Neolithic
<p><b >Neolithic Europe</b> refers to a prehistoric period in which <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neolithic" title="Neolithic" >Neolithic</a> technology was present in Europe. This corresponds roughly to a time between 7000 BC (the approximate time of the first farming societies in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greece" title="Greece" >Greece</a>) and c. 1700 BC (the beginning of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bronze_Age" title="Bronze Age" >Bronze Age</a> in<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northwest_Europe" title="Northwest Europe" class="mw-redirect" >northwest Europe</a>). The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neolithic" title="Neolithic" >Neolithic</a> overlaps the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesolithic" title="Mesolithic" >Mesolithic</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bronze_Age" title="Bronze Age" >Bronze Age</a> periods in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europe" title="Europe" >Europe</a>as cultural changes moved from the southeast to northwest at about 1 km/year.<sup id="cite_ref-0" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neolithic_Europe#cite_note-0" >[1]</a></sup> The duration of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neolithic" title="Neolithic" >Neolithic</a> varies from place to place, its end marked by the introduction of bronze implements: in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southeast_Europe" title="Southeast Europe" >southeast Europe</a> it is approximately 4000 years (i.e., 7000 BC–3000 BC) while in Northwest Europe it is just under 3000 years (c. 4500 BC–1700 BC).
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<h2 >Basic cultural characteristics</h2>
<p >Regardless of specific chronology, many European Neolithic groups share basic characteristics, such as living in small-scale, presumably <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egalitarian" title="Egalitarian" class="mw-redirect" >egalitarian</a><sup class="Template-Fact" >[<i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed" >citation needed</a></i>]</sup>, </p>
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family-based communities, subsisting on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domesticated" title="Domesticated" class="mw-redirect" >domesticated</a> plants and animals supplemented with the collection of wild plant foods and with hunting, and producing hand-made pottery, that is, pottery made without the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potter%27s_wheel" title="Potter's wheel" >potter's wheel</a>. There are also many differences, with some Neolithic communities in southeastern Europe living in heavily fortified settlements of 3,000-4,000 people (e.g., <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sesklo" title="Sesklo" >Sesklo</a> in Greece) whereas Neolithic groups in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/England" title="England" >England</a> were small (possibly 50-100 people) and highly mobile cattle-herders.</p>
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The details of the origin, chronology, social organization, subsistence practices and ideology of the peoples of Neolithic Europe are obtained from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaeology" title="Archaeology" >archaeology</a>, and not historical records, since these people left none. Since the 1970s, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Population_genetics" title="Population genetics" >population genetics</a> has provided independent data on the population history of Neolithic Europe, including migration events and genetic relationships with peoples in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Asia" title="South Asia" >South Asia</a>. A further independent tool, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistics" title="Linguistics" >linguistics</a>, has contributed hypothetical reconstructions of early European languages and family trees with estimates of dating of splits, in particular theories on the relationship between speakers of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-European_languages" title="Indo-European languages" >Indo-European languages</a> and Neolithic peoples. Some archaeologists believe that the expansion of Neolithic peoples from southwest Asia into Europe, marking the eclipse of Mesolithic culture, coincided with the introduction of Indo-European speakers,<sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neolithic_Europe#cite_note-1" >[2]</a></sup> whereas other archaeologists and many linguists believe the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-European_languages" title="Indo-European languages" >Indo-European languages</a> were introduced from the Pontic-Caspian steppe during the succeeding <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bronze_Age" title="Bronze Age" >Bronze Age</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neolithic_Europe#cite_note-2" >[3]</a></sup> A few see Indo-European languages starting in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleolithic" title="Paleolithic" >Paleolithic</a> times.</p>