Plant and animal domestication underway on the Iberian peninsula
By the Iron Age, starting in the 7th century B.C.E., the Iberian Peninsula consisted of complex agrarian and urban civilizations, either Pre-Celtic or Celtic.
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Humans invent lead smelting, perhaps in modern-day Turkey
The earliest known cast lead beads were found in the Çatalhöyük site in Anatolia (Turkey), and dated from about 6500 B.C.E., but the metal may have been known earlier.
Neolithic Europeans establish what is perhaps the world’s first sea trade in the Aegean Sea
The trade route involved the seaborne movement of obsidian by an unknown Neolithic Europe seafaring people. The obsidian was mined from the volcanic island of Milos and then transported to various parts of the Balkans, Anatolia, and Cyprus, where they were refined into obsidian blades. However, the nature of the seafaring technologies involved has not been preserved.
The Mehrgarh Culture flourishes in modern-day Pakistan
Mehrgarh is one of the earliest sites with evidence of farming and herding in South Asia. It is seen as a precursor to the Indus Valley Civilization.
Ubaid culture thrives in ancient Mesopotamia
Ubaid culture is characterized by large unwalled village settlements, multi-roomed rectangular mud-brick houses and the appearance of the first temples of public architecture in Mesopotamia.
Humans in northern China invent mead
Mead is an alcoholic beverage created by fermenting honey with water, sometimes with various fruits, spices, grains, or hops.
Humans of the Tlatilco culture found Tlapacoya, perhaps the first city in the Americas
Tlapacoya is an important archaeological site in Mexico, located at the foot of the Tlapacoya volcano, southeast of Mexico City, on the former shore of Lake Chalco.
Peiligang culture begins in ancient China
The Peiligang culture is the name given by archaeologists to a group of Neolithic communities in the Yi-Luo river basin in Henan Province, China.
Rice begins to be domesticated in modern-day central China
By about 5,000 B.C.E., domesticated japonica is found throughout the Yangtse valley, including large amounts of rice kernels at such sites as TongZian Luojiajiao (7100 BP) and Hemuda (7000 BP).
The Jiahu symbols of the Peiligang culture in China are created
A 2003 report in Antiquity interpreted them “not as writing itself, but as features of a lengthy period of sign-use which led eventually to a fully-fledged system of writing.