<P> By 10,200--8800 BC, farming communities arose in the Levant and spread to Asia Minor, North Africa and North Mesopotamia . Mesopotamia is the site of the earliest developments of the Neolithic Revolution from around 10,000 BC . </P> <P> Early Neolithic farming was limited to a narrow range of plants, both wild and domesticated, which included einkorn wheat, millet and spelt, and the keeping of dogs, sheep and goats . By about 6900--6400 BC, it included domesticated cattle and pigs, the establishment of permanently or seasonally inhabited settlements, and the use of pottery . </P> <P> Not all of these cultural elements characteristic of the Neolithic appeared everywhere in the same order: the earliest farming societies in the Near East did not use pottery . In other parts of the world, such as Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia, independent domestication events led to their own regionally distinctive Neolithic cultures that arose completely independently of those in Europe and Southwest Asia . Early Japanese societies and other East Asian cultures used pottery before developing agriculture . </P> <P> The term Neolithic derives from the Greek νέος néos, "new" and λίθος líthos, "stone", literally meaning "New Stone Age". The term was coined by Sir John Lubbock in 1865 as a refinement of the three - age system . </P>

Name three geographic regions where neolithic lifeways appeared independently