Prehistoric technology Ground and polished stone tools continued to be created and used during the Neolithic period. Numeric record keeping evolved from a system of counting using small clay tokens that began in Sumer about 8000 BC. The Stone Age developed into the Bronze Age after the Neolithic Revolution. The Neolithic Revolution involved radical changes in agricultural technology which included development of agriculture, animal domestication, and the adoption of permanent settlements. The Bronze Age is characterised by metal smelting of copper and its alloy bronze, an alloy of tin and copper, to create implements and weapons. Polished stone tools continued to be
Neolithic Europe and family trees with estimates of dating of splits, in particular theories on the relationship between speakers of Indo-European languages and Neolithic peoples. Some archaeologists believe that the expansion of Neolithic peoples from southwest Asia into Europe, marking the eclipse of Mesolithic culture, coincided with the introduction of Indo-European speakers, whereas other archaeologists and many linguists believe the Indo-European languages were introduced from the Pontic-Caspian steppe during the succeeding Bronze Age. Archeologists believe that food-producing societies first emerged in the Levantine region of southwest Asia at the close of the last glacial period around 12,000 BCE, and developed into a