Neolithic Revolution as irrigation and deforestation which allowed the production of surplus food. Other developments found very widely are the domestication of animals, pottery, polished stone tools, and rectangular houses. These developments, sometimes called the Neolithic package, provided the basis for centralized administrations and political structures, hierarchical ideologies, depersonalized systems of knowledge (e.g. writing), densely populated settlements, specialization and division of labour, more trade, the development of non-portable art and architecture, and property ownership. The earliest known civilization developed in Sumer in southern Mesopotamia (); its emergence also heralded the beginning of the Bronze Age. The relationship of the above-mentioned Neolithic characteristics
Inside the Neolithic Mind of 'Ain Ghazal symbolized the transformation of fire, rather than the remnants of cookery. He also noted that archaeologists would be more receptive to their idea that geometric patterns on European megaliths have parallels with similarities in Southern Africa and California. Concluding his review, Balter remarked that the authors "can be assured that their foray into the Neolithic mind will not be ignored." Inside the Neolithic Mind Inside the Neolithic Mind: Consciousness, Cosmos and the Realm of the Gods is a cognitive archaeological study of Neolithic religious beliefs in Europe co-written by the archaeologists David Lewis-Williams and David Pearce, both