9th millennium BC

PaleolithicThe 9th millennium BC spanned the years 9000 BC to 8001 BC (c. 11 ka to c. 10 ka). In chronological terms, it is the first full millennium of the current Holocene epoch that is generally reckoned to have begun c. 9700 BC (c. 11.7 ka). 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. The 9th millennium BC spanned the years 9000 BC to 8001 BC (c. 11 ka to c. 10 ka). In chronological terms, it is the first full millennium of the current Holocene epoch that is generally reckoned to have begun c. 9700 BC (c. 11.7 ka). 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. In the Near East, especially in the region known as the Fertile Crescent, the transitory Epipalaeolithic age was gradually superseded by the Neolithic with evidence of agriculture in Iran, the Levant, Mesopotamia and Syria. The key characteristic of the Neolithic is agricultural settlement, albeit with wooden and stone tools and weapons still in use. It is believed that agriculture had begun in China by the end of the millennium. Elsewhere, especially in Europe, the Palaeolithic continued. The Natufian culture continued to prevail in the Levantine and upper Mesopotamian areas of the Fertile Crescent with their most significant site at Jericho (Tell es-Sultan) in the Jordan Valley. The Natufian people had been sedentary or semi-sedentary through the 10th millennium, even before the introduction of agriculture. By c. 8500 BC, the Natufians were harvesting wild wheat with flint-edged sickles. It was around that time, or soon afterwards, that the wild wheat crossed with a natural goat grass to form Emmer, which had twice as many chromosomes as its constituent parts and its seeds could scatter in the wind to spread naturally. Later, Emmer crossed with another goat grass to form the even larger hybrid that is bread wheat. The Natufians took full advantage of these genetic improvements and learned how to harvest the new wheat, grind it into flour and make bread. The early bread was unleavened, with the dough allowed to dry on hot stones. Writing in 1973, Jacob Bronowski argued that the combination of wheat and water at Jericho enabled man to begin civilisation. Jericho, having a natural spring, was an oasis on the edge of the Syrian Desert and, although similar developments occurred elsewhere, Bronowski called Jericho 'a microcosm of history'. As the Neolithic began in the Fertile Crescent, most people around the world still lived in scattered hunter-gatherer communities which remained firmly in the Palaeolithic. The world population was probably stable and slowly increasing. It has been estimated that there were some five million people c. 10,000 BC growing to forty million by 5000 BC and 100 million by 1600 BC. That is an average growth rate of 0.027% p.a. from the beginning of the Neolithic to the Middle Bronze Age. Pottery found in the Near East at this time is classified as Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) until c. 8800 BC and as Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) from then until c. 6500 BC. The Natufian culture co-existed with the PPNA and the early PPNB. The potter's wheel had not yet been invented and pottery was still hand-built, often by means of coiling, and pit fired. Copper (Cu, 29) was originally found in raw surface lumps and first used in the Middle East. It was later extracted from ores such as malachite. A copper pendant from Mesopotamia is dated 8700 BC. From c. 9000 BC, Göbekli Tepe was inhabited after possibly being first occupied during the previous millennium. It is a carved stone hilltop sanctuary in south-eastern Anatolia which includes the world's oldest known megaliths. In the same region, the settlement at Nevalı Çori has been dated c. 8500 BC. Towards the end of the millennium, c. 8200 BC, the site of Aşıklı Höyük in central Anatolia was first occupied (until c. 7400 BC). As with Göbekli Tepe, the site at Tell Qaramel, in north-west Syria, was inhabited from c. 9000 BC following possible first occupation in the previous millennium.