8th millennium BC

Millennia:	9th millennium BC 8th millennium BC 7th millennium BC
Centuries:	80th century BC 79th century BC 78th century BC 77th century BC 76th century BC 75th century BC 74th century BC 73rd century BC 72nd century BC 71st century BC

In the 8th millennium BC, agriculture became widely practised in the Fertile Crescent and Anatolia.

Pottery became widespread (with independent development in Central America) and animal husbandry (pastoralism) spread to Africa and Eurasia. World population was approximately 5 million.

Events

The south area of Çatalhöyük. An archaeological dig is in progress.

Cave painting in Doushe cave, Lorestan, Iran, 8th millennium BC

The Stone Age
↑ before Homo (Pliocene)
Paleolithic Lower Paleolithic Early Stone Age Homo Control of fire Stone tools Middle Paleolithic Middle Stone Age Homo neanderthalensis Homo sapiens Recent African origin of modern humans Upper Paleolithic Late Stone Age Behavioral modernity, Atlatl, Origin of the domestic dog Mesolithic Microliths, Bow, Canoe Natufian Khiamian Tahunian Heavy Neolithic Shepherd Neolithic Trihedral Neolithic Pre-Pottery Neolithic Neolithic Neolithic Revolution, Domestication Pottery Neolithic Pottery
↓ Chalcolithic

• c. 8083 BC—Comet Hale–Bopp appears in the sky. It comes back in the 6th millennium BC.
• c. 8000 BC—Upper Paleolithic period ends.
• c. 8000 BC—7000 BC—Paleolithic–Neolithic overlap (Mesolithic).
• c. 8000 BC—2300 BC—Neolithic period.
• c. 8000 BC—Settlement in Franchthi Cave in Peloponnese, continues. First evidence of seed and animal stocking (lentils, almonds) and obsidian trade with Melos. The settlement was continuously occupied since 20,000 BC and abandoned in 3000 BC.
• c. 8000 BC—Settlements at Nevali Cori in present-day Turkey are established.
• c. 8000 BC—Asikli Hoyuk (Asikli Hüyük), Cappadocia (central Turkey), established.
• c. 8000 BC—Settlements at Sagalassos in present-day southwest Turkey are established.
• c. 8000 BC—Settlements at Akure in present-day southwest Nigeria are established.
• c. 8000 BC—Settlements at Øvre Eiker and Nedre Eiker in present-day Buskerud, Norway are established.
• c. 8000 BC—Settlements at Ærø, Denmark are established.
• c. 8000 BC—Settlements at Deepcar near present-day Sheffield, England are established.
• c. 8000 BC—North American Arctic is inhabited by hunter-gatherers of the Paleo-Arctic Tradition.
• c. 8000 BC—Pre-Anasazi Paleo-Indians move into present-day Southwest United States.
• c. 8000 BC—Plano cultures inhabit the Great Plains area of North America (from 9th millennium).
• c. 8000 BC—World population: 5,000,000.^[1]
• c. 7500 BC—Settlements at Sand, Applecross on the coast of Wester Ross, Scotland are constructed.
• c. 7500 BC—Çatalhöyük, a very large Neolithic and Chalcolithic settlement in southern Anatolia, is founded.
• c. 7500 BC—Cattle Period begins in the Sahara.
• c. 7500 BC—Mesolithic hunter-gatherers are the first humans to reach Ireland.
• c. 7570 BC—Bhirrana, the earliest Indus Valley site, is settled.
• c. 7370 BC—End of the large settlement at Jericho.
• c. 7200 BC—Cayonu in southeast Turkey: the likely domestication site of emmer wheat, and the first domestic cattle and pigs.
• c. 7200 BC–5000 BC—Ain Ghazal, Jordan is inhabited. 30 acres (120,000 m²).

Environmental changes

Holocene Epoch
↑ Pleistocene
Holocene
Preboreal (10.3–9 ka) Boreal (9–7.5 ka) Atlantic (7.5–5 ka) Subboreal (5–2.5 ka) Subatlantic (2.5 ka–present)

• c. 8000 BC—Glaciers form the rock formation in present-day New Hampshire, formerly known as the Old Man of the Mountain.
• c. 7911 BC—Series of seven massive volcanic eruptions give volcanic skies and lowered temperatures for several centuries (ending 7090 BC). Locations not known, but show in polar ice. (NatGeo1986–9). One possibility is the Phlegraean Fields caldera near Naples, Italy.
• c. 7640 BC—Date theorized for impact of Tollmann's hypothetical bolide with Earth and associated global cataclysm.
• c. 7220 BC—Eruption of Mount Edgecumbe, Alaska.
• Large outflow of fresh water from Black Sea into Aegean Sea.

Inventions, discoveries, introductions

• Rise of agriculture
• The earliest evidence of lentil cropping is in association with wheat and barley at Mureybet in Syria 8500–7500 BC, Hacilar and Çayönü in Turkey 7500–6500 BC^[2]
• Bladed tools found in southwest Iran date from around 8000 BC; they were made from obsidian that had been transported from Anatolia^[3]
• Potatoes and beans are cultivated in South America
• Beginning of millet^[4] and rice cultivation in East Asia
• Domestication of the cat and Bos aegyptiacus ox in Ancient Egypt
• Domestication of sheep in Southwest Asia
• Huts, hearths, granaries, and nonportable stone tools for grinding grains Africa
• Catal Huyuk, men wear animals skins, plus hats of the same material Asia
• Houses, kilns, pottery, turquoise carvings, tools made from stone and bone, and bone flutes China
• Clay and plaster are molded to form statues at Jericho and Ain Ghazal Mediterranean
• First evidence of incised "counting tokens" about 9,000 years ago in the Neolithic fertile crescent, Asia
• Japanese potters begin to decorate pottery cooking vessels
• Simple pottery traditions sometimes with cord impressions or other decorative markings Korea
• Evidence of wheat, barley, sheep, goats, and pigs suggests that a food-producing economy is adopted in Aegean Greece
• Franchthi Cave in the Argolid, Greece, attests to the earliest deliberate burials in Greece
• North Sea: large areas of sea floor exposed in Doggerland Europe
• Pottery making, burial mound construction, and garden technology Mexico
• In the valley of Mexico, chili peppers and "grain" (amaranth and maize) are grown
• World—Between 12,000 BC and 5000 BC it appears that massive inland flooding was taking place in several regions of the world, making for subsequent sea level rises, which could be relatively abrupt for many worldwide

Cultural landmarks

• c. 7600 BC—Howick house in Northumberland, England, is constructed
• c. 7193 BC—According to Korean legend, an alliance of northern tribes under a "Huan" (Hun) ruler predates the establishment of China

References

1. an average of figures from different sources as listed at the U.S. Census Bureau's Historical Estimates of World Population
2. Pulses, Sugar and Tuber Crops by Chittaranjan Kole, 2007, Introduction 5.1.1, page 91, quoting Cubero JI (1981) Origin, taxonomy and domestication. In: Webb C, Hawtin G (eds) Lentils. CAB, Slough, UK, pp. 15–38.
3. Roberts, J: History of the World. Penguin, 1994.
4. Lu, H.; Zhang, J.; Liu, K. -B.; Wu, N.; Li, Y.; Zhou, K.; Ye, M.; Zhang, T.; Zhang, H.; Yang, X.; Shen, L.; Xu, D.; Li, Q. (2009). "Earliest domestication of common millet (Panicum miliaceum) in East Asia extended to 10,000 years ago". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 106 (18): 7367–7372. doi:10.1073/pnas.0900158106. PMC 2678631. PMID 19383791.