The6th millennium BC spanned the years 6000 BC to 5001 BC (c. 8 ka to c. 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 only exceptions are thefelling dates for some construction timbers fromNeolithicwells inCentral Europe.
This millennium is reckoned to mark the end of theglobal deglaciation, which had followed theLast Glacial Maximum and caused sea levels to rise by some 60 m (200 ft) over a period of about 5,000 years.
Neolithic culture and technology had spread from the Near East and into Eastern Europe by 6000 BC. Its development in the Far East grew apace and there is increasing evidence through the millennium of its presence inprehistoric Egypt and the Far East. In much of the world, however, including Northern and Western Europe, people still lived in scatteredPalaeolithic/Mesolithichunter-gatherer communities. Theworld population is believed to have increased sharply, possibly quadrupling, as a result of theNeolithic Revolution. It has been estimated that there were perhaps forty million people worldwide at the end of this millennium, growing to 100 million by the Middle Bronze Age c. 1600 BC.[1]
Evidence ofcheese-making in Poland is dated c. 5500 BC.[4]
Four identified cultures starting around 5300 BC were theDnieper-Donets, theNarva (eastern Baltic), theErtebølle (Denmark and northern Germany), and theSwifterbant (Low Countries). They were linked by a common pottery style that had spread westward from Asia and is sometimes called "ceramic Mesolithic", distinguishable by a point or knob base and flared rims.[5][6][7]
Polities harbouring theUralic peoples thrive. The shores of all Siberian lakes, which filled the depressions during theLacustrine period, abound in remains dating from theNeolithic age.[citation needed] Countlesskurgans (tumuli), furnaces, and otherarchaeological artifacts bear witness to a dense population. Some of the earliest artifacts found inCentral Asia derive from Siberia.[9][full citation needed] Large scale constructions occur as early as 6000 BC. Prehistoric settlements in remote Siberia have revealed that 8,000 years ago construction of complex defensive structures, such as theAmnya complex, occurred with political warfare. They are the oldest fortresses in the world. Finding such ancient fortifications challenges previous understanding of early human societies. It suggests that agriculture was not the only driver for people to start building permanent settlements.
Large scale backwards migrations occur with Native American populations migrating back intoAsia, settling in areas such as theAltai Mountains several times over a span of thousands of years, earliest dated to 5500 BC. This is potentially linked to the environmental changes at the time (seeMount Mazama), which remained preserved in the oral history of theNorth American cultures to this day.[10]
Na-Dené-speaking peoples finally entered North America starting around 8000 BC, reaching thePacific Northwest by 5000 BC,[11] and from there migrating along thePacific Coast and into the interior. Linguists, anthropologists, and archeologists believe their ancestors constituted a separate migration into North America, later than the first Paleo-Indians. They migrated into Alaska and northern Canada, south along the Pacific Coast, into the interior of Canada, and south to the Great Plains and the American Southwest.
Indo-European cultures, descended fromAncient North Eurasians long ago, continue to expand Westwards from CentralRussia. It provides linguistic evidence for the geographical location of these languages around that time, agreeing with archeological evidence that Indo-European speakers were present in the Pontic-Caspian steppes by around 4500 BCE (theKurgan hypothesis) and that Uralic speakers may have been established in thePit-Comb Ware culture to their north in the fifth millennium BCE.[12][missing long citation]
Such words as those for "hundred", "pig", and "king" have something in common: they represent "cultural vocabulary" as opposed to "basic vocabulary". They are likely to have been acquired along with a novel number system and the domestic pig from Indo-Europeans in the south. Similarly, the Indo-Europeans themselves had acquired such words and cultural items from peoples and cultures to their south or west, including possibly their words for "ox",*gʷou- (compare Englishcow) and "grain",*bʰars- (compare Englishbarley). In contrast, basic vocabulary – words such as "me", "hand", "water", and "be" – is much less readily borrowed between languages. If Indo-European and Uralic are genetically related, there should be agreements regarding basic vocabulary, with more agreements if they are closely related, fewer if they are less closely related.
TheYangshao culture (Chinese:仰韶文化;pinyin:Yǎngsháo wénhuà) was aNeolithic culture that existed extensively along the middle reaches of theYellow River inChina from around the end of this millennium, from 5000 BC to 3000 BC. Excavations found that children were buried in painted pottery jars. Pottery style emerging from the Yangshao culture spread westward to theMajiayao culture, and then further toXinjiang andCentral Asia along a proto-Silk Road.[17]
Bowl of theBanpo culture (first stage of the Yangshao culture), with geometrial human face motif and fish, 4500–3500 BC,Shaanxi.[18][19][20]
Indigenous Australians in what is now southwesternVictoria were farming and smoking eels as a food source and trade good using stone weirs, canals, and woven traps around 6000 BC.[21]
Theearly Holocene sea level rise (EHSLR), which began c. 10,000 BC, tailed off during the 6th millennium BC. Global water levels had risen by about 60 metres due to deglaciation of ice masses since the end of the Last Ice Age.[22] Accelerated rises in sea level rise, called meltwater pulses, occurred three times during the EHSLR. The last one, Meltwater Pulse 1C, which peaked c. 6000 BC, produced a rise of 6.5 metres in only 140 years. It is believed that the cause was a major ice sheet collapse in Antarctica.[23]
^Gronenborn, Detlef (2007). "Beyond the models: Neolithisation in Central Europe".Proceedings of the British Academy.144:73–98.
^Anthony, D. W. (2007). "Pontic-Caspian Mesolithic and Early Neolithic societies at the time of the Black Sea Flood: a small audience and small effects". In Yanko-Hombach, V.; Gilbert, A. A.; Panin, N.; Dolukhanov, P. M. (eds.).The Black Sea Flood Question: changes in coastline, climate and human settlement. Springer. pp. 245–370.ISBN978-9402404654.
^Anthony, David W. (2010).The horse, the wheel, and language: how Bronze-Age riders from the Eurasian steppes shaped the modern world. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.ISBN9780691148182.
^Zhang, Kai (4 February 2021)."The Spread and Integration of Painted pottery Art along the Silk Road".Region - Educational Research and Reviews.3 (1): 18.doi:10.32629/RERR.V3I1.242.S2CID234007445.The early cultural exchanges between the East and the West are mainly reflected in several aspects: first, in the late Neolithic period of painted pottery culture, the Yangshao culture (5000-3000 BC) from the Central Plains spreadwestward, which had a great impact on Majiayao culture (3000-2000 BC), and then continued to spread to Xinjiang and Central Asia through the transition of Hexi corridor
^Flood, Josephine (2004).Archaeology of the dreamtime: the story of prehistoric Australia and its people (revised ed.). Marleston, South Australia: J. B. Publishing.ISBN1-876622-50-4.OCLC61479845.
^Blanchon, P. (2011). "Meltwater Pulses". In Hopley, D. (ed.).Encyclopedia of Modern Coral Reefs: Structure, form and process. Earth Science Series. Springer. pp. 683–690.ISBN978-90-481-2638-5.
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