Neolithic
First Farmers

One of the greatest changes in the history of man took place during the Neolithic period. The word Neolithic describes the 'new stone age'. In Britain, this is given a date of about 4000 bc (6000 years ago). Much earlier than this, in the middle east, there had been a technology breakthrough in the development of farming. Up to this time food had been hunted and gathered from the land, and this meant a mobile population, going to where the food was. Then someone had the bright idea of deliberately planting seeds (for what ever reason), and coming back at the right time of year to harvest the crop. Having found that this was successful, it didn't take long to work out that if there was enough planted, food became plentiful. The next problem was that this attracted the attention of other people, so it became necessary to stay close to the crop. That leads to committing time to building a more permanent home, this saves having to rebuild every year. The first homes constructed by the Neolithic people in Britain were rectangular or square. There is a well preserved stone-built house of this period, on the island of Orkney. It was found under a large shell midden (rubbish heap), and although the roofs are no longer there, the walls of the houses of the settlement give a good view of homes of this period. Some of these houses are complete with furniture!

Here are some photos of this settlement.

This is an overview of the settlement showing a complete house
	A closer view to show the use of the local stone
Part of the furniture - in this case, the fireplace
	Even closer, to show the quality of the wall building

To view a VR-panoramic photo of the interior of one of the houses.

© Diego Meozzi (dmeozzi@micronet.it)

Place your mouse over the Picture, hold the left button down,
and gently move the mouse to the right or left.
Zoom in with Shift - Zoom out with Ctrl

If you need the plug-in VR-viewer go to www.apple.com

By late Neolithic, around 5000 years ago, there was a change in the culture, and it shows up in the housing. Nearly everyone changed from square houses to round houses. There is nothing in the archaeology to indicate why this happened, so at the moment it is a mystery! For information on Round Houses