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PAS T T O P R E S E N T

NEOLITHIC PERIOD
( Beginning c. 9000 BCE )

The Basics:
This was the final stage of cultural evolution or technological development among prehistoric humans.
It was characterized by stone tools shaped by polishing or grinding, dependence on domesticated plants
or animals, settlement in permanent villages, and the appearance of such crafts as pottery and weaving.
The Neolithic followed the Paleolithic Period, or age of chipped-stone tools, and preceded the Bronze
Age, or early period of metal tools.

The Neolithic followed the terminal Holocene Epipalaeolithic periods, beginning with the rise of
agriculture, which produced the "Neolithic Revolution,” ending when metal tools became widespread
in the Bronze Age or developing directly into the Iron Age, depending on geographical region.
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Archaeological evidence indicates that the transition from food-collecting cultures to food-producing
ones gradually occurred across Asia and Europe from a starting point in the Fertile Crescent.
Cultivation and animal domestication first appeared in southwestern Asia by about 9000 bc, and a way
of life based on farming and settled villages had been firmly achieved by 7000 bc in the Tigris and
Euphrates river valleys (now in Iraq and Iran) and in what are now Syria, Israel, Lebanon, and Jordan.

The Neolithic is not specifically a chronological period, but rather a suite of behavioural and cultural
characteristics, including the use of wild and domestic crops and the use of domesticated animals. The
term is most commonly used to refer to the Old World, because it raises problems when applied to
cultures in the Americas and Oceania that did not fully develop metal-working technology.

Attributes of Spirituality and Religion:

The Neolithic Religion was the major religion during the main Neolithic Period in Europe. There
appeared to be veneration of a Mother Goddess/Father God, the Serpent, the Sun and the Moon. This
religion appears to have been the ancestor of the Indo-European Religion and the Afro-Asiatic Religion
(See Indo-European/Semitic religious similarities). Neolithic - Origins. The Neolithic Religion
probably has its roots in the Upper Paleolithic, the Mother Goddess herself from the Venus figurines of
Eurasia.

Neolithic Deities:
• Sky God: Indo-European: *Dyeus (sky God), Semitic: *Ilu (sky god)
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• Mother Goddess: Indo-European: *Dg'hōm (Earth Goddess), Semitic: Atiratu (fertility goddess)
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• Thunder God: Indo-European: *Perkwunos / *Tarun, Semitic: *Haddu / *Ba'lu
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• God of Death and the Underworld: Indo-European: *Yemnos[1], Semitic: Yaw
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• Sun Goddess in Sun Boat: Indo-European: *Sawelyosyo, Semitic: *Śamšu, Pre-Indo-European:
 (See Stonehenge)
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• Moon God: Indo-European: *Ménot, Semitic: *Warihu
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• Spirit of the Home / Area (Dyinni?): Indo-European: Pan / Faunus, Cernunnos, Brownie, Domovoi,
Tomte, Genii, Semitic: Jinn, Se'irim, Teraphim, Tawaret & Bes (Egyptian)
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• Serpent: Indo-European: Jörmungandr, Typhon, Vrtra, Veles, Illuyanka, Semitic: Tiamat, Lotan,
Tannin, Pre-Indo-European: See Ley lines (possibly related)
•
Neolithic Others:
• 'Earth-Man': Indo-European: Manu (from *Dg'hōm-on, sometimes a god), Semitic: Adapas and
`Adamu (from *`Dm)
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• Axis mundi: Indo-European: World tree, Mount Olympus, Semitic: Trees of Knowledge and Life in
Eden, Mount Sinai, see also Daniel 4:10-12 (possibly a Babylonian version)