transition from nomadic hunter-gatherer life to settled agriculture ~10000 BCE
domestication of wheat, barley, rice, sheep, goats, cattle
first permanent settlements: Jericho, Catalhoyuk, Mehrgarh
enabled population density, surplus storage, division of labor, social hierarchy
origin of pottery, weaving, grinding tools, irrigation
precondition for writing (invention), law, trade, and urban civilization
preceded the Bronze Age by several thousand years
one of the deepest transitions in the human epoch