Neolithic architecture

Neolithic architecture refers to structures encompassing housing and shelter from approximately 10,000 to 2,000 BC, the Neolithic period. In southwest Asia, Neolithic cultures appear soon after 10,000 BC, initially in the Levant (Pre-Pottery Neolithic A and Pre-Pottery Neolithic B) and from there into the east and west. Early Neolithic structures can be found in southeast Anatolia, Syria, and Iraq by 8,000 BC, with food-producing societies first appearing in southeast Europe by 7,000 BC, and central Europe by ca. 5,500 BC (of which the earliest cultural complexes include the  Starcevo-Koros (Cris), Linearbandkeramic, and Vinca. The people of the Americas and the Pacific remained at the Neolithic level of technology up until the time of European contact, including very small exceptions (a few copper hatchets and spear heads in the Great Lakes region).