10th millennium BC

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The 10th millennium BC marks the beginning of the Mesolithic, or Epipaleolithic period, which is the first part of the Holocene epoch.

World population was likely below 5 million people, mostly hunting-gathering communities scattered over all continents, except for Antarctica, and with the proto-Lapita migration also reaching the islands of the Pacific. Pottery, and with pottery probably cooking, was developed independently in Japan and North Africa. It is likely that the earliest incidence of Agriculture, based on the cultivation of primitive forms of millet and rice, occurred in southeast Asia, around 10,000 BC. Agriculture also began to develop in the Armenian Highlands, and the Fertile Crescent, but would not be practiced widely or predominantly for another 2,000 years; however, figs of a parthenocarpic breed were found in the Gilgal I neolithic village in the Jordan River valley. The Würm glaciation ended, and the beginning interglacial, which endures to this day, allows the re-settlement of northern regions.

Events

c. 10,000 BC — Pottery was first produced in Japan.
c. 9,500 BC — There is evidence of the harvesting, though not necessarily of the cultivating, of wild grasses in Asia Minor about this time.
c. 9,300 BC — Figs were apparently cultivated in the Jordan River valley.
c. 9000 BC — Neolithic culture began in Ancient Near East.
c. 9000 BC: Near East: First stone structures are built at Jericho.
The dog is domesticated.

Old World

Asia: Cave sites near the Caspian Sea are used for human habitation.
Europe: Azilian (Painted Pebble Culture) people occupy Spain, France, Switzerland, Belgium, and Scotland.
Europe: Magdalenian culture flourishes and creates cave paintings in France.
Europe: Horse hunting begins at Solutré.
Egypt: Early sickle blades & grinding disappear and are replaced by hunting, fishing and gathering peoples who use stone tools.
Japan: The Jōmon people use pottery, fish, hunt and gather acorns, nuts and edible seeds. There are 10,000 known sites.
Mesopotamia: Three or more linguistic groups, including Sumerian and Semitic peoples share a common political and cultural way of life.
Mesopotamia: People begin to collect wild wheat and barley probably to make malt then beer.
Norway: First traces of population in Randaberg.
Persia: The goat is domesticated.
Sahara: Bubalus Period.

Americas

North America: Paleo-Indian hunter-gatherer societies live nomadically in the countryside.
North America: Blackwater Draw forms in eastern New Mexico, evidencing human activity.
North America: Folsom people flourish throughout the Southwestern United States.
North America: Settlement at the Nanu site in the Haida Gwaii of modern day British Columbia begins, starting the longest continual occupation in territory now belonging to Canada.

Environmental changes

Circa 10,000 BC:

North America: Dire Wolf, Smilodon, Giant Beaver, Ground Sloth, Giant Imperial Mammoth (Mammuthus imperator), Jeffersonian Mammoth (Mammuthus jeffersonii), Columbian Mammoth (Mammuthus columbi), Woolly Mammoth, Mastodons, Giant Short-Faced Bear, American Cheetah, Scimitar Cats (Homotherium), American Camels, American Horses, and American Lion all become extinct.
Bering Sea: Bering land bridge from Siberia to North America covered in water.
North America: Long Island becomes an island when waters break through on the western end to the interior lake.
Europe: Permanent ecological change. The savannah-dwelling reindeer, bison, and Paleolithic hunters withdraw to the sub-Arctic, leaving the rest to forest animals like deer, auroch, and Mesolithic foragers. (1967 McEvedy)
Homo floresiensis, the human's last known surviving close relative, becomes extinct.
World: Allerod oscillation brings transient improvement in climate. Sea levels rise abruptly and massive inland flooding occurs due to glacier melt.

Circa 9700 BC: Lake Agassiz forms.

Circa 9600 BC: Younger Dryas cold period ends. Pleistocene ends and Holocene begins. Paleolithic ends and Mesolithic begins. Large amounts of previously glaciated land become habitable again.

Circa 9500 BC: Ancylus Lake, part of the modern-day Baltic Sea, forms.

Footnotes

References

(2006a): Early Domesticated Fig in the Jordan Valley. Science 312(5778): 1372. (HTML abstract) Supporting Online Material
(2006b): Response to Comment on "Early Domesticated Fig in the Jordan Valley". Science 314(5806): 1683b. PDF fulltext
(2006): Comment on "Early Domesticated Fig in the Jordan Valley". Science 314(5806): 1683a. PDF fulltext
(1996): History of the World. Penguin.

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