TheNeolithic began about 12,000 years ago, when farming appeared in theEpipalaeolithic Near East andMesopotamia, and later in other parts of the world. It lasted in theNear East until the transitional period of theChalcolithic (Copper Age) from about 6,500 years ago (4500 BC), marked by the development ofmetallurgy, leading up to theBronze Age andIron Age.
Approximate centers of origin of agriculture in theNeolithic Revolution and its spread in prehistory: the Fertile Crescent (12,000 BP), the Yangtze river and Yellow River basins (9,000 BP) and the New Guinea Highlands (9,000–6,000 BP), Central Mexico (5,000–4,000 BP), Northern South America (5,000–4,000 BP), sub-Saharan Africa (5,000–4,000 BP, exact location unknown), eastern North America (4,000–3,000 BP).[9]
Following theASPRO chronology, the Neolithic started in around 10,200 BC in theLevant, arising from theNatufian culture, when pioneering use of wildcereals evolved into earlyfarming. The Natufian period or "proto-Neolithic" lasted from 12,500 to 9,500 BC, and is taken to overlap with the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) of 10,200–8800 BC. As the Natufians had become dependent on wild cereals in their diet, and asedentary way of life had begun among them, the climatic changes associated with theYounger Dryas (about 10,000 BC) are thought to have forced people to develop farming.
The founder crops of the Fertile Crescent werewheat,lentil,pea,chickpeas, bitter vetch, and flax. Among the other major crop domesticated were rice, millet, maize (corn), and potatoes. Crops were usually domesticated in a single location and ancestral wild species are still found.[1]
Early Neolithic age farming was limited to a narrow range of plants, both wild and domesticated, which includedeinkorn wheat,millet andspelt, and the keeping ofdogs. By about 8000 BC, it included domesticatedsheep andgoats,cattle andpigs.
Not all of these cultural elements characteristic of the Neolithic appeared everywhere in the same order: the earliest farming societies in theNear East did not use pottery. In other parts of the world, such asAfrica,South Asia andSoutheast Asia, independent domestication events led to their own regionally distinctive Neolithic cultures, which arose completely independently of those inEurope andSouthwest Asia.Early Japanese societies and otherEast Asian cultures used potterybefore developing agriculture.[10][11]
The Neolithic 1 (PPNA) period began around 10,000 BC in theLevant.[12] A temple area in southeastern Turkey atGöbekli Tepe, dated to around 9500 BC, may be regarded as the beginning of the period. This site was developed by nomadic hunter-gatherer tribes, as evidenced by the lack of permanent housing in the vicinity, and may be the oldest known human-made place of worship.[17] At least seven stone circles, covering 25 acres (10 ha), contain limestone pillars carved with animals, insects, and birds. Stone tools were used by perhaps as many as hundreds of people to create the pillars, which might have supported roofs. Other early PPNA sites dating to around 9500–9000 BC have been found inPalestine, notably inTell es-Sultan (ancientJericho) andGilgal in theJordan Valley;Israel (notablyAin Mallaha,Nahal Oren, andKfar HaHoresh); and inByblos,Lebanon. The start of Neolithic 1 overlaps theTahunian andHeavy Neolithic periods to some degree.[citation needed]
The major advance of Neolithic 1 was true farming. In the proto-NeolithicNatufian cultures, wild cereals were harvested, and perhaps early seed selection and re-seeding occurred. The grain was ground into flour.Emmer wheat was domesticated, and animals were herded and domesticated (animal husbandry andselective breeding).[citation needed]
In 2006, remains offigs were discovered in a house in Jericho dated to 9400 BC. The figs are of a mutant variety that cannot be pollinated by insects, and therefore the trees can only reproduce from cuttings. This evidence suggests that figs were the first cultivated crop and mark the invention of the technology of farming. This occurred centuries before the first cultivation of grains.[18]
Settlements became more permanent, with circular houses, much like those of the Natufians, with single rooms. However, these houses were for the first time made ofmudbrick. The settlement had a surrounding stone wall and perhaps a stone tower (as in Jericho). The wall served as protection from nearby groups, as protection from floods, or to keep animals penned. Some of the enclosures also suggest grain and meat storage.[19]
The Neolithic 2 (PPNB) began around 8800 BC according to theASPRO chronology in the Levant (Jericho, West Bank).[12] As with the PPNA dates, there are two versions from the same laboratories noted above. This system of terminology, however, is not convenient for southeastAnatolia and settlements of the middle Anatolia basin.[citation needed] A settlement of 3,000 inhabitants called'Ain Ghazal was found in the outskirts ofAmman,Jordan. Considered to be one of the largest prehistoric settlements in theNear East, it was continuously inhabited from approximately 7250 BC to approximately 5000 BC.[20]
Settlements have rectangular mud-brick houses where the family lived together in single or multiple rooms. Burial findings suggest anancestor cult where peoplepreserved skulls of the dead, which were plastered with mud to make facial features. The rest of the corpse could have been left outside the settlement to decay until only the bones were left, then the bones were buried inside the settlement underneath the floor or between houses.[citation needed]
Work at the site of'Ain Ghazal inJordan has indicated a laterPre-Pottery Neolithic C period.Juris Zarins has proposed that a Circum Arabian Nomadic Pastoral Complex developed in the period from the climatic crisis of 6200 BC, partly as a result of an increasing emphasis in PPNB cultures upon domesticated animals, and a fusion withHarifian hunter gatherers in the Southern Levant, with affiliate connections with the cultures ofFayyum and theEastern Desert ofEgypt. Cultures practicing this lifestyle spread down theRed Sea shoreline and moved east fromSyria into southernIraq.[21]
The Late Neolithic began around 6,400 BC in theFertile Crescent.[12] By then distinctive cultures emerged, with pottery like theHalafian (Turkey, Syria, Northern Mesopotamia) andUbaid (Southern Mesopotamia). This period has been further divided intoPNA (Pottery Neolithic A) andPNB (Pottery Neolithic B) at some sites.[22]
The Chalcolithic (Stone-Bronze) period began about 4500 BC, then theBronze Age began about 3500 BC, replacing the Neolithic cultures.[citation needed]
Around 10,000 BC the first fully developed Neolithic cultures belonging to the phasePre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) appeared in the Fertile Crescent.[12] Around 10,700–9400 BC a settlement was established inTell Qaramel, 10 miles (16 km) north ofAleppo. The settlement included two temples dating to 9650 BC.[23] Around 9000 BC during the PPNA, one of the world's first towns,Jericho, appeared in the Levant. It was surrounded by a stone wall, may have contained a population of up to 2,000–3,000 people, and contained a massive stone tower.[24] Around 6400 BC theHalaf culture appeared in Syria and Northern Mesopotamia.
Early PPNB (PPNB ancien) between 8800 and 7600 BC, middle PPNB (PPNB moyen) between 7600 and 6900 BC,
Late PPNB (PPNB récent) between 7500 and 7000 BC,
A PPNB (sometimes called PPNC) transitional stage (PPNB final) in which Halaf anddark faced burnished ware begin to emerge between 6900 and 6400 BC.[26]
They also advanced the idea of a transitional stage between the PPNA and PPNB between 8800 and 8600 BC at sites likeJerf el Ahmar andTell Aswad.[27]
The earliest evidence of Neolithic culture in northeast Africa was found in the archaeological sites ofBir Kiseiba andNabta Playa in what is now southwest Egypt.[29] Domestication ofsheep andgoats reachedEgypt from theNear East possibly as early as 6000 BC.[30][31][32]Graeme Barker states "The first indisputable evidence for domestic plants and animals in the Nile valley is not until the early fifth millennium BC in northern Egypt and a thousand years later further south, in both cases as part of strategies that still relied heavily on fishing, hunting, and the gathering of wild plants" and suggests that these subsistence changes were not due to farmers migrating from the Near East but was an indigenous development, with cereals either indigenous or obtained through exchange.[33] Other scholars argue that the primary stimulus for agriculture and domesticated animals (as well as mud-brick architecture and other Neolithic cultural features) in Egypt was from the Middle East.[34][35][36]
The neolithization ofNorthwestern Africa was initiated byIberian,Levantine (and perhapsSicilian) migrants around 5500–5300 BC.[37] During the Early Neolithic period, farming was introduced by Europeans and was subsequently adopted by the locals.[37] During the Middle Neolithic period, an influx of ancestry from the Levant appeared in Northwestern Africa, coinciding with the arrival ofpastoralism in the region.[37] The earliest evidence for pottery, domestic cereals andanimal husbandry is found in Morocco, specifically atKaf el-Ghar.[37]
ThePastoral Neolithic was a period in Africa'sprehistory marking the beginning of food production on the continent following theLater Stone Age. In contrast to the Neolithic in other parts of the world, which saw the development offarming societies, the first form of African food production was mobilepastoralism,[38][39] or ways of life centered on the herding and management of livestock. The term "Pastoral Neolithic" is used most often byarchaeologists to describe early pastoralist periods in theSahara,[40] as well as ineastern Africa.[41]
TheSavanna Pastoral Neolithic or SPN (formerly known as theStone Bowl Culture) is a collection of ancient societies that appeared in theRift Valley ofEast Africa and surrounding areas during a time period known as thePastoral Neolithic. They wereSouth Cushitic speaking pastoralists, who tended to bury their dead in cairns whilst their toolkit was characterized by stone bowls, pestles, grindstones and earthenware pots.[42] Through archaeology, historical linguistics and archaeogenetics, they conventionally have been identified with the area's firstAfroasiatic-speaking settlers. Archaeological dating of livestock bones and burial cairns has also established the cultural complex as the earliest center ofpastoralism and stone construction in the region.[43]
In southeastEurope agrarian societies first appeared in the7th millennium BC, attested by one of the earliest farming sites of Europe, discovered inVashtëmi, southeasternAlbania and dating back to 6500 BC.[44][45] In most of Western Europe in followed over the next two thousand years, but in some parts of Northwest Europe it is much later, lasting just under 3,000 years from c. 4500 BC–1700 BC. Recent advances inarchaeogenetics have confirmed that the spread of agriculture from the Middle East to Europe was strongly correlated with the migration ofearly farmers from Anatolia about 9,000 years ago, and was not just a cultural exchange.[46][47]
Anthropomorphic figurines have been found in the Balkans from 6000 BC,[48] and in Central Europe by around 5800 BC (La Hoguette). Among the earliest cultural complexes of this area are theSesklo culture in Thessaly, which later expanded in the Balkans giving rise toStarčevo-Körös (Cris),Linearbandkeramik, andVinča. Through a combination ofcultural diffusion andmigration of peoples, the Neolithic traditions spread west and northwards to reach northwestern Europe by around 4500 BC. TheVinča culture may have created the earliest system of writing, theVinča signs, though archaeologist Shan Winn believes they most likely representedpictograms andideograms rather than a truly developed form of writing.[49]
TheCucuteni-Trypillian culture built enormous settlements in Romania, Moldova and Ukraine from 5300 to 2300 BC. Themegalithic temple complexes ofĠgantija on the Mediterranean island ofGozo (in the Maltese archipelago) and ofMnajdra (Malta) are notable for their gigantic Neolithic structures, the oldest of which date back to around 3600 BC. TheHypogeum of Ħal-Saflieni,Paola, Malta, is a subterranean structure excavated around 2500 BC; originally a sanctuary, it became anecropolis, the only prehistoric underground temple in the world, and shows a degree of artistry in stone sculpture unique in prehistory to the Maltese islands. After 2500 BC, these islands were depopulated for several decades until the arrival of a new influx ofBronze Age immigrants, a culture thatcremated its dead and introduced smaller megalithic structures calleddolmens to Malta.[50] In most cases there are small chambers here, with the cover made of a large slab placed on upright stones. They are claimed to belong to a population different from that which built the previous megalithic temples. It is presumed the population arrived fromSicily because of the similarity of Maltese dolmens to some small constructions found there.[51]
With some exceptions, population levels rose rapidly at the beginning of the Neolithic until they reached thecarrying capacity.[52] This was followed by a population crash of "enormous magnitude" after 5000 BC, with levels remaining low during the next 1,500 years.[52] Populations began to rise after 3500 BC, with further dips and rises occurring between 3000 and 2500 BC but varying in date between regions.[52] Around this time is theNeolithic decline, when populations collapsed across most of Europe, possibly caused by climatic conditions, plague, or mass migration.[53]
Settled life, encompassing the transition from foraging to farming and pastoralism, began in South Asia in the region ofBalochistan, Pakistan, around 7,000 BC.[54][55][56] At the site ofMehrgarh, Balochistan, presence can be documented of the domestication of wheat and barley, rapidly followed by that of goats, sheep, and cattle.[57] In April 2006, it was announced in the scientific journalNature that the oldest (and firstEarly Neolithic) evidence for the drilling of teethin vivo (usingbow drills andflint tips) was found in Mehrgarh.[58]
In South India, the Neolithic began by 6500 BC and lasted until around 1400 BC when the Megalithic transition period began. South Indian Neolithic is characterized by Ash mounds[clarification needed] from 2500 BC inKarnataka region, expanded later toTamil Nadu.[59]
Neolithic artifacts from China
In East Asia, the earliest sites include theNanzhuangtou culture around 9500–9000 BC,[60]Pengtoushan culture around 7500–6100 BC, andPeiligang culture around 7000–5000 BC. Theprehistoric Beifudi site nearYixian in Hebei Province, China, contains relics of a culture contemporaneous with theCishan andXinglongwa cultures of about 6000–5000 BC, Neolithic cultures east of theTaihang Mountains, filling in an archaeological gap between the two Northern Chinese cultures. The total excavated area is more than 1,200 square yards (1,000 m2; 0.10 ha), and the collection of Neolithic findings at the site encompasses two phases.[61] Between 3000 and 1900 BC, theLongshan culture existed in the middle and lowerYellow River valley areas of northern China. Towards the end of the 3rd millennium BC, the population decreased sharply in most of the region and many of the larger centres were abandoned, possibly due to environmental change linked to the end of theHolocene Climatic Optimum.[62]
The 'Neolithic' (defined in this paragraph as using polished stone implements) remains a living tradition in small and extremely remote and inaccessible pockets ofWest Papua. Polished stoneadze and axes are used in the present day (as of 2008[update]) in areas where the availability of metal implements is limited. This is likely to cease altogether in the next few years as the older generation die off and steel blades and chainsaws prevail.[citation needed]
In 2012, news was released about a new farming site discovered inMunam-ri,Goseong,Gangwon Province,South Korea, which may be the earliest farmland known to date in east Asia.[63] "No remains of an agricultural field from the Neolithic period have been found in any East Asian country before, the institute said, adding that the discovery reveals that the history of agricultural cultivation at least began during the period on theKorean Peninsula". The farm was dated between 3600 and 3000 BC. Pottery, stone projectile points, and possible houses were also found. "In 2002, researchers discovered prehistoricearthenware,jade earrings, among other items in the area". The research team will performaccelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) dating to retrieve a more precise date for the site.[64]
InMesoamerica, a similar set of events (i.e., crop domestication and sedentary lifestyles) occurred by around 4500 BC in South America, but possibly as early as 11,000–10,000 BC. These cultures are usually not referred to as belonging to the Neolithic; in North America,different terms are used such asFormative stage instead of mid-late Neolithic,Archaic Era instead of Early Neolithic, andPaleo-Indian for the preceding period.[65]
The Formative stage is equivalent to the Neolithic Revolution period in Europe, Asia, and Africa. In the southwestern United States it occurred from 500 to 1200 AD when there was a dramatic increase in population and development of large villages supported by agriculture based ondryland farming of corn (maize), and later, beans, squash, and domesticated turkeys. During this period the bow and arrow and ceramic pottery were also introduced.[66] In later periods cities of considerable size developed, and some metallurgy by 700 BC.[67]
Australia, in contrast toNew Guinea, has generally been held not to have had a Neolithic period, with ahunter-gatherer lifestyle continuing until the arrival of Europeans. This view can be challenged in terms of the definition of agriculture, but "Neolithic" remains a rarely used and not very useful concept in discussingAustralian prehistory.[68]
During most of the Neolithic age ofEurasia, people lived in smalltribes composed of multiple bands or lineages.[69] There is littlescientific evidence of developedsocial stratification in most Neolithic societies; social stratification is more associated with the laterBronze Age.[70] Although some late Eurasian Neolithic societies formed complex stratified chiefdoms or evenstates, generally states evolved in Eurasia only with the rise of metallurgy, and most Neolithic societies on the whole were relatively simple and egalitarian.[69] Beyond Eurasia, however, states were formed during the local Neolithic in three areas, namely in thePreceramic Andes with theCaral-Supe Civilization,[71][72]Formative Mesoamerica andAncient Hawaiʻi.[73] However, most Neolithic societies were noticeably more hierarchical than theUpper Paleolithic cultures that preceded them and hunter-gatherer cultures in general.[74][75]
Clay human figurine (Fertility goddess) Tappeh Sarab, Kermanshah c. 7000–6100 BC, National Museum of Iran
Thedomestication oflarge animals (c. 8000 BC) resulted in a dramatic increase in social inequality in most of the areas where it occurred;New Guinea being a notable exception.[76] Possession of livestock allowed competition between households and resulted in inherited inequalities of wealth. Neolithic pastoralists who controlled large herds gradually acquired more livestock, and this made economic inequalities more pronounced.[77] However, evidence of social inequality is still disputed, as settlements such asÇatalhöyük reveal a lack of difference in the size of homes and burial sites, suggesting a more egalitarian society with no evidence of the concept of capital, although some homes do appear slightly larger or more elaborately decorated than others.[citation needed]
Families and households were still largely independent economically, and the household was probably the center of life.[78][79] However, excavations inCentral Europe have revealed that early NeolithicLinear Ceramic cultures ("Linearbandkeramik") were building large arrangements ofcircular ditches between 4800 and 4600 BC. These structures (and their later counterparts such ascausewayed enclosures,burial mounds, andhenge) required considerable time and labour to construct, which suggests that some influential individuals were able to organise and direct human labour – though non-hierarchical and voluntary work remain possibilities.
There is a large body of evidence for fortified settlements atLinearbandkeramik sites along theRhine, as at least some villages were fortified for some time with apalisade and an outer ditch.[80][81] Settlements with palisades and weapon-traumatized bones, such as those found at theTalheim Death Pit, have been discovered and demonstrate that "...systematic violence between groups" and warfare was probably much more common during the Neolithic than in the preceding Paleolithic period.[75] This supplanted an earlier view of theLinear Pottery Culture as living a "peaceful, unfortified lifestyle".[82] Violence increased toward the end of this culture which existed at 5500-4500 BCE.[83] In 2024, a study suggested a peaceful explanation to the reduction in the size of male population observed worldwide 5000-3000 years ago.[84]
Control of labour and inter-group conflict is characteristic oftribal groups withsocial rank that are headed by a charismatic individual – either a 'big man' or a proto-chief – functioning as a lineage-group head. Whether a non-hierarchical system of organization existed is debatable, and there is no evidence that explicitly suggests that Neolithic societies functioned under any dominating class or individual, as was the case in thechiefdoms of the EuropeanEarly Bronze Age.[85] Possible exceptions to this include Iraq during theUbaid period and England beginning in the Early Neolithic (4100–3000 BC).[86][87] Theories to explain the apparent implied egalitarianism of Neolithic (and Paleolithic) societies have arisen, notably theMarxist concept ofprimitive communism.[citation needed]
Phylogenies reconstructed from modern genetic data indicates an extreme drop in Y-chromosomal diversity occurred during the Neolithic, witheffective population size for the mitochondria up to 17 times higher than for the Y-chromosomes during this period.[88] The causes of this bottleneck remain poorly understood. At a basic level, it can likely be attributed to a culture-induced change in the distribution of male reproductive success, with possible explanations ranging from an increased incidence of violence and male mortality during the Neolithic[89] to the rise of patrilineal segmentary groups with varying reproductive success due to polygyny.[90]
The shelter of early people changed dramatically from theUpper Paleolithic to the Neolithic era. In the Paleolithic, people did not normally live in permanent constructions. In the Neolithic, mud brick houses started appearing that were coated with plaster.[91] The growth of agriculture made permanent houses far more common. AtÇatalhöyük 9,000 years ago, doorways were made on the roof, with ladders positioned both on the inside and outside of the houses.[91]Stilt-house settlements were common in theAlpine andPianura Padana (Terramare) region.[92] Remains have been found in theLjubljana Marsh inSlovenia and at theMondsee andAttersee lakes inUpper Austria, for example.
ACucuteni-Trypillian culturedeer antlerploughFood and cooking items retrieved at a European Neolithic site:millstones, charred bread, grains and small apples, a clay cooking pot, and containers made of antlers and wood
A significant and far-reaching shift in humansubsistence and lifestyle was to be brought about in areas where cropfarming and cultivation were first developed: the previous reliance on an essentiallynomadichunter-gatherersubsistence technique orpastoral transhumance was at first supplemented, and then increasingly replaced by, a reliance upon the foods produced from cultivated lands. These developments are also believed to have greatly encouraged the growth of settlements, since it may be supposed that the increased need to spend more time and labor in tending crop fields required more localized dwellings. This trend would continue into the Bronze Age, eventually giving rise to permanently settled farmingtowns, and latercities andstates whose larger populations could be sustained by the increased productivity from cultivated lands.
The profound differences in human interactions and subsistence methods associated with the onset of early agricultural practices in the Neolithic have been called theNeolithic Revolution, a termcoined in the 1920s by the Australian archaeologistVere Gordon Childe.
One potential benefit of the development and increasing sophistication of farming technology was the possibility of producing surplus crop yields, in other words, food supplies in excess of the immediate needs of the community. Surpluses could be stored for later use, or possibly traded for other necessities or luxuries. Agricultural life afforded securities that nomadic life could not, and sedentary farming populations grew faster than nomadic.
However, early farmers were also adversely affected in times offamine, such as may be caused bydrought orpests. In instances where agriculture had become the predominant way of life, the sensitivity to these shortages could be particularly acute, affecting agrarian populations to an extent that otherwise may not have been routinely experienced by prior hunter-gatherer communities.[77] Nevertheless, agrarian communities generally proved successful, and their growth and the expansion of territory under cultivation continued.
Another significant change undergone by many of these newly agrarian communities was one ofdiet. Pre-agrarian diets varied by region, season, available local plant and animal resources and degree of pastoralism and hunting. Post-agrarian diet was restricted to a limited package of successfully cultivated cereal grains, plants and to a variable extent domesticated animals and animal products. Supplementation of diet by hunting and gathering was to variable degrees precluded by the increase in population above the carrying capacity of the land and a high sedentary local population concentration. In some cultures, there would have been a significant shift toward increased starch and plant protein. The relative nutritional benefits and drawbacks of these dietary changes and their overall impact on early societal development are still debated.
In addition, increased population density, decreased population mobility, increased continuous proximity to domesticated animals, and continuous occupation of comparatively population-dense sites would have alteredsanitation needs and patterns ofdisease.
The identifying characteristic of Neolithic technology is the use of polished or ground stone tools, in contrast to the flaked stone tools used during the Paleolithic era.
Neolithic people were skilled farmers, manufacturing a range of tools necessary for the tending, harvesting and processing of crops (such assickle blades andgrinding stones) and food production (e.g.pottery, bone implements). They were also skilled manufacturers of a range of other types of stone tools and ornaments, includingprojectile points,beads, andstatuettes. But what allowed forest clearance on a large scale was the polishedstone axe above all other tools. Together with theadze, fashioning wood for shelter, structures andcanoes for example, this enabled them to exploit the newly developed farmland.
Neolithic peoples in the Levant, Anatolia, Syria, northern Mesopotamia andCentral Asia were also accomplished builders, utilizing mud-brick to construct houses and villages. AtÇatalhöyük, houses wereplastered and painted with elaborate scenes of humans and animals. InEurope,long houses built fromwattle and daub were constructed. Elaboratetombs were built for the dead. These tombs are particularly numerous inIreland, where there are many thousand still in existence. Neolithic people in theBritish Isles builtlong barrows andchamber tombs for their dead andcausewayed camps, henges, flint mines andcursus monuments. It was also important to figure out ways of preserving food for future months, such as fashioning relatively airtight containers, and using substances likesalt as preservatives.
Most clothing appears to have been made of animal skins, as indicated by finds of large numbers of bone and antler pins that are ideal for fastening leather.Wool cloth andlinen might have become available during the later Neolithic,[93][94] as suggested by finds of perforated stones that (depending on size) may have served asspindle whorls orloom weights.[95][96][97]
The world's oldest known engineeredroadway, thePost Track inEngland, dates from 3838 BC and the world's oldest freestanding structure is the Neolithic temple ofĠgantija inGozo,Malta.
Periodization:Near East: 6000–3500 BC;Europe: 5000–2000 BC;Elsewhere: varies greatly, depending on region. In the Americas, the Chalcolithic ended as late as the 19th century AD for some peoples.
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