The Neolithic or New Stone Age is the last period of the Stone Age, when many innovations were introduced, including monument building, the first engineering projects, the use of pottery and, most importantly, the domestication of plants and animals so that hunter-gathering was no longer the only or perhaps even the main way of obtaining food. In Britain, it lasted from around 4500 to 2300 BC. Many of Britain's most famous ancient monuments, including the first phases of construction at Stonehenge and Avebury, date from this period. So too do the first elaborate burials, in long barrows.

Bronze Age