<P> The Neolithic , or New Stone Age , was approximately characterized by the adoption of agriculture . The shift from food gathering to food producing , in itself one of the most revolutionary changes in human history , was accompanied by the so - called Neolithic Revolution : the development of pottery , polished stone tools , and construction of more complex , larger settlements such as Göbekli Tepe and Çatal Hüyük . Some of these features began in certain localities even earlier , in the transitional Mesolithic . The first Neolithic cultures started around 7000 BCE in the fertile crescent and spread concentrically to other areas of the world ; however , the Near East was probably not the only nucleus of agriculture , the cultivation of maize in Meso - America and of rice in the Far East being others . </P>
the stone age period that refers to the time after the start of agriculture is the
Neolithic