European Prehistory 7/2/2011

Every Monday at 1-3 p.m would be the time for European Prehistory lecture.

Today's lecture emphasized on the Mesolithic and the Neolithic period. Basically our lecturer described the background of these two stone age periods(Mesolithic and Neolithic) that included its environmental landscape, climatic condition and the lives of its people at that time.

One must first identify the differences between the two stone age periods of Mesolithic and Neolithic. Mesolithic refers to 'Middle Stone Age' whilst Neolithic refers to 'New Stone Age'. Of course, the Mesolithic period came first before the transition to Neolithic period. This 'blog post' will firstly describe a brief background of the Mesolithic period and then continued by the Neolithic in later paragraphs below. LOL!

Oh before I forgot, these stone age periods are defined by the types of stone tools recovered in many archaeological sites. As time passed by, the stone tools 'evolved' from simple tools to a more complicated one (based on its shape and ways to make it). Therefore, early stone age was the time of 'simple' stone tools while new stone age was the time of 'advanced' stone tools.

Early Stone Age stone tool. The Oldowan.

Later Stone Age tool.

See the difference between those two pictures? It can be seen how the tools have changed as time progressed. There are more to explain why such advancement occurs, but Im too lazy to explain. *peace* hehehehe.

Mesolithic Europe.

In Europe, the Mesolithic period occurred around 10 000 BP (Before Present).

Humans during this time (We're talking about Europe here) practiced hunting, fishing and gathering (for survival of course, duuh).

During this time, Microlith Stone Tools (Google it) were used.

During Mesolithic Europe, it is a period of climate

change, globally! It's the end of Ice Age!

So, as ice melts(melted?),the world saw a rise in

water level, flooding parts of continents around

the world, there was also change in landscape. In Britain for example, during 10 000BP, traces of steppe grasslands can be retrieved, as time goes by, in 7000BP, steppe grasslands has changed to Birch woodlands followed by Oak woodlands in 4000BP. Thus, food resources also changed! As

farming has not been 'introduced' yet, those hunter-gatherers had to cope with the changing food resource.

Neolithic Europe.

Researchers, particularly Archaeologists and Scientists could not state the precise date as when the Neolithic time in Europe started.

During these times, stone tools were 'polished', there are also evidences of farming going on (yaaaay!). But this does not mean that hunting and gathering were totally abandoned! The !Kung (yes, !Kung) lol! tribe still practiced hunting and gathering until present times! !Kung LOL!!

Neolithic (continued)

!kung, haha majal, jangan majal! Ok ok, The Neolithic period. This is a period suitable for farming to happen, why? Becauseeee the world is not covered with ice anymore! also, a growing population saw the need to consume more food, hunting and gathering can only provide food for a small population and it takes time as well!

So how did farming spread throughout Europe? well, farming started at the 'Fertile Crescent' in Anatolia, although this is debated with some stating that farming started

at other places and all that bla bla bla. So, farming leads to population growth, population growth leads to population pressure thus making some of them migrate to other parts of Europe.

So, that's all i remembered from today's lecture (there's more i think), nanti will do my revision InsyaAllah hehe.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Cheers =D