Neolithic Period (6000-2900 BC)
During this period farming spread extensively and even live stock was reared. Tools were also manufactured. The settlements were known as hamlets, villages and towns.
The Pre-Ceramic period is also known as Aceramic. There were communities of 50 to 100 people who lived in one room mud houses and they grew crops like barley, peas, einkorn, lentils etc. Hunting, fishing and rearing animals were their main occupation. They also made jewellery and tools from seashells, clay, stone and bone.
In the Early Neolithic period the occupation, houses and the size of community the people lived in were the same. However furnaces were dug and fire was used to make vases. The dead were cremated and there were burial customs.
The Middle Neolithic period had houses that had stone foundations and houses were now bigger and also had porches. The Tsangli’s who were the inhabitants from this period built more planned houses where there were separate rooms for making food, sleeping and also even for storage there was a separate room. This period came to an end because many settlements were destroyed by fire.
The Late Neolithic I and II are known to have the same characteristics. Lands were cleared and utilized for farming and new types of crops such as oat, bread wheat and rye were grown. The size of the communities increased to 300. The people from these periods fenced their houses for defence against wild animals.
The Chalcolithic or the Final Neolithic period also resembled the Late Neolithic with an addition of metals in the communities. The farmers of Greece began to borrow the working techniques with bronze that was developed in Asia Minor.
Greek and Minoan were well-known languages in both Greece and Crete. In the recent excavations there were more than 1,000 Neolithic sites that were uncovered.
Would you like to read more about this topic? This book might interest you: Ancient Greece.