology |publisher=Eisenbrauns |year=2004 |isbn=978-15-75060-83-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=khR0apPid8gC&pg=PA244 |ref={{harvid|Richard|2004}}}}
* {{cite book |last=Roberts |first=J. M. |author-link=John Roberts (historian) |title=Shorter Illustrated History of the World |year=1993 |publisher=Helicon Publishing Ltd |location=Abingdon |isbn=978-01-95115-04-8 }}
* {{cite book |last1=Milner |first1=Nicky |author-link=Nicky Milner |last2=Conneller |first2=Chantal |last3=Taylor |first3=Barry |title=Star Carr: Volume 1: A Persistent Place in a Changing World |publisher=White Rose University Press |location=York |year=2018 |isbn=978-19-12482-04-7 }}
* {{cite book |last=Mithen |first=Steven |author-link=Steven Mithen |year=2003 |title=After The Ice |location=London |publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson |isbn=978-07-53813-92-8 }}

{{Millennia}}

[[Category:9th millennium BC| ]]
[[Category:Millennia|-91]]