Religion / idea

Neolithic

Also known as New Stone Age

The Neolithic, or New Stone Age, is the period in which human communities adopted farming, the herding of domesticated animals and settled village life while still using stone tools. It began in the Fertile Crescent around 10,000 BCE and spread over the following millennia into Europe, Asia and Africa, with independent beginnings in other regions. It brought polished stone axes, pottery in many areas and the first large permanent settlements.

Neolithic
Image: Sarah Murray from Palo Alto, CA · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Mentioned in 5 profiles

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Mentioned in 10 state histories

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See also

Cite this entry
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Neolithic. In The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/neolithic
MLA
“Neolithic.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/neolithic. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Neolithic.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/neolithic.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Neolithic’, The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/neolithic (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random entry ↻