Millennia: | |
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Centuries: |
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The Stone Age |
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↑ before Homo (Pliocene) |
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↓ Chalcolithic |
The 10th millennium BC marks the beginning of the Mesolithic and Epipaleolithic periods, which is the first part of the Holocene epoch. Agriculture, based on the cultivation of primitive forms of millet and rice, occurred in Southwest Asia. Although agriculture was being developed in the Fertile Crescent, it would not be widely practiced for another 2,000 years.
The world population was between one and ten million people, most of whom were hunter-gatherer communities scattered over all continents except Antarctica and Zealandia. The Würm glaciation ended, and the beginning interglacial, which endures to this day, allowed the re-settlement of northern regions.
↑ before Homo (Pliocene)
c. 10,000 BC:
c. 9700 BC: Lake Agassiz forms
c. 9700 BC: Younger Dryas cold period ends; ends and Holocene begins; Paleolithic ends and Mesolithic begins; Large amounts of previously glaciated land become habitable again