In general terms, this was within the final period of the late Neolithic period, very basically characterized by the decline of the use of advanced stone tools in favor of new metal technologies. 4800 was within the horizon of the "Copper Age" (variously called the Chalcolithic or Enelolithic depending on the region), when many sites begin to explore local copper resources and to begin metallurgical experiments with copper which would eventually lead to the Early Bronze Age.

The transition was not uniform and there were many more aspects involved than just metallurgical technology. The move out of the Neolithic was a shift in many aspects of human society, including tendencies of land tenure, urbanisation (in some areas), agricultural practices, cultural, artistic, and religious expression, et cetera. In many places, including the Near East, vast long-distance networks of exchange seem to break down in this general time period, while in other places what had been relatively isolated civilizations disappear in favor of new cultural horizons which seem to spread across entire continents for the first time (the Beaker Culture, e.g., which will import and then export developments in metallurgical technologies across Europe into the Bronze Age).