This month begins the Neolithic revolution, a complete change in not just the nature of human culture, but also a change in the world itself. Towards the end of the Upper Paleolithic and the Beginning of the Neolithic the Earth underwent a period of massive climate change. The world warmed, ice sheets stretching from the poles or descending from mountains receded, and large areas experienced a massive shift in local climate. For example, the Sahara desert was a sub-tropical savanna prior to the climate change. We know this from not just geological data, but because the people who once lived there left behind images of giraffes, gazelle, and other grassland creatures painted onto or carved into rocks.

It is in this era of global climate change that the Neolithic revolution took place, and as a direct response to pressures placed on populations as available resources shrank or altered dramatically. Humanity makes its largest technological jump, from living off the land to reshaping the land to their needs. Agriculture develops, with its associated changes in lifestyle, social structure and religion. Adding to man’s best and oldest friend, new animals are domesticated such as the cat, ass (true horses were not domesticated until later), sheep, cattle, and goats.

Changing Social Structure

Changes in environment and technology required that social structures change as well, something that we in the modern age can easily understand. However, unlike the changes that have taken place in Western Civilization over the past century, the transformations of the Neolithic were gradual. Old ideas altered and new ones developed to suit the needs of a more settled agrarian lifestyle.

There was now enough surplus food to support specialists, and this is the era when we see the growth of many of the crafts that humanity has taken for granted. No longer is every person needed to contribute to the collection of food and raw materials, some folks can just spend their time doing other things. Potters, weavers, dyers, bakers, brewers, builders, traders, priests and leaders all have their roots in the Neolithic. As populations grow and settle in one area, large scale and long term building projects become possible. Irrigation systems were dug in dry areas, forests were cleared, waterways diverted, and great edifices were constructed.

The old system of gerontocracy or near anarchy would no longer be useful. Someone had to direct the work of craftsman, herders, and farmers; as well as make sure there was a proper allocation of food. This meant that a new position opened up, that of king. Whereas before some cultures had a leader of some sort, ethnographic research has shown that these leaders were more likely first among equals than rulers. The Neolithic revolution required some way for the growing population and shrinking habitat to be managed. Thus steps in the king, though not the king we think of from the European Middle Ages. The first kings ruled over a small territory, probably not more than a village and adjacent lands. The whole system of monarchy was being established, in fact being invented during this period. What is known is that in the Neolithic some people were obviously wealthier and more important than others. We can tell this by the items they were buried with as well as the remains of their living quarters and household goods.

Second only to the king, and often the same person, was the priest. The spirits of yore were replaced during the Neolithic with the concept of godhood, though the line between important spirit and god is a fuzzy one. New ways of worship were required to placate the gods of the field and the herd, to bring rain when needed, and to keep rain away during the harvest season.

Warfare also begins in earnest during the Neolithic, sites designed for defense with earthen ramparts, intricate twisting passageways, and stockpiled weapons can be found dating to the late Neolithic and early Copper ages. People are building permanent structures and establishing territories for agriculture that need to be preserved, even expanded. Toss in the urge for a petty king to become a bigger ruler by gaining land and slaves, and you have the need for a warrior class amongst the various new specialists.

Technological Changes

The largest single technological development of the Neolithic is that of agriculture. The ability to alter the landscape in order to grow the foods you want is one of the greatest revolutionary concepts humanity has ever developed. In some ways, it is the cornerstone of all we as a species have accomplished. Adding to the simple domestication of food crops, useful and tasty animals were also brought out of the wilds and into humanity’s service. Thus the Neolithic era would be better termed the rise of agriculture, for it is this technological leap that made all the others possible. With a stable food supply and increasing population, new needs developed. To fill these needs new technologies were developed. These technologies produced their own needs, which lead to further technological development until today. For example, grains needed to be stored and preserved in some way. Tightly woven baskets allowed for this, but did not protect from dampness or vermin. Two new technologies were invented or developed to solve this problem. First, by domesticating small wild cats and convincing them to live in the granaries, the vermin population could be reduced. Second, the nascent pottery of the Upper Paleolithic became more mature as new forms of pottery design and decoration developed. These new pots could be used to safely store grain, as well as other substances. With grain being stored for lengths of time, a way needed to be found to better process the grain surplus. Humans can’t eat raw grain, and two means of converting it into a digestible and palatable form were developed. Grain can be ground and baked into bread, a process that led to the need for clay ovens, pottery to grow yeast in (once yeast was developed), and new serving vessels. Grain can also be mixed with water, yeast, and flavorings, fermented, and made into beer. Beer is not only provided a safer alternative to water for drinking, but could be stored for longer than bread. Early beers were higher in nutrient value than modern beer, and also lower in alcohol content.

Where Has All the Food Gone?

Game has become scarce, and the usual fields of wild forage have gone barren. The pitiful cries of hungry children (as well as their own empty stomachs) have driven the hunters of your tribe further and further afield. Fourteen days ago six bands of hunters set out to travel in all directions; they hope to find game or forage and send back word and rations to the tribe. It has been thirteen days for your small group of hunters, and you have found nothing. On the morning of the fourteenth day, you rise and spot several columns of smoke on the horizon. Do you investigate, or turn back?

This seed can be used as either the start of a new campaign, or as an adventure for an ongoing Upper Paleolithic campaign. The heroes are adult members of a nomadic hunter-gatherer tribe trying desperately to survive the ecological changes that ushered in the Neolithic era. The smoke they see rising in the distance is the cooking fires of a small village situated in a small river valley. This village practices agriculture, animal husbandry, and has developed technologies and social systems thoroughly Neolithic in form. They will not be friendly towards interlopers, especially those who do not respect their ways and obey their laws.

Play this as a clash of cultures story, with the PCs being the ones that are technologically inferior, though perhaps more free in their ways and thoughts. If the village is one of several, the heroes’ tribe may be caught up in the growth of a petty-kingdom, called upon to provide trade goods in exchange for a strange soft food (bread), or taken as slaves to till the fields. How the PCs and their tribe fit into the changing environment will depend largely on how they interact with these first farmers.

Next month we wrap up our four-part series on the prehistoric with a further look at weapons and tools of the Neolithic, the growth of cities, writing, religion, and another campaign seed. Until then, like an archaeologist you must now turn the soil, and uncover your own bit of prehistory.