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| ↑beforeHomo (Pliocene) |
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The9th millennium BC spanned the years 9000 BC to 8001 BC (11 to 10 thousand years ago). In chronological terms, it is the first full millennium of the currentHolocene epoch that is generally reckoned to have begun by 9700 BC (11.7 thousand years ago). 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, or by radiometric dating.
In theNear East, especially in theFertile Crescent, the transitoryEpipalaeolithic age was gradually superseded by theNeolithic with evidence of agriculture across theLevant to theZagros Mountains in modern-dayIran. The key characteristic of the Neolithic is agricultural settlement, albeit with wooden and stone tools and weapons still in use. It is believed that agriculture had begun in China by the end of the millennium. Elsewhere, especially in Europe, thePalaeolithic continued.
In thegeologic time scale, the firststratigraphic stage of theHolocene is the "Greenlandian" from about 9700 BC to the fixed date 6236 BC and so including the whole of the 9th millennium. The starting point for the Greenlandian has been correlated with the end of theYounger Dryas and a climate shift from near-glacial to interglacial, causing glaciers to retreat and sea levels to rise.[1][2]
It has been estimated that theBering Land Bridge was inundated around 8500 BC by the rising sea levels so that North America and Asia were again separated by the waters of theBering Strait and theChukchi Sea.[3] It is generally believed that there was a migration across the land bridge from eastern Siberia into North America during theLast Glacial Maximum. Sometime after the American glaciers melted, these peoples expanded southward into the wider continent to become theNative Americans. After the land bridge was inundated by the rising sea water, no further migration was possible from Siberia.[4][5]
During the millennium, there werethree known volcanic eruptions which registered magnitude 5 or more on thevolcanic explosivity index (VEI). These were atUlleungdo (aka Ulreung), an island east of theKorean Peninsula about 8750 BC;Grímsvötn, north east Iceland about 8230 BC; andTaupo Caldera, New Zealand about 8130 BC.[6] The biggest eruption was at Grímsvötn, VEI 6, producing some 15 km3 (3.6 cu mi) oftephra.[7]
As the Neolithic began in the Fertile Crescent, most people around the world still lived in scatteredhunter-gatherer communities which remained firmly in thePalaeolithic. Theworld population was probably stable and slowly increasing. It has been estimated that there were some five million people in 10,000 BC growing to forty million by 5000 BC and 100 million by 1600 BC. That is an average growth rate of 0.027% per annum from the beginning of the Neolithic to the Middle Bronze Age.[8]
From the beginning of the 9th millennium,Göbekli Tepe was inhabited after possibly being first occupied during the previous millennium.[9] It is a carved stone hilltop sanctuary in south-easternAnatolia which includes the world's oldest knownmegaliths.[10] As with Göbekli Tepe, the site atTell Qaramel, in north-westSyria, was inhabited from 9000 BC following possible first occupation in the previous millennium.[11] In the same region, the settlement atNevalı Çori has been dated about 8500 BC.[12] Elsewhere in the Fertile Crescent, there is evidence of settlements atMureybet andGanj Dareh from around 8500 BC. Towards the end of the millennium, by 8200 BC, the site ofAşıklı Höyük in central Anatolia was first occupied (until around 7400 BC).[13]
It is believed that European sites settled before 8500 were still Palaeolithic, or at bestMesolithic, communities. AtStar Carr in North Yorkshire, the results ofradiocarbon analysis in 2018 indicate that occupation first commenced between 9335 and 9275 BC, lasting for a period of around 800 years until 8525–8440 BC, although such occupations may have been episodic in nature, varying in intensity between different periods.[14] Archaeological excavations atCramond inprehistoric Scotland have uncovered evidence of habitation dating to around 8500 BC.[15] Another settlement may have been established atÆrø inDenmark.[16]
In Japan, theJōmon culture had probably been established by small communities on the Pacific side ofHonshu by this time. The word means "cord-pattern", referring to the distinctive pottery of the period. As there was no potter's wheel, the clay was prepared in the shape of a rope and manually coiled upwards to create a vessel that was baked in an open fire. At first, the vessels were simple bowls and jars but later became artistic. Proposed dates for the start of the Jomon are wildly variable, ranging from the Ice Ages to as late as c. 4500. It is generally accepted that the period ended c. 300 BC when it was superseded by theYayoi culture.[17]
In North America, the Paleo-IndianClovis culture is believed to have ended around 8800 BC having fathered numerous local variants. One of these was theFolsom complex which was centred in theGreat Plains and is dated from c. 9000 to c. 8000 BC. The people were hunter-gatherers who hunted the now-extinctBison antiquus.[18]
InPatagonia, the Fell's Tradition prevailed through the millennium atCueva Fell.[19] Another Paleo-Indian site in the region is the Las Cuevas Canyon nearLos Toldos (Santa Cruz), where rock art has been found.[20]
In Central America, remains of three prehistoric human fossils have been discovered since 2006 in the cave system atChan Hol inQuintana Roo, Mexico. All have been dated to around the 9th millennium.[21]
Evidence of a precursor to warfare has been found atNataruk in Kenya. Remains of at least 27 individuals have been found and dated to 7550–8550 BC.[22] The condition of the skeletons indicates that a massacre took place as hands were bound and skulls were smashed by blunt force. Communities in Africa at the time would have been nomadic hunter-gatherers.[23]
TheNatufian culture continued to prevail in theLevantine and upperMesopotamian areas of theFertile Crescent with their most significant site atJericho (Tell es-Sultan) in theJordan Valley. The Natufian people had beensedentary or semi-sedentary through the 10th millennium, even before the introduction ofagriculture.[24]
By about 8500 BC, the Natufians were harvestingwild wheat withflint-edgedsickles.[25] It was around that time, or soon afterwards, that the wild wheat crossed with a naturalgoat grass to formemmer, the seeds of which could scatter in the wind to spread naturally. Later, emmer crossed with another goat grass to form the even larger hybrid that isbread wheat. The Natufians learned how to harvest the new wheat, grind it into flour and makebread. The early bread was unleavened, with the dough allowed to dry on hot stones.[26] Writing in 1973,Jacob Bronowski argued that the combination of wheat and water at Jericho enabled man to begin civilisation. Jericho, having a natural spring, was an oasis on the edge of theSyrian Desert and, although similar developments occurred elsewhere, Bronowski called Jericho "a microcosm of history".[27]
The earliest known cultivation oflentils was atMureybet in Syria, where wheat andbarley were also grown. Lentils were later (by 7500 BC) found atHacilar andÇayönü in Turkey.[28] Ganj Dareh, in Iranian Kurdistan, has been cited as the earliest settlement to domesticate animals, specifically the goat, towards the end of the millennium.[29][30]
Agriculture may have begun in theFar East before 8300 BC, the estimated date for the earliest cultivation of commonmillet. Proso millet (Panicum miliaceum) and foxtail millet (Setaria italica) were important crops beginning in theEarly Neolithic of China. Some of the earliest evidence of millet cultivation in China was found atCishan (north), where proso millet huskphytoliths and biomolecular components have been identified around 10,300–8,700 years ago instorage pits along with remains of pit-houses, pottery, and stone tools related to millet cultivation.[31]
Beginning with China c. 18,000 BC,pottery is believed to have been invented independently in various places – for example, atOunjougou in central Mali (dated c. 9400 BC). These early innovations were probably created accidentally by fires lit onclay soil.[32][33][34][35] Thepotter's wheel had not yet been invented and, where pottery as such was made, it was still hand-built, often by means ofcoiling, andpit fired.[36]
The first chronological pottery system was the Early, Middle and Late Minoan framework devised in the early 20th century by SirArthur Evans for hisBronze Age findings atKnossos for the period c. 2800 BC to c. 1050 BC.[37] DameKathleen Kenyon was the principal archaeologist atTell es-Sultan (ancient Jericho) and she discovered that there was no pottery there.[38][39] The vessels she found were made from stone and she reasonably surmised that others made from wood or vegetable fibres would have long since decayed.[38][39] Using Evans' system as a benchmark, Kenyon divided the Near East Neolithic into phases calledPre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA), from c. 10,000 BC to c. 8800 BC;Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB), from c. 8800 BC to c. 6500 BC; and thenPottery Neolithic (PN), which had varied start-points from c. 6500 BC until the beginnings of theBronze Age towards the end of the4th millennium. At the beginning of the 9th millennium, the Natufian culture co-existed with the PPNA which prevailed in the Levantine and upper Mesopotamian areas of the Fertile Crescent.[36][38]
Copper (Cu, 29) was originally found inraw surface lumps and first used in the Middle East. It was later extracted from ores such asmalachite.[40] A copper pendant from Mesopotamia is dated 8700 BC.[41] The use of copper and, from the eighth millennium,lead (Pb, 82) was gradual – it could not become widespread untilsystematic processes had been developed for extraction of the metals from their ores; this did not happen until about the sixth millennium.[40]
