Chapter 1 - Artefacts and Contexts

Summary

The establishment of a sedentary way of life in permanent villages; the beginnings of agriculture (cultivation of cereals and pulses) and animal domestication, which together replace hunting and gathering; and, not long after, the use of pottery: these are the profound changes that mark the shift from the hunter-gatherers of the Mesolithic to Neolithic culture. The Neolithic developed gradually from c.10,000 bc, initially in the ‘Fertile Crescent’ from Mesopotamia to northern Syria, then across the entire Near East. In Europe it established itself first in the Balkans, along the Danube, before reaching the Aegean world around 7000 bc.

The conditions under which this process of ‘Neolithisation’ occurred are still hotly debated. The Neolithic was in all likelihood introduced into Greece by an influx of farmers from the Levant and Anatolia – small groups ended up mixing with local populations, bringing their animals, cereals, and new practices.