To c. 600 B.C.E

In response to warming climates at the end of the last Ice Age, from about 10,000 years ago, some groups adapted to the environment in new ways, while others remained hunter-foragers. Settled agriculture appeared in several different parts of the world. The switch to agriculture crated a more reliable, but not necessarily more diversified, food supply. Agriculturalists also had a massive impact on the environment through intensive cultivation of selected plants to the exclusion of others, through the construction of irrigation systems, and through the use of domesticated animals for food and for labor. Populations increased; family groups gave way to village life and, later, to urban life with all its complexity. Patriarchy and forced labor systems developed, giving elite men concentrated power over most of the other people in their societies. Pastoralism emerged in parts of Africa and Eurasia. Pastoral peoples domesticated animals and led their herds around grazing ranges. Like agriculturalists, pastoralists tended to be more socially stratified than hunter-foragers. Because pastoralists were mobile, they rarely accumulated large amounts of material possessions, which would have been a hindrance when they changed grazing areas. The pastoralists’ mobility allowed them to become an important conduit for technological change as they interacted with settled populations.

Beginning about 10,000 years ago, the Neolithic Revolution led to the development of new and more complex economic and social systems.A. Possibly as a response to climatic change, permanent

agricultural villages emerged first in the lands of the eastern Mediterranean. Agriculture emerged at different times in Mesopotamia, the Nile River Valley and Sub-Saharan Africa, the Indus River Valley, the Yellow River or Huang He Valley, Papua New Guinea, Mesoamerica, and the Andes.

B. Pastoralism developed at various sites in the grasslands of Afro-Eurasia.

C. Different crops or animals were domesticated in the various core regions, depending on available local flora and fauna.

D. Agricultural communities had to work cooperatively to clear land and create the water control systems needed for crop production.

E. These agricultural practices drastically impacted environmental diversity. Pastoralists also affected the environment by grazing large numbers of animals on fragile grasslands, leading to erosion when overgrazed.

Agriculture and pastoralism began to transform human societies. (How?)A. Pastoralism and agriculture led to more reliable and

abundant food supplies, which increased the populationB. Surpluses of food and other goods led to specialization of

labor, including new classes of artisans and warriors, and the development of elites.

C. Technological innovations led to improvements in agricultural production, trade, and transportation.

Required examples of improvements in agricultural production, trade, and transportation: Pottery Plows Woven textiles Metallurgy Wheels and wheeled vehicles

D. In both pastoralist and agrarian societies, elite groups accumulated wealth, creating more hierarchical social structures and promoting patriarchal forms of social organization. (Theocracies emerge)

Agriculture was not a sudden transformation.

•The term, “revolution,” is often used because of the magnitude of change involved.

The Neolithic Revolution

(8000BCE-3500BCE)

•Sometimes termed the Agricultural Revolution.•Humans begin to slowly domesticate plant and animal stocks in Southwest Asia.•Agriculture requires nomadic peoples to become sedentary.•Populations begin to rise in areas where plant and animal domestication occurred.

Domestication can be defined as a primitive form of genetic engineering in which certain plants and animals are brought under human control, their objectionable characteristics eliminated, their favorable ones enhanced and in the case of animals, can be induced to reproduce in captivity. --Nagle, p. 3.

Domestication of Animals

Farming developed first in the Middle East, in an arc of territory running from present-day Turkey to Iraq and Israel (Fertile Crescent)

Barley and wild wheat were abundant

Farming then spread to parts of India, north Africa, and Europe.

Agriculture spread much later to Africa.

Agriculture was invented separately in the Americas much later (around 5000 B.C.E.)

Followed by Southeast Asia and Japan

And then Central Asia

Independent Development vs. Cultural Diffusion

• Areas of Independent Development:

1. SW Asia (wheat, pea, olive, sheep, goat)

2. China & SE Asia (rice, millet, pig)3. Americas (corn, beans, potato,

llama)

• Areas of Agriculture Through Diffusion:

1. Europe2. West & Sub-Saharan Africa (?)3. Indus River Valley (rice cultivation)

The need for storage facilities for grains and seeds prompted the development of basket-making and pottery.

Agricultural needs also encouraged certain kinds of science, supporting the human desire to learn more about weather or flooding.Discovery of metal tools (4000 B.C.E.) in the Middle East

•Copper was the first metal, followed by bronze – a more resilient metal.

http://news.softpedia.com/images/news2/Neolithic-the-New-Stone-Age-3.jpg

•High starch diets slowly allowSedentary populations to grow.

•First plow invented c.6000BCE;crop yields grow exponentially by 4000BCE.Pop. grows from 5-8 million to 60-70 million. •Eventually agricultural populations begin to spread out, displacing or assimilating nomadic groups; farming groups grow large enough for advanced social organization.

Sedentary Agriculturalists Dominate

First Towns Develop

•Towns require social differentiation: metal workers, pottery workers, farmers, soldiers, religious and political leaders. (POSSIBLE B/C FOOD SURPLUSES!)

•Served as trade centers for the area; specialized in the production of certain unique crafts

•Beginnings of social stratification (class)

First Towns Develop

Catal HuyukModern Turkey

First settled:c. 7000BCE

JerichoModern Israel

First settled:c. 7000BCE

Towns Present Evidence of:

•Religious structures (burial rites, art)

•Political & Religious leaders were the same

•Still relied on limited hunting & gathering for food

Roles of Women

•Women generally lost status under male-dominated, patriarchal systems.

•Women were limited in vocation,worked in food production, etc.

•Women may have lacked thesame social rights as men.

Metal Working: From Copper to Bronze

•Early settlements gradually shifted from copper to the stronger alloy bronze by 3,000BCE—ushers in the Bronze Age!

•Metal working spread throughout human communities slowly as agriculture had.

6600 BCE – Copper used in Europe, Asia Metalurghy – extracting from raw ore and metalwork –

crafting – quite difficult Jewelry predates 6400 BCE, but tools not efficient until

later 3500-3000 BCE – Bronze from copper/tin discovered in

Middle East, Balkans, Southeast Asia – later part Neolithic Age – Bronze Age Americas and Asia never had a bronze age – tin scarce Scarcity of tin pushed need for international trade

1500-1200 BCE – Iron Age – Hittites Spread to Europe in 1000 BCE, Africa in 500 BCE Possible to cultivate hard packed soil/more land Wave of invasions from outside Mesopotamia

Further Technological Advancements

Wheeled Vehicles•Saves labor, allows transport of large loads and enhances trade

Potters Wheel (c.6000BCE)•Allows the construction of more durable clay vessels and artwork

Irrigation & Driven Plows•Allows further increase of food production, encourages pop. growth

Early Human Impact on the Environment

•Deforestation in places where copper, bronze, and salt were produced.

•Erosion and flooding where agriculture disturbed soil and natural vegetation.

•Selective extinction of large land animals and weed plants due to hunting & agriculture.

•on 32 acres

•Houses made of mud bricks set in timber frameworks crowded together with few windows

•People spent time on rooftops to experience daylight and make social contact (broken bones)

•Houses were lavishly decorated with hunting scenes

•Religious images of powerful male hunters and mother goddesses representing agricultural fertility

•Some trade with hunting people who lived in surrounding hills

•Large villages like Catal Huyuk ruled over smaller communities, bringing about specialization in politics and organization of military.

•Accumulation of wealth initiated social classes.

•By 3000 B.C.E., Catal Huyuk had become part of a civilization.

Developed writing, starting with cuneiform (writing based on wedge-like characters) in the Middle East around 3500 B.C.E.One of the earliest

written records from the Middle East is a recipe for making beer.

People in civilizations looked down on any society lacking in civilization.

The ancient Greeks coined the word “barbarian” to describe such cases.

As a result of labels like this, it is easy to think of much human history as divided between civilizations and primitive nomads.

Questions

A. Life was easier for early farmers than it was for those in hunter-gather communities

B. Early farming settlements were contaminated with human wasted and often ravaged by disease

C. A dependable food supply helped people to survive drought

D. The focus of religion shifted to deities representing Mother Earth and elements like fire, wind, and rain

E. Members of early farming communities ate a less varied and nutritious diet.

Farmers in settled comunities probably had to work harder than their predecessors as they had to clear land and invest a lot of time and energy cultivating land that often yielded meager resutls.

Characteristics and benefits of early agricultural societies?

Importance of bronze? Iron? Reasons why cities are important to

civilization?