Stone Knives, Stone Ploughs, Stone Pestles

This room contains farming tools from the Neolithic Age.

The Neolithic people smoothed and shaped stones to use for specific purposes. The tools look similar but they are shaped slightly differently depending on their purpose.

The ones on the right are stone knives. They are flat stones with a sharp end designed to pick kernels out of the ears of grain.

The Cylindrical objects below them are pestles, which were used to grind grains and plant fibers. The long, flat stones next to them are stone ploughs, which were used to dig over the ground and plough fields.

Using different tools for different purposes signified a technological development in farming, which in turn accelerated the pace of change in society. Agricultural settlements formed, resulting in villages and eventually cities. The value of farmed produce led to the privatization of properties and naturally divided the population into social classes. The agricultural development which occurred during the Neolithic Age dramatically changed the course of human history.