Neolithic Archeological Sites

Read some of the entries on neolithic sites in this Wikipedia list, making sure to look at entries in different major regions: Sub-Saharan Africa, Europe, the Middle East, East Asia, N & S America. Here are some sites I recommend looking at (you don’t have to read the whole entry for every one, just get a sense of how big/important it was, and what time periods are represented–Paleolithic? Mesolithic? Neolithic? Bronze Age?): Catal Hoyuk, Jericho (more than one site), Tell Sabi Abyad, Aşıklı Höyük, Gobekli Teppe, Cucuteni–Trypillia culture (multiple sites, just discuss the culture as a whole), Skara Brae, Skorba, Spirit Cave, Mureybet, Majiayao. Note that the sites are listed in chronological order. See if you can identify a pattern in how the later sites are different from earlier ones (in terms of location, technology & artifacts, &c.)

The writing assignment (300-500 words):

1. Pick one of the following new phenomena that began to appear in the Neolithic period: trade (either long-distance or local), social stratification (some people became richer/higher-status than others), increased division of labor, and urbanism (living in large settlements). Compare the evidence for one of these new phenomena in at least 3 different Neolithic sites (they have to have long Wikipedia entries, if a site has very little information about it, don’t use it). Did this new phenomenon occur in all of the sites you looked at, or just some? Did it happen in similar ways, or with similar consequences, everywhere? Or did (say) social stratification leave different evidence or have different effects in different places. (For example, one type of evidence for social stratification is that in communities with houses, we see some houses are bigger than others. Or, the evidence of a community might consist of graves or tombs, and some tombs contain very valuable objects whereas others do not. What else might be evidence for stratification?)

2. Identify the main types of evidence you’re comparing across the different sites. Include images or links to images if possible.