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Environmental changes

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Around the beginning of the 7th millennium, the surface of the Ancylus Lake (the last freshwater stage of the Baltic Sea) reached sea level, possibly due to outflow through Vänern. Small inflows of seawater through the Danish Straits led to increasingly brackish conditions, eventually transitioning the Baltic into the Mastogloia Sea phase by the end of the millennium.[1]

The westward spread of cold air from the Siberian High, one of a number of abrupt climate change events during the Holocene, significantly contributed to cooling in the northern hemisphere from around 6,600 to 6,000 BC.[1]

8.2-kiloyear event

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The 7th millennium saw the transition of the first stage of the Holocene geological epoch, the Greenlandian, into the Northgrippian or "Middle Holocene". The 8.2-kiloyear event, the dividing line between the two stages, occurred around 6200,[2] compounding with the already existing cooling effect of the Siberian High's expansion.[1] This event caused a rapid cooling of 1–3 °C across the Northern Hemisphere which persisted for around 160 years. The collapse of the ice saddle connecting the Baffin and Labrador ice domes accelerated the collapse of the Laurentide Ice Sheet, and allowed for meltwater to steadily flow into the North Atlantic for a period of several centuries. This raised sea levels by several meters over the following centuries and disrupted the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation, plunging temperatures in Europe. Additionally, this allowed the large glacial lakes Agassiz and Ojibway to drain through the newly-created outlet in the Hudson Strait through several pulses. One such pulse, lasting between six months and five years, raised global sea level by around 23 centimetres (0.75 ft). Continued small-scale melting of the Antarctic ice sheet contributed a relatively minor amount to global sea level rise, around 2.5–3 cm (1.0–1.2 in) per century over the course of the 7th and 8th millennia.[3]

Eurasia

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Peligang culture pottery

East Asia

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In what is now eastern China, the gradual emerge rice and millet cultivation continued the slow process of domestication from its early Holocene beginnings. Sedentary rice cultivators existed along the central Yangtze by the end of the previous millennium. Further north, the large millet-farming villages of the Peiligang culture emerged along the middle Huang He by the middle of the 7th millennium.Genetic evidence points to the divergence of millet cultivars around the end of the millennium.[4][5]

Central Asia and the Steppes

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The 7th millennium saw the first definitive signs of agriculture in Central Asia. In what is now Afghanistan, Hindu Kush sites such as Ghar-i-Mar contain stone farming implements alongside the remains of domesticated sheep and goats. To the northwest, the Jeitun culture flourished across the Kopet Dag. Named for the type site of Jeitun in modern Turkmenistan, the Jeitun people formed large agricultural settlements. They grew grains such as barley, alongside einkorn, emmer, and bread wheat. Agriculture may have developed independently in Central Asia, or spread from contact with the Fertile Crescent.[6]

South and Southeast Asia

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The farming village of Mehrgarh, in what is now eastern Balochistan, was occupied by the 7th millennium.[7] Plant cultivation and animal herding may have developed independently in the region, evidenced by the likely independent domestication of the zebu. Due to evidence of innovations such as communal food storage and social stratification, agriculture in the region likely predates the site.[8] Further into the subcontinent, the area was inhabited by hunter-gatherers exploiting the lucrative wet climate of the region during the early Holocene. Sedentary foragers occupied much of the Gangetic Plains during the millennium. Uncertain early evidence of pottery and rice cultivation may date to this period.[9]

Near East

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A slightly damaged ancient handled pottery vessel
Yarmukian vessel from Sha'ar HaGolan

The 7th millennium saw the continuation of agricultural expansion from earlier millennium within the Fertile Crescent of West Asia. The millennium saw advances in animal husbandry, such as the domestication of pigs and cattle, which contributed to the continued adoption of mixed farming. The domestication of cattle allowed for manure to became a vital component to agricultural systems, alongside their use as beasts of burden. The immense utility and value of cattle, able to feed large groups of people, contributed significantly to social stratification in the region.[10]

The millennium saw the transition between the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B and the Pottery Neolithic. The spread of pottery corresponded to significant developments in food systems. Pottery allowed for the use of cooking vessels, the processing of grain, and the invention of brewing.[10]

On Cyprus, the aceramic Khirokitia culture disappeared by the end of the millennium, possibly due to aridification linked to the 8.2-kiloyear event. Cyprus' population massively declined, and would ultimately not recover until the 5th millennium Sotira culture.[11]

Southern Levant

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During the later stages of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B, large settlements termed "megasites" emerged in the Jordanian Highlands of the Southern Levant. These gradually declined around 6600 BC, corresponding with the emergence of the Yarmukian culture, the local variety of the Pottery Neolithic. The Yarmukian saw increased settlement along the coast and low-lying areas of the Southern Levant, possibly due to milder conditions during the beginnings of a period of climate change. However, highland sites continued to be occupied until the Late Yarmoukian Crisis (c. 6200), which saw the abandonment of settlements in the highlands and Jordan Valley in favor of settlement purely along the coastal plain and Jezreel Valley.[12]

Neolithic expansion

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Neolithic agriculture had been established in south-central Anatolia since around 8500 BC, characterized by sites such as Aşıklı Höyük. Agriculture was well-attested by the 7th millennium, with the site of Çatalhöyük being the best documented example of early Neolithic agriculture in the region. The first portion of the millennium saw the introduction of Fertile Crescent crops such as bread wheat and naked barley to the region. Around 6500 BC, domestic pigs and cattle are attested in the region, supplementing existing livestock of sheep and goats; these new animals may have been introduced from the Fertile Crescent, or separately domesticated locally. Dairy consumption became prevalent in Anatolia around this time, and alongside other improvements in agricultural practice, may have allowed farming to spread to other regions of Asia Minor.[13]

The rapid expansion of Neolithic technologies and culture (a process often called Neolithization) has been attributed to maritime and land-based colonization spreading out of Central Anatolia. These initial Neolithic sites in the Aegean differ greatly from prior Mesolithic cultures in their material culture; however, they share strong similarities among each other, likely due to the founder effect.[14]

Aegean

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Map showing the expansion of Neolithic farming across Europe from the 10th to 4th millennia BC
The 7th millennium saw the expansion of Neolithic agriculture out of Anatolia into much of Southern Europe.

During the early portion of the milennium, agriculture rapidly spread across western Anatolia, likely due to a combination of agricultural advancements, possible climate changes, and demographic shifts in central Anatolia to smaller autonomous communities. Sites in the Lake District, Marmara, and eastern Aegean show a degree of regional variation and sharp distinction from earlier Mesolithic cultures. Only in the Marmara region is cultural continuity from the Mesolithic attested, with similarities in lithic technology between the Neolithic Fikirtepe culture and the earlier Agaçlı culture.[15][16][17]

Certain early Aegean sites, including Franchthi Cave in the Peloponnese, suggest the early introduction of domesticated livestock and emmer wheat near the beginning of the millennium as a local phase of the aceramic Neolithic.[18][19] Definite signs of Neolithic culture in the southern Aegean are attested around the 6800–6600 BC in the southern Aegean, with a slightly later date of around 6600 BC in the north.[20] Neolithic settlement on Crete began slightly before 6700 BC. The beginning of the Neolithic was likely delayed in Thessaly and Macedonia until the 66th century BC.[16][21] The spread of Neolithic culture halted from around 6500 to 6200, with no evidence of expansion further into Europe.[21]

These pioneer groups introduced cattle, sheep, pigs, and goats as livestock. Despite displacing hunter gatherers, the earliest Neolithic settlers in what is now Greece subsisted primarily on livestock and cultivated crops (such as grains and legumes), with very little consumption of wild plants or animals.[22] Very little genetic admixture has been found between these settler populations and the indigenous Mesolithic populations. The innovation of pottery in western Asia rapidly spread to these communities, becoming common along the Aegean before 6500.[14]

European Neolithic

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From around 6200 to 6000 BC, Neolithic agriculture began to move into the northern Balkans and the lower Danube.[23] At the Iron Gates of the Danube, burial sites from the end of the 7th millennium show the Neolithic settlers buried alongside the descendants of local Mesolithic hunter-gatherers, indicating some degree of shared occupation of the region.[24] (TALK ABOUT THE LEPENSKI VIR CULTURE)

Eastern Europe

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Neolithic technology, including pottery and tools, spread across eastern Europe hunter-gatherer communities during the 7th millennium. Unlike Neolithic cultures in the Balkans, they did not adopt agriculture. Pottery finds at sites such as Rakushechny Yar, on the Don River, suggest possible cultural and technological diffusion from the Near East.[25][26] The Bug–Dniester culture emerged in what is now Moldova and western Ukraine around the end of the millennium, possibly due to local foraging populations adopting agriculture.[27]

The last centuries of the 7th millennium saw farming spread along the Adriatic Sea. The Impressed Ware culture emerged along the southern Adriatic sometime after the 6.2-kiloyear event, evidenced by sites such as Sidari on Corfu.[28] Neolithic farmers spread along the western coast of the Balkans in the last two centuries of the millennium, settling Dalmatia by around 6000. From the western Balkans, Neolithic agriculture spread across the Adriatic into the Italian Peninsula. Although dates as early as 6200 BC have been proposed, farming likely spread into coastal Apulia slightly before 6000, before expanding along the Gulf of Taranto.[23]

Mesolithic Europe

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(talk about Doggerland and the Storegga Slides)

Africa

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The Americas

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The 7th millennium saw the earliest evidence of agriculture in Mesoamerica, as migratory hunter-gatherer populations began cultivating pepo squash, chili peppers, avocados, and maize. Fully sedentary agriculture would not emerge for several millennia.[29]

By the end of the millennium, populations across tropical South America combined traditional hunting and foraging with an increasingly sophisticated horticulture, tending plants and clearing patches of forest for small-scale cultivation. Crops including squashes, avocados, cassava, peppers, calabash, and quinoa were utilized, although hunting was still a primary source of protein.[30]

References

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Citations

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  1. ^ a b c Jensen et al. 1999, pp. 437–438, 451–452.
  2. ^ Walker et al. 2018, pp. 213–216.
  3. ^ Matero et al. 2017, pp. 205–213.
  4. ^ Barker 2006, pp. 190–195.
  5. ^ Lander 2021, pp. 44–46.
  6. ^ Barker 2006, pp. 156–158.
  7. ^ Barker 2006, pp. 159–160.
  8. ^ Barker 2006, pp. 162–164.
  9. ^ Barker 2006, pp. 168–170.
  10. ^ a b Barker 2006, pp. 141–146.
  11. ^ Guilaine 2014, p. 84.
  12. ^ Weninger & Clare 2017, pp. 75–78.
  13. ^ Düring 2013, pp. 77–85.
  14. ^ a b Leppard 2022, pp. 244–245, 251–255.
  15. ^ Düring 2013, pp. 87–90.
  16. ^ a b Horejs 2019, pp. 73–77.
  17. ^ Leppard 2022, pp. 242–244.
  18. ^ Milisauskas 2011, p. 159.
  19. ^ Guilaine 2014, p. 88.
  20. ^ Leppard 2022, pp. 244–245.
  21. ^ a b Leppard 2022, p. 245.
  22. ^ Halstead & Isaakidou 2020, pp. 77, 91–94.
  23. ^ a b Leppard 2022, pp. 245–247.
  24. ^ de Becdelièvre et al. 2020, p. 67.
  25. ^ Gorelik, Tsybrij & Tsybrij 2016, pp. 139, 155–156.
  26. ^ Dolbunova et al. 2019, pp. 127–128.
  27. ^ Milisauskas 2011, p. 162.
  28. ^ Guilaine 2014, p. 89.
  29. ^ Barker 2006, pp. 251–252.
  30. ^ Barker 2006, pp. 262–264.

Bibliography

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