The Neolithic or New Stone Age is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Europe, Asia and Africa. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts of the world. This "Neolithic package" included the introduction of farming, domestication of animals, and change from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to one of settlement. The term 'Neolithic' was coined by Sir John Lubbock in 1865 as a refinement of the three-age system.
Reconstruction of Pre-Pottery Neolithic B housing in Aşıklı Höyük, modern Turkey
Reconstruction of a Neolithic farmstead, Irish National Heritage Park. The Neolithic saw the invention of agriculture.
An array of Neolithic artifacts, including bracelets, axe heads, chisels, and polishing tools.
The Urfa Man c. 9000 BC. Şanlıurfa Archaeology and Mosaic Museum.
The Stone Age was a broad prehistoric period during which stone was widely used to make stone tools with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted for roughly 3.4 million years and ended between 4,000 BC and 2,000 BC, with the advent of metalworking. It therefore represents nearly 99.3% of human history. Though some simple metalworking of malleable metals, particularly the use of gold and copper for purposes of ornamentation, was known in the Stone Age, it is the melting and smelting of copper that marks the end of the Stone Age. In Western Asia, this occurred by about 3,000 BC, when bronze became widespread. The term Bronze Age is used to describe the period that followed the Stone Age, as well as to describe cultures that had developed techniques and technologies for working copper alloys into tools, supplanting stone in many uses.
Ġgantija temples in Gozo, Malta, c. 3600–2500 BC, some of the world's oldest free-standing structures
A variety of stone tools
Stone Age hand axe engraved with human face found from Kiuruvesi, Finland.
This is a Mode 1, or Oldowan, stone tool from the western Sahara