Neolithic as a Historical Period and its Eurasian Variants / Neolit jako historické období a jeho podoby v Eurasii

Abstract

It has become evident that the term Neolithic needs to be expanded to encompass the historical period during which human societies began, in various ways, to break away from a dependence on the products of natural evolution. This change was without doubt due to climatic oscillations which, over several centuries, disrupted the steady life of Palaeolithic hunters. New findings have shattered the unified notion of what was previously termed the Neolithic into a series of regionally and chronologically specific complexes. The first step is to redefine the terms ‘western’ and ‘eastern’ Neolithic according to the different developments that led to the emergence of pottery.