From Hunter-Gatherers to First Settlements In Europe

Описание: With the arrival of anatomically modern humans, Cro-Magnons, began the late, Upper Paleolithic, which lasted from 40000 to 11,500 years ago. Like the previous and future historical and archaeological periods, these ranges can vary across the continent and the world, due to varying cultural and technological progress.

With the end of the Ice age of Pleistocene, around 11500 years ago, came the post-glacial period of Holocene - the same geological period in which we live today. At approximately the same time, historians mark the end of the Paleolithic and the beginning of a new period: Mesolithic. In general it could be said that people continued to live as they did in the preceding Paleolithic, while the environment around them changed. The climate warmed, sea level had risen, lakes and marshes began to form, and forests like the mixed oak forest began to spread. Like ice caps that covered large chunks of earth's surface, large animals like mammoths, hairy rhinos and cave bears also disappeared. This was the era of the last hunter-gatherers in the heart of Europe.

Mesolithic came to an end with the establishment of first permanent settlements, agriculture and animal-husbandry, which gradually spread from the Near East. Just as these elements didn’t appear all at once, Mesolithic didn’t end everywhere at the same time. Mesolithic stonework methods, like trapezoid microliths, continued into the Neolithic. But while the Mesolithic hunters used closest sites of flint, even if it was inferior in quality, Neolithic trade enabled imports of higher-quality chert and other materials from far beyond.

What we call now “The Neolithic Revolution”, was a drastic change of the prehistoric lifestyle. People gradually abandoned their hunter-gatherer way of life, and started building permanent settlements. Instead of traveling to different areas in search for food, they started cultivating it right at their doorsteps. This was the origin of agriculture and animal-husbandry in the heart of Europe. People went from passively benefiting from nature to actively transforming it.

These, among many other changes, mark the transition into the Neolithic age - The Late Stone Age. They came gradually, from the 7th to 4th millennium BC, from the Near East and pushed deep into Europe. At first it concentrated in the areas with mild winters, like the Mediterranean, through which the new lifestyle spread relatively quickly. The other route of expansion was centered around the fertile plains with loess soil, like the Balkans, and from there it continued to spread inland along major rivers (Danube, Rhone, Rhine). Waterways were the most important, if not the sole lines of communication with the wider world.

Neolithic ended with the arrival of metal ages, with the Copper age being the first one among them. Just like with the Neolithic, this transition wasn’t sudden.

Timestamps:
0:00 - Arrival of Anatomically modern humans (Homo sapiens sapiens) and Late Paleolithic cultures (Aurignacian, Gravettian, Magdalenian, Epigravettian...)
2:34 - Mesolithic
4:33 - Neolithic Revolution
5:51 - Neolithic Settlements and Lifestyle
7:52 - Neolithic Technology and Culture(s)


Sources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1m...

I hope you learn something new in this video. If you want to see more history videos, feel free to like and subscribe... you know how YouTube works. 👍

Learn more about the history in the heart of Europe:    • History in the heart of Europe  

Edited with Vegas Pro Edit 19

#history #archeology #stoneage #prehistoric #neolithic #paleolithic