8000-3300 BC Neolithic and Chalcolithic

Following the last Ice Age, around 13000 BC, people began to settle in areas where they could exploit the local species of plants and animals. Most of these settlements occurred in an arc-shaped area, known today as the Fertile Crescent. This area stretched from around the Dead Sea north toward the Anatolian plateau, and east through northern Syria and Iraq to south-western Iran. By 8500 BC small permanent farming settlements had appeared throughout this vast area. The first evidence of domesticated grains (wheat and barley) and animals (sheep, goat, pig, and cattle) are found at sites like Jericho in the Jordan Valley, Jarmo in north-east Mesopotamia, and Ali Kosh in south-western Iran.

The earliest pottery for storage and cooking was made around 7000-6000 BC and by 6000 BC elaborately decorated styles such as Halaf wares were being made. Some 500 years later, Ubaid culture pottery spread from southern Mesopotamia into the eastern Mediterranean, Iran, and the Arabian Peninsula.

After 4000 BC, during the Chalcolithic period, copper became more widely used and sophisticated metal objects were produced in the Eastern Mediterranean and Anatolia. Greater knowledge, control and co-operation over irrigation-based farming systems in southern Mesopotamia enabled higher crop yields. It also supported a growth in population, with the rise of some larger settlements and probably an evolution in social complexity.