View source for History:8th millennium BC

{{short description|Millennium between 8000 BC and 7001 BC}}
[[File:CatalHoyukSouthArea.JPG|250px|thumb|right|The south area of Çatalhöyük. An archaeological dig is in progress.]] 
[[File:Fertile crescent Neolithic B circa 7500 BC.jpg|thumb|Area of the Fertile Crescent, circa 7500 BC, with main sites.]]
The '''8th millennium BC''' spanned the years 8000 BC to 7001 BC (c. 10 ka to c. 9 ka). In chronological terms, it is the second full millennium of the current [[Earth:Holocene|Holocene]] epoch and is entirely within the [[History:Pre-Pottery Neolithic B|Pre-Pottery Neolithic B]] (PPNB) phase of the Early Neolithic. It is impossible to precisely date events that happened around the time of this millennium and all dates mentioned here are estimates mostly based on geological and anthropological analysis, or by radiometric dating.

==Global environment==
In the [[Earth:Geologic time scale|geologic time scale]], the first [[Physics:Stage (stratigraphy)|stratigraphic stage]] of the [[Earth:Holocene|Holocene]] epoch is the "[[Earth:Greenlandian|Greenlandian]]" from about 9700 BC to the fixed date 6236 BC and so including the whole of the 8th millennium. The Greenlandian followed the [[Earth:Younger Dryas|Younger Dryas]] and essentially featured a climate shift from near-glacial to interglacial, causing glaciers to retreat and sea levels to rise.<ref name="ICC">{{cite web |url=http://www.stratigraphy.org/ICSchart/ChronostratChart2019-05.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.stratigraphy.org/ICSchart/ChronostratChart2019-05.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |title=International Chronostratigraphic Chart |publisher=International Commission on Stratigraphy |last1=Cohen |first1=K. M. |last2=Finney |first2=S. C. |last3=Gibbard |first3=P. L. |last4=Fan |first4=J.-X. |date=May 2019 |access-date=13 November 2019}}</ref><ref name="FRS">{{cite journal |url=http://quaternary.stratigraphy.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Walker-et-al.-2018_Episodes_online.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://quaternary.stratigraphy.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Walker-et-al.-2018_Episodes_online.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |title=Formal ratification of the subdivision of the Holocene Series/Epoch (Quaternary System/Period) |first1=Mike |last1=Walker |first2=Martin J. |last2=Head |first3=Max |last3=Berkelhammer |first4=Svante |last4=Björck |first5=Hai |last5=Cheng |first6=Les |last6=Cwynar |first7=David |last7=Fisher |first8=Vasilios |last8=Gkinis |first9=Antony |last9=Long |first10=John |last10=Lowe |first11=Rewi |last11=Newnham |first12=Sune |last12=Olander Rasmussen |first13=Harvey |last13=Weiss |display-authors=3 |journal=Episodes |publisher=Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy (SQS) |date=14 June 2018 |access-date=21 September 2022 |doi=10.18814/epiiugs/2018/018016}} ''This proposal on behalf of the SQS has been approved by the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) and formally ratified by the Executive Committee of the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS)''.</ref> Towards the end of the 8th millennium, the Holocene Climate Optimum (HCO) – also called the Holocene Thermal Maximum (HTM) – began as a warm period lasting roughly 4,000 years until about 3000 BC. [[Astronomy:Solar irradiance|Insolation]] during summers in the northern hemisphere was unusually strong with pronounced warming in the higher latitudes such as Greenland, northern Canada and northern Europe with a resultant reduction in Arctic sea ice.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Park |first1=Hyo-Seok |last2=Kim |first2=Seong-Joong |last3=Stewart |first3=Andrew L. |last4=Son |first4=Seok-Woo |last5=Seo |first5=Kyong-Hwan |title=Mid-Holocene Northern Hemisphere warming driven by Arctic amplification |journal=Science Advances |volume=5 |issue=12 |date=11 December 2019 |pages=eaax8203 |publisher=American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) |location=Washington, DC |doi=10.1126/sciadv.aax8203 |pmid=31844667 |pmc=6905875 |bibcode=2019SciA....5.8203P |doi-access=free }}</ref>

During the 8th millennium, there were [[Earth:List of Quaternary volcanic eruptions|four known volcanic eruptions]] which registered magnitude 5 or 6 on the [[Earth:Volcanic Explosivity Index|Volcanic Explosivity Index]] (VEI). These were at Rotoma Caldera in [[Earth:New Zealand|New Zealand]]'s [[Earth:Taupō Volcanic Zone|Taupō Volcanic Zone]] about 7560 BC; Lvinaya Past in the Kuril Islands about 7480 BC; [[Earth:Mount Pinatubo|Pinatubo]] on the island of Luzon in the {{wipe|Philippines}} about 7460 BC; and Fisher Caldera, on Unimak Island in the Aleutians about 7420 BC.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://volcano.si.edu/list_volcano_holocene.cfm |title=Holocene Volcano List |work=Global Volcanism Program |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |year=2013 |access-date=7 January 2021}}</ref> The biggest eruption was at Fisher Caldera, VEI 6, producing more than {{convert|50|km3|abbr=on}} of tephra.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://volcano.si.edu/volcano.cfm?vn=373010 |title=Grímsvötn |work=Global Volcanism Program |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |year=2013 |access-date=7 January 2021}}</ref>

The date of c. 7640 BC has been theorised for the impact of [[Earth:Tollmann's hypothetical bolide|Tollmann's hypothetical bolide]] with Earth. The hypothesis holds that there was a resultant global cataclysm such as the legendary Universal Deluge. Bolides are [[Astronomy:Asteroid|asteroid]]s or [[Astronomy:Comet|comet]]s.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kristan-Tollmann |first1=E. |last2=Tollmann |first2=A. |year=1994 |title=The youngest big impact on Earth deduced from geological and historical evidence |doi=10.1111/j.1365-3121.1994.tb00656.x |journal=Terra Nova |volume=6 |issue=2 |pages=209–217|bibcode=1994TeNov...6..209K}}</ref>

According to radiometric dates, the main occupation phases recognized at Shillourokambos took place between the end of the [[History:9th millennium BC|9th millennium BC]] and the end of this millennium, long before the Khirokitia Culture.<ref name="Like a Bull in a Chine Shop: Identity and Ideology in Neolithic Cyprus.">Le Brun, Alain. "Like a Bull in a Chine Shop: Identity and Ideology in Neolithic Cyprus." Archaeological Perspectives on the Transmission and Transformation of Culture in the Eastern Mediterranean, edited by Joanne Clarke, Council for British Research in the Levant (CBRL), 2005, pp. 113–17. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv310vqks.19. Accessed 3 Feb. 2023.</ref> The fact remains that its disappearance in the Middle Phase at Shillourokambos, in the second half of this millennium, is not an isolated incident but one of a number of expressions of a deep cultural change.<ref name="Like a Bull in a Chine Shop: Identity and Ideology in Neolithic Cyprus.">Le Brun, Alain. "Like a Bull in a Chine Shop: Identity and Ideology in Neolithic Cyprus." Archaeological Perspectives on the Transmission and Transformation of Culture in the Eastern Mediterranean, edited by Joanne Clarke, Council for British Research in the Levant (CBRL), 2005, pp. 113–17. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv310vqks.19. Accessed 3 Feb. 2023.</ref>

==Population and communities==
Outside the Near East, most people around the world still lived in scattered hunter-gatherer communities which remained firmly in the Palaeolithic.{{sfn|Roberts|1993|p=37}} Within the Near East, [[History:Neolithic|Neolithic]] culture and technology had become established throughout much of the [[Place:Fertile Crescent|Fertile Crescent]] by 8000 BC and was gradually spreading westward, though it is not believed to have reached Europe till about the end of this millennium. Planting and harvesting techniques were transferred through Asia Minor and across the Aegean Sea to Greece and the Balkans. The techniques were, in the main, cultivation of wheats and barleys; and domestication of sheep, goats and cattle.{{sfn|Roberts|1993|p=37}}

The world population was probably stable and slowly increasing. It has been estimated that there were some five million people c. 10,000 BC growing to forty million by 5000 BC and 100 million by 1600 BC. That is an average growth rate of 0.027% p.a. from the beginning of the Neolithic to the Middle Bronze Age.{{Citation needed|reason=The old citation didn't have a link to it, so this needs to be a source that talks about this. If there is not then it will be removed.|date=February 2023}}

==Fertile Crescent==
By c. 7500 BC (see map above right), important sites in or near the Fertile Crescent included [[Place:Tell es-Sultan|Jericho]], 'Ain Ghazal, Huleh, [[Place:Tell Aswad|Tell Aswad]], Tell Abu Hureyra, Tell Qaramel, [[Place:Tell Mureibit|Tell Mureibit]], [[Place:Jerf el Ahmar|Jerf el Ahmar]], Göbekli Tepe, Nevalı Çori, Hacilar, Çatalhöyük, Hallan Çemi Tepesi, Çayönü Tepesi, [[Biology:Shanidar Cave|Shanidar]], Jarmo, Zrebar, Ganj Dareh and Ali Kosh. Jericho in the Jordan Valley continued to be the world's most significant site through this millennium.{{sfn|Bronowski|1973|pp=64–69}} Çatalhöyük (see image) was a large [[History:Neolithic|Neolithic]] and [[Chemistry:Chalcolithic|Chalcolithic]] [[Social:Proto-city|proto-city]] settlement in southern [[Earth:Anatolia|Anatolia]] which flourished from c. 7500 BC until it was abandoned c. 5700 BC.<ref name=Langer>{{cite book |title=An Encyclopedia of World History |editor-last=Langer |editor-first=William L. |edition=5th |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Company |location=Boston, MA |year=1972 |isbn=978-03-95135-92-1 |page=[https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaworl00will/page/9 9] |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaworl00will/page/9 }}</ref>

==Pottery and dating systems==
There was no pottery ''per se'' in the Near East at this time as the potter's wheel had not yet been invented. Rudimentary clay vessels were hand-built, often by means of coiling, and pit fired.{{sfn|Bellwood|2004|p=384}} Dame Kathleen Kenyon was the principal archaeologist at [[Place:Tell es-Sultan|Tell es-Sultan]] (ancient Jericho) and she discovered that there was no pottery there.{{sfn|Mithen|2003|p=60}}<ref name="Dever">{{cite journal |last=Dever |first=William G. |title=Kathleen Kenyon (1906–1978): A Tribute |journal=Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research |volume=232 |publisher=American Schools of Oriental Research |pages=3–4 |year=1978|doi=10.1086/BASOR1356696 |s2cid=167007661 }}</ref> The vessels she found were made from stone and she reasonably surmised that others made from wood or vegetable fibres would have long since decayed.{{sfn|Mithen|2003|p=60}}<ref name="Dever"/> The first chronological pottery system had been devised by Sir Arthur Evans for his [[History:Bronze Age|Bronze Age]] findings at Knossos and Kenyon used this as a benchmark for the Near East Neolithic. She divided the period into phases called Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA), from c. 10,000 BC to c. 8800 BC; [[History:Pre-Pottery Neolithic B|Pre-Pottery Neolithic B]] (PPNB), which includes the entire 8th millennium, from c. 8800 BC to c. 6500 BC; and then [[History:Pottery Neolithic|Pottery Neolithic]] (PN), which had varied start-points from c. 6500 BC until the beginnings of the Bronze Age towards the end of the [[History:4th millennium BC|4th millennium]] (c. 3000 BC).{{sfn|Bellwood|2004|p=384}}{{sfn|Mithen|2003|p=60}}

==Agriculture in the Americas==
It was from c. 8000 BC that agriculture developed throughout the Americas, especially in modern Mexico. There were numerous New World crops, as they are now termed, and domestication began with the [[Biology:Potato|potato]] and the [[Biology:Cucurbita|cucurbita]] (squash) about this time.<ref>{{cite journal |title=A single domestication for potato based on multilocus amplified fragment length polymorphism genotyping |last=Spooner |first=D. M. |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |volume=102 |issue=41 |doi=10.1073/pnas.0507400102 |pmc=1253605 |pages=94–99 |pmid=16203994 |year=2005 |display-authors=0 |bibcode=2005PNAS..10214694S|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Smith |first=Bruce D. |title=Documenting plant domestication: The consilience of biological and archaeological approaches |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America |date=February 2001 |volume=98 |issue=4 |pages=1324–1326 |doi=10.1073/pnas.98.4.1324 |pmid=11171946 |pmc=33375 |bibcode=2001PNAS...98.1324S|doi-access=free }}</ref> Other crops began to be harvested over the next 7,500 years including chili peppers, [[Biology:Maize|maize]], [[Biology:Peanut|peanut]], [[Biology:Avocado|avocado]], [[Biology:Bean|bean]]s, [[Biology:Cotton|cotton]], sunflower, cocoa and [[Biology:Tomato|tomato]].<ref>{{cite book |author=Smith, A. F. |year=1994 |title=The Tomato in America: Early History, Culture, and Cookery |publisher=University of South Carolina Press |page=13 |isbn=978-15-70030-00-0}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Piperno |first1=Dolores R. |last2=Ranere |first2=Anthony J. |last3=Holst |first3=Irene |last4=Iriarte |first4=Jose |last5=Dickau |first5=Ruth |title=Starch grain and phytolith evidence for early ninth millennium BP maize from the Central Balsas River Valley, Mexico |journal=PNAS |volume=106 |issue=13 |year=2009 |doi=10.1073/pnas.0812525106 |pages=5019–5024 |pmid=19307570 |pmc=2664021 |bibcode=2009PNAS..106.5019P|doi-access=free }}</ref>

==Other cultural developments==
The Mount Sandel Mesolithic site in Ireland is dated to c. 7900–7600 BC. This was long thought to be the earliest human activity on the island, until the discovery of the [[Earth:Alice and Gwendoline Cave|Alice and Gwendoline Cave]] pushed the date back to 10,000 BC.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/environment/another-life-the-case-of-the-kneecapped-bear-1.2617890 |last=Viney |first=Michael |title=Another Life: The case of the knee-capped bear |publisher=The Irish Times Ltd |location=Dublin |date=23 April 2016 |access-date=8 January 2021}}</ref>

The date for construction of a round-house near Howick, Northumberland is calculated c. 7600 BC by [[Physics:Radiocarbon dating|radiocarbon dating]]. The site is believed to have been occupied for about 100 years.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/archaeology/oldest_house_01.shtml |last=Richards |first=Julian |title=Britain's Oldest House? |work=BBC History |publisher=BBC |location=London |date=17 February 2011 |access-date=8 January 2021}}</ref>

The ''Homo sapiens'' fossil from Combe-Capelle in southern France, discovered in 1909, is estimated to be 9,500 years old (c. 7500 BC).<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hoffmann |first1=Almut |last2=Hublin |first2=Jean-Jacques |last3=Huels |first3=Matthias |last4=Terberger |first4=Thomas |title=The Homo aurignaciensis hauseri from Combe-Capelle – A Mesolithic burial |journal=Journal of Human Evolution |volume=61 |issue=2 |date=2011 |publisher=Elsevier |location=Amsterdam |pages=211–214 |doi=10.1016/j.jhevol.2011.03.001|pmid=21486678 }}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
* {{cite book |last=Bellwood |first=Peter |title=First Farmers: The Origins of Agricultural Societies |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k1mzyCEOAUIC |date=November 30, 2004 |publisher=[[Company:Wiley-Blackwell|Wiley-Blackwell]] |page=384 |isbn=978-06-31205-66-1}}
* {{cite book |last=Bronowski |first=Jacob |title=The Ascent of Man |year=1973 |publisher=BBC |location=London |isbn=978-18-49901-15-4}}
* {{cite book |last=Mithen |first=Steven |year=2003 |title=After The Ice |location=London |publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson |isbn=978-07-53813-92-8}}
* {{cite book |last=Roberts |first=J. M. |title=Shorter Illustrated History of the World |year=1993 |publisher=Helicon Publishing Ltd |location=Abingdon |isbn=978-01-95115-04-8}}


[[Category:8th millennium BC| ]]

{{Sourceattribution|8th millennium BC}}