6th millennium BC

Last updated

Millennia:
Centuries:
  • 60th century BC
  • 59th century BC
  • 58th century BC
  • 57th century BC
  • 56th century BC
  • 55th century BC
  • 54th century BC
  • 53rd century BC
  • 52nd century BC
  • 51st century BC

The 6th 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 the felling dates for some construction timbers from Neolithic wells in Central Europe.

Contents

This millennium is reckoned to mark the end of the global deglaciation which had followed the Last Glacial Maximum and caused sea levels to rise by some 60 m (200 ft) over a period of about 5,000 years.

Overview

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 in prehistoric Egypt and the Far East. In much of the world, however, including Northern and Western Europe, people still lived in scattered Palaeolithic/Mesolithic hunter-gatherer communities. The world population is believed to have increased sharply, possibly quadrupling, as a result of the Neolithic 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]

Europe

It has been estimated that humans first settled in Malta c. 5900 BC, arriving across the Mediterranean from both Europe and North Africa. [2]

Use of pottery found near Tbilisi is evidence that grapes were being used for winemaking c. 5980 BC. [3]

Evidence of cheese-making in Poland is dated c. 5500 BC. [4]

Four identified cultures starting around 5300 BC were the Dnieper-Donets, the Narva (eastern Baltic), the Ertebølle (Denmark and northern Germany), and the Swifterbant (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]

North Asia

According to Vasily Radlov, among the Paleo-Siberian inhabitants of Central Siberia and Southern Siberia were the Yeniseians, of whom the Kets are considered the last remainder. The Yeniseians were followed by the Uralic Samoyeds, who came from the northern Ural region. Proto-Uralic is the unattested reconstructed language ancestral to the modern Uralic language family. The hypothetical language is thought to have been originally spoken in a small area in about 7000–2000 BC, and expanded to give differentiated protolanguages. Some newer research has pushed the "Proto-Uralic homeland" east of the Ural Mountains into Western Siberia. [8]

Polities harbouring the Uralic peoples thrive. The shores of all Siberian lakes, which filled the depressions during the Lacustrine period, abound in remains dating from the Neolithic age.[ citation needed ] Countless kurgans (tumuli), furnaces, and other archaeological artifacts bear witness to a dense population. Some of the earliest artifacts found in Central 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 the Amnya 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 into Asia, settling in areas such as the Altai 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 (see Mount Mazama), which remained preserved in the oral history of the North American cultures to this day. [10]

Na-Dené-speaking peoples finally entered North America starting around 8000 BCE, reaching the Pacific Northwest by 5000 BCE, [11] and from there migrating along the Pacific 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 from Ancient North Eurasians long ago, continue to expand Westwards from Central Russia. 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 (the Kurgan hypothesis) and that Uralic speakers may have been established in the Pit-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 English cow) and "grain", *bʰars- (compare English barley). 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.

Indo-European cultures in Central Asia flourish, these cultures are the: Middle Volga culture (followed by the Samara culture at the turn of the millennium), the contemporary Dnieper–Donets culture. From around 5200 BC, the patriarchal Dnieper-Donets culture leaves the Mesolithic hunter-gatherer lifestyle and begins keeping cattle, sheep and goats. [13] Other domestic animals kept included pigs, horses and dogs. [14]

South Asia

Junglefowl were domesticated around c. 5500 BC in Southeast Asia. [15]

East Asia

The Zhaobaogou culture in China began c. 5400 BC. It was in the north-eastern part of the country, primarily in the Luan River valley in Inner Mongolia and northern Hebei. [16]

The Yangshao culture (Chinese :仰韶文化; pinyin :Yǎngsháo wénhuà) was a Neolithic culture that existed extensively along the middle reaches of the Yellow River in China 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 the Majiayao culture, and then further to Xinjiang and Central Asia along a proto-Silk Road. [17]

Banpo bowl.jpg
Banpo motif (B&W).png
Bowl of the Banpo culture (first stage of the Yangshao culture), with geometrial human face motif and fish, 4500–3500 BC, Shaanxi. [18] [19] [20]

Oceania

Indigenous Australians in what is now southwestern Victoria were farming and smoking eels as a food source and trade good using stone weirs, canals, and woven traps around 6000 BC. [21]

Environmental changes

The early 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]

Approximately 8,000 years ago (c. 6000 BC), a massive volcanic landslide off Mount Etna, Sicily, caused a megatsunami that devastated the eastern Mediterranean coastline on the continents of Asia, Africa and Europe. [24]

In South America, a large eruption occurred at Cueros de Purulla c. 5870 BC, forming a buoyant cloud and depositing the Cerro Paranilla Ash in the Calchaquí Valleys. [25] A cataclysmic volcanic eruption occurred c. 5700 BC in Oregon when 12,000-foot (3,700 m) high Mount Mazama created Crater Lake as the resulting caldera filled with water. [26] Another major eruption occurred c. 5550 BC on Mount Takahe, Antarctica, possibly creating an ozone hole in the region. [27]

The carbon-14 content in tree rings created c. 5480 BC indicates an abnormal level of solar activity. [28]

Astronomy and calendars

Mosaic of Creation of Adam from Monreale Cathedral - dated year 1 A.M. (September 5509 BC) in the Byzantine calendar. Monreale creation Adam.jpg
Mosaic of Creation of Adam from Monreale Cathedral - dated year 1 A.M. (September 5509 BC) in the Byzantine calendar.

The epoch of the Byzantine calendar, used in the Byzantine Empire and many Christian Orthodox countries, is equivalent to 1 September 5509 BC on the Julian proleptic calendar (see image). [29]

The 6th millennium BC falls entirely within the Astrological Age of Gemini (c. 6450 BC to c. 4300 BC) according to some astrologers. [30]

According to Gregory of Tours God created the world 5597 years prior to the death of Martin of Tours, which would be 5200 BC. [31]

Related Research Articles

The Chalcolithic was an archaeological period characterized by the increasing use of smelted copper. It followed the Neolithic and preceded the Bronze Age. It occurred at different periods in different areas, but was absent in some parts of the world, such as Russia, where there was no well-defined Copper Age between the Stone and Bronze Ages. Stone tools were still predominantly used during this period.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mesolithic</span> Prehistoric period, second part of the Stone Age

The Mesolithic or Middle Stone Age is the Old World archaeological period between the Upper Paleolithic and the Neolithic. The term Epipaleolithic is often used synonymously, especially for outside northern Europe, and for the corresponding period in the Levant and Caucasus. The Mesolithic has different time spans in different parts of Eurasia. It refers to the final period of hunter-gatherer cultures in Europe and the Middle East, between the end of the Last Glacial Maximum and the Neolithic Revolution. In Europe it spans roughly 15,000 to 5,000 BP; in the Middle East roughly 20,000 to 10,000 BP. The term is less used of areas farther east, and not at all beyond Eurasia and North Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">5th millennium BC</span> Millennium between [5000 BC - 4000 BC)

The 5th millennium BC spanned the years, that is, inclusive of 5000 BC but exclusive of 4000 BC. 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neolithic Europe</span> Era of pre-history

The European Neolithic is the period from the arrival of Neolithic technology and the associated population of Early European Farmers in Europe, c. 7000 BC until c. 2000–1700 BC. The Neolithic overlaps the Mesolithic and Bronze Age periods in Europe as cultural changes moved from the southeast to northwest at about 1 km/year – this is called the Neolithic Expansion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yangshao culture</span> 5000–3000 BC Chinese archaeological culture

The Yangshao culture was a Neolithic culture that existed extensively along the middle reaches of the Yellow River in China from around 5000 BC to 3000 BC. The culture is named after the Yangshao site, the first excavated site of this culture, which was discovered in 1921 in the town of Yangshao in western Henan by the Swedish geologist Johan Gunnar Andersson (1874–1960). The culture flourished mainly in Henan, as well as the neighboring provinces of Shaanxi and Shanxi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andronovo culture</span> Group of Bronze Age cultures, 2000–900 BC

The Andronovo culture is a collection of similar local Late Bronze Age cultures that flourished c. 2000–1150 BC, spanning from the southern Urals to the upper Yenisei River in central Siberia and western Xinjiang in the east. In the south, the Andronovo sites reached Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. It is almost universally agreed among scholars that the Andronovo culture was Indo-Iranian. Some researchers have preferred to term it an archaeological complex or archaeological horizon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Comb Ceramic culture</span> Ancient northeast European culture

The Comb Ceramic culture or Pit-Comb Ware culture, often abbreviated as CCC or PCW, was a northeast European culture characterised by its Pit–Comb Ware. It existed from around 4200 BCE to around 2000 BCE. The bearers of the Comb Ceramic culture are thought to have still mostly followed the Mesolithic hunter-gatherer lifestyle, with traces of early agriculture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prehistoric Europe</span>

Prehistoric Europe refers to Europe before the start of written records, beginning in the Lower Paleolithic. As history progresses, considerable regional unevenness in cultural development emerges and grows. The region of the eastern Mediterranean is, due to its geographic proximity, greatly influenced and inspired by the classical Middle Eastern civilizations, and adopts and develops the earliest systems of communal organization and writing. The Histories of Herodotus is the oldest known European text that seeks to systematically record traditions, public affairs and notable events.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Majiayao culture</span> 3300–2000 BC Chinese archaeological culture

The Majiayao culture was a group of neolithic communities who lived primarily in the upper Yellow River region in eastern Gansu, eastern Qinghai and northern Sichuan, China. The culture existed from 3300 to 2000 BC. The Majiayao culture represents the first time that the upper Yellow River region was widely occupied by agricultural communities and it is famous for its painted pottery, which is regarded as a peak of pottery manufacturing at that time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dnieper–Donets culture</span> Prehistoric culture north of the Black Sea c. 5000–4200 BCE

The Dnieper–Donets culture complex (DDCC) is a Mesolithic and later Neolithic archaeological culture found north of the Black Sea and dating to ca. 5000-4200 BC. It has many parallels with the Samara culture, and was succeeded by the Sredny Stog culture.

The Afanasievo culture, or Afanasevo culture, is an early archaeological culture of south Siberia, occupying the Minusinsk Basin and the Altai Mountains during the eneolithic era, c. 3300 to 2500 BCE. It is named after a nearby mountain, Gora Afanasieva in what is now Bogradsky District, Khakassia, Russia, first excavated by archaeologist Sergei Teploukhov in 1920-1929. Afanasievo burials have been found as far as Shatar Chuluu in central Mongolia, confirming a further expansion about 1,500 km beyond the Altai Mountains. The Afanasievo culture is now considered as an integral part of the Prehistory of Western and Central Mongolia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Banpo</span> Archaeological site in Shaanxi, China

Banpo is a Neolithic archaeological site located in the Yellow River valley, east of present-day Xi'an, China. Discovered in 1953 by Shi Xingbang, the site represents the first phase of the Yangshao culture and features the remains of several well organized settlements—including Jiangzhai, which has been radiocarbon dated to c. 4700 – c. 3600 BCE). An area of 5 to 6 hectares was surrounded by a ditch, probably a defensive moat 5 to 6 meters wide. The houses at Banpo were circular, built of mud and wood on low foundations, with overhanging thatched roofs. There also appear to have been communal burials.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bug–Dniester culture</span> Archaeological culture

The Bug–Dniester culture was an archaeological culture that developed in and around the Central Black Earth Region of Moldavia and Ukraine, around the Dniester and Southern Bug rivers, during the Neolithic era.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Proto-Indo-European homeland</span> Prehistoric "Urheimat" of the Indo-European languages

The Proto-Indo-European homeland was the prehistoric linguistic homeland of the Proto-Indo-European language (PIE). From this region, its speakers migrated east and west, and formed the proto-communities of the different branches of the Indo-European language family.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prehistory of Siberia</span>

The Prehistory of Siberia is marked by several archaeologically distinct cultures. In the Chalcolithic, the cultures of western and southern Siberia were pastoralists, while the eastern taiga and the tundra were dominated by hunter-gatherers until the Late Middle Ages and even beyond. Substantial changes in society, economics and art indicate the development of nomadism in the Central Asian steppes in the first millennium BC.

Okunev culture, also known as Okunevo culture, was a south Siberian archaeological culture of pastoralists from the early Bronze Age dated from the end of the 3rd millennium BC to the early 2nd millennium BC in the Minusinsk Basin on the middle and upper Yenisei. It was formed from the local Neolithic Siberian forest cultures, who also showed evidence of admixture from Western Steppe Herders and pre-existing Ancient North Eurasians.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neolithic Greece</span> Greece from 7000–3200 BC

Neolithic Greece is an archaeological term used to refer to the Neolithic phase of Greek history beginning with the spread of farming to Greece in 7000–6500 BC, and ending around 3200 BC. During this period, many developments occurred such as the establishment and expansion of a mixed farming and stock-rearing economy, architectural innovations, as well as elaborate art and tool manufacturing. Neolithic Greece is part of the Prehistory of Southeastern Europe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Proto-Uralic homeland</span> Location where the Proto-Uralic language originated

The Proto-Uralic homeland is the earliest location in which the Proto-Uralic language was spoken, before its speakers dispersed geographically causing it to diverge into multiple languages. Various locations have been proposed and debated, although as of 2022 "scholarly consensus now gravitates towards a relatively recent provenance of the Uralic languages east of the Ural mountains".

The Kama culture is an Eastern European Subneolithic archaeological culture from the 6th-4th millennium BC. The area covers the Kama, Vyatka and the Ik-Belaya watershed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neolithic Italy</span> Italian Peninsula during the Neolithic

Neolithic Italy refer to the period that spanned from circa 6000 BCE, when Neolithic influences from the east reached the Italian peninsula and the surrounding island bringing the Neolithic Revolution, to circa 3500-3000 BCE, when metallurgy began to spread.

References

  1. ↑ Biraben, Jean-Noël (1979). "Essai sur l'évolution du nombre des hommes". Population. 34–1 (1): 13–25. doi:10.2307/1531855. JSTOR   1531855.
  2. ↑ "700 years added to Malta's history". Times of Malta . 16 March 2018. Retrieved 1 June 2019.
  3. ↑ "'World's oldest wine' found in 8,000-year-old jars in Georgia". BBC News. 13 November 2017. Retrieved 1 June 2019.
  4. ↑ Subbaraman, Nidhi (12 December 2012). "Art of cheese-making is 7,500 years old". Nature. Macmillan. doi:10.1038/nature.2012.12020. S2CID   180646880 . Retrieved 1 June 2019.
  5. ↑ Gronenborn, Detlef (2007). "Beyond the models: Neolithisation in Central Europe". Proceedings of the British Academy. 144: 73–98.
  6. ↑ 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. ISBN   978-9402404654.
  7. ↑ 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. ISBN   9780691148182.
  8. ↑ Grünthal, Riho; Heyd, Volker; Holopainen, Sampsa; Janhunen, Juha; Khanina, Olga; Miestamo, Matti; Nichols, Johanna; Saarikivi, Janne; Sinnemäki, Kaius (29 August 2022). "Drastic demographic events triggered the Uralic spread". Diachronica. 39 (4): 490–524. doi:10.1075/dia.20038.gru. hdl: 10138/347633 . ISSN   0176-4225. S2CID   248059749.
  9. ↑ Philip W. Goetz (1991), The New Encyclopædia Britannica, p. 724, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
  10. ↑ Nunn, Patrick (28 August 2018). "Eye-witnesses call from millennia past". Cosmos . Royal Institution of Australia. Retrieved 26 February 2024.
  11. ↑ Drummond, D. E. (October 1969). "Toward a Pre-History of the Na-Dene, with a General Comment on Population Movements among Nomadic Hunters". American Anthropologist New Series. 71 (5). American Anthropological Association: 857–863. JSTOR   670070 . Retrieved 30 March 2010.
  12. ↑ Carpelan & Parpola 2001:79
  13. ↑ Anthony 2010, pp. 174–182.
  14. ↑
  15. ↑ Concise History of Science & Invention: An Illustrated Time Line. National Geographic Books. 2010. p. 24. ISBN   978-1-4262-0544-6.
  16. ↑ Stark, Miriam T. (26 August 2005). Archaeology of Asia. Blackwell. p. 129. ISBN   1-4051-0213-6.
  17. ↑ 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 . S2CID   234007445. 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
  18. ↑ "Painted Pottery Basin with Fish and Human Face Design, National Museum of China". National Museum of China.
  19. ↑ Valenstein, Suzanne G. (1989). A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics. Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN   978-0-8109-1170-3.
  20. ↑ Major, John S.; Cook, Constance A. (22 September 2016). Ancient China: A History. Routledge. p. 60. ISBN   978-1-317-50365-1.
  21. ↑ Flood, Josephine (2004). Archaeology of the dreamtime: the story of prehistoric Australia and its people (revised ed.). Marleston, South Australia: J. B. Publishing. ISBN   1-876622-50-4. OCLC   61479845.
  22. ↑ Smith, D. E.; Harrison, S.; Firth, C. R.; Jordan, J. T. (July 2011). "The early Holocene sea level rise". Quaternary Science Reviews . 30 (15–16). Elsevier: 1846–1860. Bibcode:2011QSRv...30.1846S. doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2011.04.019.
  23. ↑ 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. ISBN   978-90-481-2638-5.
  24. ↑ Pareschi, M. T.; Boschi, E.; Favalli, M. (2006). "Lost tsunami". Geophysical Research Letters. 33 (22): L22608. Bibcode:2006GeoRL..3322608P. doi: 10.1029/2006GL027790 .
  25. ↑ Fernandez-Turiel, J. L.; Perez-Torrado, F. J.; Rodriguez-Gonzalez, A.; Saavedra, J.; Carracedo, J. C.; Rejas, M.; Lobo, A.; Osterrieth, M.; Carrizo, J. I.; Esteban, G.; Gallardo, J.; Ratto, N. (8 May 2019). "La gran erupción de hace 4.2 ka cal en Cerro Blanco, Zona Volcánica Central, Andes: nuevos datos sobre los depósitos eruptivos holocenos en la Puna sur y regiones adyacentes". Estudios Geológicos (in Spanish). 75 (1): 21. doi: 10.3989/egeol.43438.515 . hdl: 10553/69940 . ISSN   1988-3250.
  26. ↑ "Geology and History Summary for Mount Mazama and Crater Lake". Volcano Hazards Program. United States Geological Survey. 3 November 2017. Retrieved 1 June 2019.
  27. ↑ "Takahe". Global Volcanism Program . Smithsonian Institution.
  28. ↑ Miyake, Fusa; Jull, A. J. Timothy; Panyushkina, Irina P.; Wacker, Lukas; Salzer, Matthew; Baisan, Christopher H.; et al. (31 January 2017). "Large 14C excursion in 5480 BC indicates an abnormal sun in the mid-Holocene". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA. 114 (5). National Academy of Sciences: 881–884. Bibcode:2017PNAS..114..881M. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1613144114 . PMC   5293056 . PMID   28100493.
  29. ↑ Stephenson, Paul. "Translations from Byzantine Sources: The Imperial Centuries, c.700–1204: John Skylitzes, "Synopsis Historion": The Year 6508, in the 13th Indiction: the Byzantine dating system". November 2006.
  30. ↑ Mann, Neil (24 May 2007). "The Astrological Great Year" . Retrieved 1 June 2019.
  31. ↑ Gregory of Tours (1916) [594], History of the Franks, Pantianos Classics, 1916
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