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The 10th millennium BC spanned the
years 10,000 BC to 9001 BC (c. 12 ka to c. 11 ka). It marks the beginning of
the transition from the Palaeolithic to the Neolithic via the interim Mesolithic (Northern Europe and Western Europe) and Epipaleolithic (Levant and Near East) periods, which together form the
first part of the Holocene epoch
that is generally reckoned to have begun c. 9700 BC (c. 11.7 ka) and is the
current geological epoch. 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. Contents ˇ
3Pottery ˇ
4Other cultural
developments ˇ
7Notes Holocene epoch[edit] The main characteristic of the Holocene has been the
worldwide abundance of Homo sapiens sapiens (humankind). The epoch began
in the wake of the Würm glaciation, generally known as
the Last Ice Age,
which began 109 ka and ended 14 ka when Homo sapiens sapiens was in the Palaeolithic (Old
Stone) Age.[1] Following the Late Glacial
Interstadial from 14 ka to 12.9 ka, during which global
temperatures rose significantly, the Younger Dryas began. This was a
temporary reversal of climatic warming to glacial conditions in the Northern
Hemisphere and coincided with the end of the Upper Palaeolithic.[2] The Younger Dryas ceased c.
9700 BC, marking the cutover from Pleistocene to Holocene.[3][4] In the geologic time scale,
there are three (tentatively four) stratigraphic stages of
the Holocene beginning c. 9700 BC with the "Greenlandian" (to c. 6236 BC).
The starting point for the Greenlandian is
the Global
Boundary Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP)
sample from the North
Greenland Ice Core Project, which has been correlated with the
Younger Dryas.[4] The Greenlandian
was succeeded by the "Northgrippian" (to c. 2250 BC)
and the "Meghalayan". All three stages
were officially ratified by the International
Commission on Stratigraphy in July 2018.[3] It has been proposed that the
Meghalayan should be terminated c. 1950 and
succeeded by a new stage provisionally called "Anthropocene".[5] In the Holocene's first millennium, the Palaeolithic began to be superseded by the Neolithic (New Stone) Age which lasted
about 6,000 years, depending on location. The gradual transition period is
sometimes termed Mesolithic (northern
and western Europe) or Epipalaeolithic (Levant and Near
East). The glaciers retreated as the world climate became warmer and that
inspired an agricultural
revolution,[6] though at first the dog was
probably the only domesticated animal. This was accompanied by a social
revolution in that humans gained from agriculture the impetus to settle.
Settlement is the key precursor to civilisation,
which cannot be achieved by a nomadic lifestyle.[7] The world population,
c. 10,000 BC, is believed to have been more or less stable. It has been
estimated that there were some five million people at the time of the Last Glacial Maximum,
growing to forty million by 5000 BC and 100 million by 1600 BC which is an
average growth rate of 0.027% p.a. from the Neolithic to the Middle Bronze
Age.[8] Around 10,000 BC, most people
lived in hunter-gatherer communities
scattered across all continents except Antarctica and Zealandia.
As the Würm/Wisconsin ended, settlement of northern
regions was again possible.[8] Beginnings of agriculture[edit] Agriculture developed
in different parts of the world at different times. In many places, people
learned how to cultivate without outside help; elsewhere, as in western
Europe, the skills were imported.[9] The Natufian culture prevailed in the Levant through the 10th millennium and
was unusual in that it supported a sedentary or semi-sedentary population
even before the introduction of agriculture. An early example is 'Ain Mallaha,
which may have been the first village in which people were wholly sedentary.[10] The Natufian people are
believed to have founded another early settlement on the site of Jericho (Tell es-Sultan) where there is
evidence of building between 9600 BC and 8200 BC.[11] Dates for the Natufian are
indeterminate and range broadly from c. 13,050 BC to c. 7550 BC.[12][13][14] It is possible that the
early cultivation of figs began in
the Jordan River valley
sometime after the middle of the 10th millennium.[15] Besides the fig trees, the
people may have begun cultivation of wild plants such as barley and
pistachio; and they possibly began herding goats, pigs and cattle.[16][17] Agriculture began to be developed by the various
communities of the Fertile Crescent, which included the Levant,
but it would not be widely practised for another
2,000 years by which time Neolithic culture was becoming well established in
many parts of the Near East.[18] Among the earliest
cultivated plants were forms of millet and rice grown
in the Middle East, possibly in this millennium but more likely after 9000
BC.[9] By about 9500 BC, people in
south-eastern Anatolia were harvesting wild grasses and grains.[16] The earliest evidence of
sheep herding has been found in northern Iraq, dated before 9000 BC.[16] Pottery[edit] Prehistoric chronology is almost entirely reliant upon
the dating of material objects of which pottery is by far the most widespread
and the most resistant to decay. All locations and generations developed
their own shapes, sizes and styles of pottery, including methods and styles
of decoration, but there was consistency among stratified deposits and even shards
can be classified by time and place.[19] Pottery is believed to have
been discovered independently in various places, beginning with China c. 18,000
BC, and was probably created accidentally by fires lit on clay soil.[20][21][22][23] The main discovery of
pottery dated to the 10th millennium has been at Ounjougou (c.9400 BC) in Central
Mali, providing evidence of an independent invention of pottery in
Sub-Saharan Africa.[24] 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 findings at Knossos. This covered
the Bronze Age in twelve phases from c.
2800 BC to c. 1050 BC and the principle was later extended to mainland Greece
(Helladic) and the Aegean islands (Cycladic).[19] Dame Kathleen Kenyon was the principal
archaeologist at Tell es-Sultan (ancient
Jericho) and she discovered that there was no pottery there.[25] 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,
and pit fired.[26] Kenyon discovered vessels such as bowls, cups and plates
at Jericho which were made from stone. She reasonably surmised that others
made from wood or vegetable fibres would have long
since decayed.[25] 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.
In the 10th millennium, the Natufian culture co-existed with the PPNA which
prevailed in the Levantine and upper Mesopotamian areas of the Fertile
Crescent.[26][25] Other cultural
developments[edit] Africa[edit]
Example of Saharan rock art depicting giraffes from Anakom, Niger. In North Africa, Saharan rock art engravings in what is
known as the Bubalus (Large Wild
Fauna) period have been dated to between 10,000 BC and 7000 BC.[27] Wall paintings found
in Ethiopia and Eritrea depict human activity; some of
the older paintings are thought to date back to around 10,000 BC.[28] The Abu Madi tel mounds in the Sinai Peninsula have been dated c. 9660
to c. 9180 BC.[29] Americas[edit] The Clovis culture was widely distributed
throughout North America. The people were hunter-gatherers and the culture's
duration is believed to have been from c.9050 BC to c.8800 BC.[30] There is evidence of
increasing use of Clovis point tool
technology for hunting.[31] Elsewhere in North America, the Petroglyphs at Winnemucca
Lake, in what is today northwest Nevada, were carved by this time, possibly
as early as 12.8 ka or as late as 10 ka.[32] Eurasia[edit] The sites at Göbekli Tepe and Hallan Çemi Tepesi,
both in south-eastern Anatolia, and at Tell Qaramel in
north-west Syria, may have been occupied during this
millennium.[33][34][35] In Great Britain, which was not then an island,
the Star Carr site
in North Yorkshire is
believed to have been inhabited by Maglemosian peoples for about
800 years from c. 9335 BC to c. 8525 BC.[36] Environmental changes[edit]
In the southern hemisphere, rising sea levels had
gradually formed Bass Strait,
separating Tasmania from
mainland Australia. This
process is believed to have been complete by about the beginning of the 10th millennium.
Bass Strait had been a plain populated by indigenous people who are thought
to have first arrived around 40,000 years ago.[37] The Wisconsin glaciation had
sheeted much of North America and, as it retreated, its meltwaters created an
immense proglacial lake now known as Lake Agassiz.[38] Sometime after 10,000 BC,
the retreating glaciers created
the rock formation on Cannon
Mountain in present-day New Hampshire that was known as
the Old Man of the
Mountain until its collapse in 2003.[39] Chronological method[edit] The ongoing Quaternary System/Period represents the
last 2.58 million years since the end of the Neogene and is officially divided into
the Pleistocene and Holocene Series/Epochs. The Holocene
has been assigned an age of 11,700 calendar years before 2000 CE which means
it began c. 9700 BC in the 10th millennium. It is preceded in the geological time
scale by the Late Pleistocene sub-epoch, also known
as the Tarantian Stage/Age, which awaits formal ratification by the International
Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) and tentatively spans the
time from c. 126,000 BC to c. 9700 BC. Preceding the Late Pleistocene is
the Middle Pleistocene sub-epoch,
or Chibanian Stage/Age, which also awaits
ratification and tentatively spans the time from c. 773,000 BC to c. 126,000
BC. The Early Pleistocene from
c. 2,580,000 BC until c. 773,000 is sub-divided into two Stages/Ages which
have been officially defined: the Gelasian (until c. 1,800,000 BC) and
the Calabrian.[40] The Holocene calendar,
devised by Cesare Emiliani in 1993, places its epoch at 10,000 BC (with the year 2020
being rendered as 12020 HE). It is complicated by the effective inclusion of
a year zero, in that 10,000 coincides with
the Julian year
1 BC, because Emiliani wanted 10,000 as the birth
year for Jesus Christ (wrongly,
as Christ was born c. 4 BC). This renders all BC years out of synch.[41] |
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