6.2 Neolithic

A wholly new way of life based on the management of domesticated plants and animals – all imported from the Continent – and featuring a novel technology (pottery), novel practices (including the construction of funerary monuments) and novel beliefs appeared and became established in this part of Scotland, in stark contrast to the forager-fisher-hunter lifestyle and its associated material culture and practices that had characterised the preceding millennia. This is what is defined as the Neolithic period, and it will be dealt with here in three sections:

6.2.1 The appearance of this new way of life and the switch from foraging-fishing-hunting

6.2.2 Developments between c 3750 BC and 3000 BC

6.2.3 Late Neolithic Argyll, c 3000-c2450 BC.