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The Early Neolithic

Submitted by Seren Langley on Mon, 2009-07-06 11:12
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Dyffryn Ardudwy The Early Neolithic, or New Stone Age dates from 4300 BC to 3200 BC, about 6,300 years ago! This page explores some of the many sites associated with the Early Neolithic, some of the important facts about the period and ways in which we can learn about the Early Neolithic with archaeology.

Early Neolithic Sites

There are many sites from the Early Neolithic which are open to visitors, such as Dyffryn Ardudwy Dolmen, Gwynedd, Wales. To explore some of these sites, visit our Early Neolithic Sites page.

Some Important Facts about the Early Neolithic

One of the most important events in the history of Britain happened during the Early Neolithic period. This was the beginning of farming instead of hunting and gathering. People now kept livestock such as cattle, pigs, sheep or goats, and grew crops like wheat and barley. Food was more predictable, food could be stored and more people could be fed. There was now enough people, and enough time to build large structures.

Evidence of Belief Systems

During the Early Neolithic people may also have had a different attitude to the land and to nature: what we might call their religious beliefs. These attitudes could be expressed through their burial and other rituals. Archaeologists have uncovered many new kinds of sites which tell us more about these different attitudes such as:

Causewayed enclosures
These are large circular areas enclosed by rings of banks and ditches. The banks and ditches have gaps in them, being dug in short lengths. Some were built and used only once, while others were reused over and over again. They seem to have been places where people gathered at various times of the year for social, economic or religious reasons. A lot of feasting went on, with the remains of the ‘barbecues’ dumped in the ditches. Bones of cattle are especially common.
Cursuses*
A cursus is usually a very long, narrow avenue enclosed by banks and ditches, or timber posts, on all sides. The longest, in Dorset, is nearly 10 kilometres long. They produce very few finds when excavated and their exact purpose is a bit of a mystery. One idea is that they were for religious processions to walk along. Some may have been aligned on the setting sun at midsummer. Another idea is that they formed areas where young boys undertook a symbolic journey to become adult men.
Carreg Samson
Long barrows and chambered tombs
Communities often built very large, elongated mounds of earth or stone, in which they would have wooden or stone chambers for receiving human bones. Not everyone would be buried in the chambers. These tombs may have been a place for the community to remember, or speak to, their ancestors as a way of binding everyone together in the group. Ceremonies would take place outside the front of the tomb. Some long barrows had no burials at all within them. Having a monument to give identity to the group was more important than having it as a place to bury the dead.
Portal dolmens
Perhaps the most impressive, yet least known sites, are the portal dolmens. These are very large stone boxes, large enough to be taller than a person, made of upright slabs with a large flat stone placed on top. One side may be open, or be only partly closed to allow people to get inside the box. Some archaeologists think they were originally covered by an earth or stone mound, which has been worn away. Others say they were uncovered. They may have been used in some way with funeral rituals, but we really don’t know how they were used.

Evidence of Industry and Farming

Archaeologists have uncovered several sites which help us understand how the people of the Early Neolithic created pottery, tools, weapons and farmed the land including:

Flint mines
The best flint comes from deep within the chalk of southern Britain. People would dig a circular shaft down into the chalk until they found a seam (layer) of flint and then follow this along as a horizontal gallery. Shafts could go as deep as 7 metres. The digging tools were deer antler picks, and cow shoulder blades as shovels. People would have crouched or lain down in a narrow gallery with an oil lamp. It was hard and dangerous work. Skeletons are sometimes found in the mines.
Stone quarries
Only some kinds of stone are good for making axeheads and some sites soon became favourite places to get good stone. The stone would be roughly shaped on site, leaving a lot of waste behind which we can now find close to the rock outcrops that were quarried.
Pottery & tools
There are also new kinds of artefact not found before. People began making pottery, such as crudely fired bowls with a round base used for storing food or cooking over a fire. There were also new types of stone tools. People began to make flint tools by pressure flaking*. These included leaf-shaped arrowheads, laurel-leaf knives and very rare flint sickles. They also polished flint and stone by grinding to make axeheads, which could be traded over very long distances.
Farming
Archaeologists have debated how farming was introduced to Britain. Some would say that people brought farming with them across from the continent and so the Neolithic saw an immigration of new people to Britain. Others would say that the native mesolithic people decided to adopt farming when the climate got cooler, and hunting and gathering got more difficult. What is certain is that the livestock and crops did not naturally occur in Britain and had to be imported from the continent. Many of the sites and artefacts of the Early Neolithic are similar to sites and artefacts in the rest of Europe, but we cannot point to any one place on the continent where we can see the British Early Neolithic as coming from.
Farmsteads
There is also dispute over what type of farming was practised. Some archaeologists believe that people were farming in the full sense of the word, living in permanent farmsteads, with livestock and crops as their main source of food. Others believe that people were still fairly mobile, moving around from year to year and mixing farming with hunting and gathering.

Finding out about the Early Neolithic with Archaeology

Some of the archaeological subjects which study the Early Neolithic and professional Archaeologists who work with the Early Neolithic include:

If you are interested in learning more about studying Early Neolithic Archaeology please visit the CBA’s Studying Archaeology page.

Glossary

Cursus
A Latin word meaning racetrack because people once thought these sites were Roman racecourses!
Pressure flaking
A method of shaping flint flakes into tools by applying the tip of an antler or other tool and pushing off shallow small flakes from the flat face of the larger flake.