MESOLITHIC (MIDDLE STONE AGE) NEOLITHIC (NEW STONE AGE)
In the Paleolithic Age the people were nomadic. They lived in caves and made art on the walls. In the Mesolithic Age people started to settle into communities, they grew plants and watched over animals, some also began to make pottery. In the Neolithic Age people lived in towns, they had farms and kept domesticated animals.
Below are some pictures of what we think they might have lived in. Late Paleolithic man gradually became more settled and started staying in favorable spots for longer than previously. This change in culture is called the Neolithic Age. As a general rule, the first Neolithic settlements can be said to have been established around 10,000 BC, In many parts of Europe, the longest lasting remnants of this era are the megaliths ("large stones") which may have had some religious or recreational purpose. Massive blocks of stone, and sometimes wood, were moved great distances and erected in chosen areas throughout Europe, from Britain right across the continent.
The most famous of these megalith sites is Stonehenge in Wiltshire, England, which was built in stages, the first part being erected between 3500 BC and 3000 BC. Above: Stonehenge, England, circa 3500 - 1500 BC. Neolithic Period. Stonehenge Stonehenge is a Neolithic and Bronze Age megalithic monument located near Amesbury in the English county of Wiltshire, about 8 miles (13 km) northwest of Salisbury. It is composed of earthworks surrounding a circular setting of large standing stones and is one of the most famous prehistoric sites in the world. Stone circle A stone circle is a circular space, delimited by purposefully erected stones and often containing burials. The earliest circles were erected around five thousand years ago during the Neolithic period and may have evolved from earlier burial mounds which often covered timber or stone mortuary houses Above: Building Megaliths was no easy task. The effort required to pull one of the massive stones erect was in itself a marathon effort, and then raising the equally huge lintels onto the top of other stones required a great deal of planning and foresight. Exactly how the early Whites did it is still a puzzle to archeology. These illustrations of how the stones were raised and of how a lintel was placed are the most commonly accepted theories of how these superhuman feats were achieved thousands of years ago. WORLD'S OLDEST CITIES - 7000 BC The growth of Neolithic settlements in Europe were matched by the growth of similar settlements in the Middle and Near East, (a tradition which was most pronounced in Egypt). By 7000 BC a town of mud brick houses and town walls had been built by Mediterraneans at the site now known as Jericho in Palestine. In Anatolia, Turkey, remains of another major city, Catal Hoyuk, have been excavated, dating from approximately 6200 BC. This city also possessed brick making facilities, as well as the already established cereal crop cultivations. A reconstruction of the first city in the world, Catal Huyuk, Anatolia, present day Turkey. This city flourished from about 6250 BC to 5400 BC, and was excavated in part in 1961. The photo shows the rectangular shape of the buildings: as there is no readily available stone to build defensive walls, the buildings were made to face inwards, with no windows on the outside. The only entrance to the city was through ladders leading onto the roofs of the outside buildings. The streetless city offered a high degree of protection from outside attackers in this way - if under attack, the outside ladders were withdrawn, and any would be attacker was faced with a solid wall and no gate or other weak point. This city marked a revolution in Neolithic settlements. The people of Catal Huyuk were most likely farmers and cattle herders who needed to live closely to the broad plain stretching to the north of the city. Catalhoyuk, the high level of Civilization of Neolithic period Final Neolithic or the Early Bronze Age
The settlement of the Early Bronze Age was gradually extended on an area of 13.500- 15.000 square metres. It was comprised of entirely stone-built buildings with rectangular or irregular rooms and yards, organized in building insulae of various sizes. The exemplary town planning of the settlement which offered shelter to at least 1500 inhabitants during the last phase- Poliochini has got the following features:
the existence of a fortification wall, the functional roads, the two squares with public wells, the extensive sewage system under the carefully paved streets, the squares and courts, all give the picture of a well-organized town, already from the beginning of the 3rd millenium BC. Poliochni, Yellow period. View of megaron 605 and dependecies . The coordination and realization of works of public interest, such as the fortification system, the roads, the wells, suggest the existence of a coordinating body as well as the consent and participation of all the inhabitants in matters of public interest. The "Communal storehouse", which is known as "Granary", and the oldest in Europe "Communal assembly room", known as "Bouleuterion" around the south gate of the wall, as well as the monumental megaron 317 dominating over the north and largest square of the settlement, constitute irrefutable evidence of the political organization of Poliochni in the beginning of the 3rd millenium BC Skyros, Palamari. Architectural remains of the Early Bronze Age settlement.
Rhodes, Asomatos. General view of the settlement buildings. Early Bronze Age.