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Neolithic

Neolithic

1 8.4
The latest part of the Stone Age when people begin farming, keep animals, and make polished stone tools
  • noun
  • /niˈɑːlɪθɪk/
translation icon : neolítico
  • The monuments in each complex belong to a range of time, from the Neolithic, which began in Ireland about 4000 B.C., to the Iron Age, around 600 B.C. to A.D. 500.
  • dating from the Neolithic
  • Neolithic to historical times

Examples

  • Archaeologists do know a lot more now than they did at the time of Mellaart's discovery about other Anatolian settlements dating from the Neolithic.

    Academic text (2006)
  • Archaeologists find deposits of discarded materials—scrap stone, flints, and potsherds—in the rubbish dumps of the Neolithic.

    Academic text (1994)
  • If M269 came to Europe after the Neolithic, then why is it more common in the West than in the East?

    Blog text (11)
  • Rites of passage such as birth, marriage, and death were especially important during the Neolithic.

    Academic text (2006)
  • Rowan's work focuses on the development of complex society during the Neolithic period and the Bronze Age in China.

  • Higham hopes these shells will yield radiocarbon dates from the Neolithic to the Iron Age.

    Academic text (2006)
  • "We're developing the best survey yet of the invisible landscape, and what we have found suggests a much more varied land use in the Neolithic than we imagined," Gaffney says.

    Academic text (2010)
  • Recent archaeological work has uncovered evidence that people used these rocky hobbles as far back as the Neolithic—7,000 years ago.

    Academic text (2006)
  • Brian F. Byrd, an archaeologist with the Far Western Anthropological Research Group in Davis, California, has noted that during the Neolithic there was a general shift in the southern Levant toward greater autonomy and complexity at the household level.

    Academic text (2006)
  • Farming techniques developed significantly during the Neolithic period, changing how people lived.

Synonyms

Neolithic Age
vsNeolithic
5.4

A time when people begin to farm and make polished stone tools

is the common single-word scientific label for that same period
New Stone Age
vsNeolithic
6.1

A later part of the Stone Age when people begin farming and make polished stone tools

emphasizes animal domestication and wider geographic spread later on

Compounds

A time when people begin to farm and make polished stone tools

How Advanced

Neolithic
1 8.4
mesolithic
  • Specialized
1 9.9
paleolithic
  • Specialized
5 8.4

Surface Forms

Neolithic singular
Neolithics plural

Morphology

Neolithic = lithic (semi-transparent) = neo + lith + ic

The form clearly splits into 'neo-' (new) + 'lithic' (stone-related), but these combining forms are not everyday words for a B1 learner, so the meaning may not be immediately derivable.

Etymology

Neolithic comes from Greek parts neo- and -lithic, which mean 'new' and 'stone'. So the Neolithic is the 'New Stone' age, the time when people started farming, keeping animals, and making better, polished stone tools.