| Neolithic | a. [ Neo- + -lith + -ic. ] (Archaeol. & Geol.) Of or pertaining to, or designating, an era characterized by late remains in stone; the late stone age. Estimated as beginning around 9000 b. c. in the Middle East, this period is characterized by the beginnings of farming, the domestication of animals, and the manufacture of textiles and pottery. [ 1913 Webster +PJC ] The Neolithic era includes the latter half of the “Stone age;” the human relics which belong to it are associated with the remains of animals not yet extinct. The kitchen middens of Denmark, the lake dwellings of Switzerland, and the stockaded islands, or “crannogs, ” of the British Isles, belong to this era. Lubbock. [ 1913 Webster ] |
