9th millennium BC

Millennia:	10th millennium BC 9th millennium BC 8th millennium BC
Centuries:	90th century BC 89th century BC 88th century BC 87th century BC 86th century BC 85th century BC 84th century BC 83rd century BC 82nd century BC 81st century BC

Europe and surrounding areas in the 9th millennium BC. Blue areas are covered in ice.
(1) Upper Palaeolithic cultures.
(2) Mesolithic cultures.
(3) Swiderian cultures.
(4) Pontic Tardenoisian cultures.
(5) Iberian Capsian cultures.
(6) Oranian cultures.
(7) Lower Capsian cultures.
(8) The Fertile Crescent.

The 9th millennium BC marks the beginning of the Neolithic period.

Agriculture spread throughout the Fertile Crescent and use of pottery became more widespread. Larger settlements like Jericho arose along salt and flint trade routes. Northern Eurasia was resettled as the glaciers of the last glacial maximum retreated. World population was at a few million people, likely below 5 million.

Events

• c. 9000 BC—Mediterranean—Settling on Mediterranean isles started
• c. 9000 BC—Laacher See, northwest of Frankfurt, formed when a volcano blows out to form a caldera
• c. 9000 BC—Neolithic culture begins in Ancient Near East
• c. 9000 BC—Göbekli Tepe—Carved stone hilltop sanctuary in southeastern Turkey
• c. 10000 – 8000 BC—Kermanshah region was also one of the first places in which human settlements emerged, including Asiab, Qazanchi, Tappeh Sarab, Chia Jani, and Ganj-Darreh
• c. 9000 BC—Jericho is founded
• c. 8700 BC – 8400 BC—Britain—Star Carr site in Yorkshire, Britain inhabited by Maglemosian peoples
• c. 8500 BC—Great Britain—Mesolithic hunters camp at Cramond, Prehistoric Scotland
• c. 8000 BC—Wall of Jericho is built in the city of Jericho, which is already over 1,000 years old
• c. 8000 BC—Norway—Øvre Eiker of Norway inhabited
• c. 8000 BC—Estonia—Pulli is inhabited as the first known settlement in Estonia

Inventions and discoveries

• c. 9000 BC—The first evidence of the keeping of sheep, in northern Iraq
• c. 9000 BC—Discovery of copper in Middle East
• c. 8500 BC—Natufian culture of Western Mesopotamia is harvesting wild wheat with flint-edged sickles (1967 McEvedy) About this time, boats are invented, and dogs domesticated in Europe (1967 McEvedy)
• c. 8500 BC—Andean peoples domesticate chili peppers and two kinds of bean
• c. 8000 BC—Mesopotamia—Agriculture in Mesopotamia
• c. 8000 BC—Asia—Domestication of the pig in China and Anatolia
• c. 8000 BC—Middle East—Domestication of goats
• c. 8000 BC—Asia—Evidence of domestication of dogs from wolves
• c. 8000 BC—Middle East—Ancient flint tools from north and central Arabia belong to hunter-gatherer societies
• c. 8000 BC—Middle East—Clay vessels and modeled human and animal terracotta figurines are produced at Ganj Dareh in western Iran
• c. 8000 BC—People of Jericho were making bricks out of clay, then hardened them in the sun; the settlement had grown to 8–10 acres of houses and had substantial walls

Environmental changes

Subdivisions of the Quaternary Period
System/ Period	Series/ Epoch	Stage/ Age	Age
Quaternary	Holocene	Meghalayan	0	4,200
		Northgrippian	4,200	8,200
		Greenlandian	8,200	11,700
	Pleistocene	'Upper'	11,700	129ka
		Chibanian	129ka	774ka
		Calabrian	774ka	1.80Ma
		Gelasian	1.80Ma	2.58Ma
Neogene	Pliocene	Piacenzian	2.58Ma	3.60Ma
Notes and references Subdivision of the Quaternary Period according to the ICS, as of January 2020. For the Holocene, dates are relative to the year 2000 (e.g. Greenlandian began 11,700 years before 2000). For the beginning of the Northgrippian a date of 8,236 years before 2000 has been set. The Meghalayan has been set to begin 4,250 years before 2000. 'Tarantian' is an informal, unofficial name proposed for a stage/age to replace the equally informal, unofficial 'Upper Pleistocene' subseries/subepoch. In Europe and North America, the Holocene is subdivided into Preboreal, Boreal, Atlantic, Subboreal, and Subatlantic stages of the Blytt–Sernander time scale. There are many regional subdivisions for the Upper or Late Pleistocene; usually these represent locally recognized cold (glacial) and warm (interglacial) periods. The last glacial period ends with the cold Younger Dryas substage.

• c. 9000 BC: Temporary global chilling, as the Gulf Stream pulls southward, and Europe ices over (1990 Rand McNally Atlas)