9th millennium BC

Updated on Dec 24, 2023

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The 9th millennium BC marks the beginning of the Neolithic period.

Agriculture spread throughout the Fertile Crescent and use of pottery became more widespread. Larger settlements like Jericho arose along salt and flint trade routes. Northern Eurasia was resettled as the glaciers of the last glacial maximum retreated. World population was at a few million people, likely below 5 million.

Events

c. 9000 BC—Mediterranean—Settling on Mediterranean isles started

c. 9000 BC—Laacher See, northwest of Frankfurt, formed when a volcano blows out to form a caldera

c. 9000 BC—Neolithic culture begins in Ancient Near East

c. 9000 BC—Göbekli Tepe—Carved stone hilltop sanctuary in southeastern Turkey

c. 10000 – 8000 BC—Kermanshah region was also one of the first places in which human settlements emerged, including Asiab, Qazanchi, Tappeh Sarab, Chia Jani, and Ganj-Darreh

c. 9000 BC—Jericho is founded

c. 8700 BC – 8400 BC—Britain—Star Carr site in Yorkshire, Britain inhabited by Maglemosian peoples

c. 8500 BC—Great Britain—Mesolithic hunters camp at Cramond, Prehistoric Scotland

c. 8000 BC—Wall of Jericho is built in the city of Jericho, which is already over 1,000 years old

c. 8000 BC—Norway—Øvre Eiker of Norway inhabited

c. 8000 BC—Estonia—Pulli is inhabited as the first known settlement in Estonia

Inventions and discoveries

c. 9000 BC—The first evidence of the keeping of sheep, in northern Iraq

c. 9000 BC—Discovery of copper in Middle East

c. 8500 BC—Natufian culture of Western Mesopotamia is harvesting wild wheat with flint-edged sickles (1967 McEvedy) About this time, boats are invented, and dogs domesticated in Europe (1967 McEvedy)

c. 8500 BC—Andean peoples domesticate chili peppers and two kinds of bean

c. 8000 BC—Mesopotamia—Agriculture in Mesopotamia

c. 8000 BC—Asia—Domestication of the pig in China and Anatolia

c. 8000 BC—Middle East—Domestication of goats

c. 8000 BC—Asia—Evidence of domestication of dogs from wolves

c. 8000 BC—Middle East—Ancient flint tools from north and central Arabia belong to hunter-gatherer societies

c. 8000 BC—Middle East—Clay vessels and modeled human and animal terracotta figurines are produced at Ganj Dareh in western Iran

c. 8000 BC—People of Jericho were making bricks out of clay, then hardened them in the sun; the settlement had grown to 8–10 acres of houses and had substantial walls

Environmental changes

c. 9000 BC: Temporary global chilling, as the Gulf Stream pulls southward, and Europe ices over (1990 Rand McNally Atlas)

References

9th millennium BC Wikipedia

(Text) CC BY-SA

Contents

Events

Inventions and discoveries

Environmental changes

References