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In order to come to a conclusion as to which processes were the most important in leading to the development of agriculture it is necessary to compare and contrast examples from various regions of the world. I have chosen to concentrate on Southwest Asia (particularly the Levant area), North America and East Asia. The processes discussed include the influence of climate change and the tendency towards a sedentary lifestyle amongst hunter-gatherer groups. Also the settling in small communities for longer periods in areas conducive to farming, the development of year round settlements into villages and the construction of ritual or communal sites which indicate advanced organisation of people. The beginnings of symbolism and cognitive behaviour may also contribute to the development of agriculture.
Climate change must have played a significant part in providing the environment in which agriculture could develop. In Southwest Asia the end of the ice age brought warmer, wetter conditions in the late Glacial Maximum and the early Epipalaeolithic. The cooler, drier Younger Dryas Period accentuated the need for groups to supplement their collecting of wild plants and when the climate became warmer and wetter around 9500 BC it produced fertile soils ready for cultivation, especially for wheat. In North America the fertile river floodplains of areas such as Illinois were not suitable for settling and crops until the mid-Holocene, around 7000 BC. At this time a shift south in plant species meant a change in diet for the hunter- gatherer groups. A climate similar to now was established only after 2500 BC. In East Asia two different areas developed at the same time but climate and environmental factors dictated that only when the formation...
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...food as a political weapon to impose control is a practice that continues to this day which indicates the importance of these processes.
Works Cited
Browman, D.L. Fritz, G. J. Watson. P. J. (2009 ) ‘Origins of food-producing economies in the Americas’, in Scarre, C. (ed.) The Human Past, London, Thames and Hudson, pp. 306–330.
Higham, C. (2009) ‘East Asian agriculture and its impact’ in Scarre, C. (ed.) The Human Past, London, Thames and Hudson, p. 234-244.
The Open University (2007) ‘Audio CD, Track 2’ [CD], A251 World archaeology, Milton Keynes, The Open University.
Perkins, P. (2009) A251 World Archaeology, Milton Keynes, The Open University. Scarre, C. (ed.) (2009) The Human Past, London, Thames and Hudson
Watkins, T. (2009) ‘From foragers to complex societies in Southwest Asia’, in Scarre, C. (ed.) The Human Past, London, Thames and Hudson, p. 200–225.
...ncyclopedia of Archaeology, Ed. Deborah M. Pearsall. Vol. 3. Oxford, United Kingdom: Academic Press, 2008. p1896-1905. New Britain: Elsevier, Inc.
The book tells the history of human civilization through the development of our food production and culture. A highly relevant book to present although food is a special type of natural resource or products hereof and history is a wider subject than conflict. The gradual transition towards hierarchical social order is described. Especially the significance of irrigation is compelling.
Discussions in the 1970’s and 1980’s within both sides of the debate indicate population change, behavior change and natural processes to be the large determining factors (Attenbrow, 2004). Many archaeologists accepted there was a continuing increase over time in the number of archaeological sites established and used, as well as in the number of artefacts accumulated in individual sites, particularly in the past 5000 years (eg. Johnson 1979:39; Bowdler1981; Morwood 1984:371, 1986, 1987; Ross 1984, 1985:87; Beaton 1985: 16-18; Fletcher-Jones 1985: 282, 286; Lourandos 1985a: 393-411, 1985b: 38; White and Habgood 1985; Hiscock 1986) (Attenbrow, 2004). Population change refers to the changes in number of people or size of the population, behavioural changes referring to changes to activities such as tool manufacturing, subsistence practices as well as the use of space within a site (Attenbrow, 2004). Whilst natural processes include geomorphological and biological process that may have affected the archaeological record (At...
he Agricultural Revolution took place from the 1700s to the early 1800s.The first Agricultural Revolution, also known as the Neolithic Revolution, is the transformation of human societies from hunting and gathering to farming. The spread of farming throughout the world. It marked the end of hunter-gatherer societies, particularly in Europe, and led to a population explosion. Permanent buildings and the villages developed as tribes ended their nomadic life-style. Crops such as wheat, barley, rice, millet and maize were the first domesticated crops. Animals were domesticated, beginning with the dog, followed by the goat for milk and meat. The Neolithic Revolution occurred first in the so-called Fertile Crescent. Agriculture diffused from Mesopotamia
Edgar, Robert R., et al. “Chapter Fifteen.” Civilizations Past and Present. 12th ed. Ed. Janet Lanphier, et al. Vol. 1. New York: Pearson, 2008. Print.
Childs-Johnson, Elizabeth, Joan Lebold Cohen, and Lawerence R. Sullivan. (1996, November-December). Race against time. Archaeology.
“broadly based subsistence, experimental agriculture, seasonal nomadism giving way to sedentism, and technological proliferation” (Lynch 1983:91). By the end of the Paleo-Indian times the shift to agriculture and cultivation came to a head during Pre-ceramic 2500 BC quinoa, maize, gourd, squash, potato, beans and lucuma were now utilized for agricultural domestication—the Formative stage according the Lynch (1983:91) ca. 2000 BC had “intensive agriculture, full sedentism, class systems, corporate labor projects, and temple-based religions.”
Before the land of what we no class Turkey, Iraq, Jordan, and other countries in the middle east grains, such as wheat and wild barley, could be seen growing in the wild without human hand to cultivate and nurture it (Authors 2007). Over time, humans began to recognize the benefit of the plants and began the first signs of human agriculture. The skill of farming took time and trial and error, but along the way, humans began to settle down to tend to their crops. Though the first crops were nothing more than seed s thrown about without rhyme or reason to the process we know today such as fields having, rows and sorting out the seeds to create a higher yield each harvest (Authors 2007). Because of the trial and error process, agriculture of plants did not take place of a short period but took many, many years to evolve to what we know today as agriculture; the new fa...
Hobson, J. M., 2004. The Eastern Origins of Western Civilisation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 57
“The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings.” - Masanobu Fukuoka. That’s something people don’t understand about agriculture in the past, the present, and the future. Farming and agriculture is more than just planting a field and harvesting it, it’s a way of life. Generations molded and lived their life around farming. It’s a way to live, a way to make money, and a way to eat. So when you wake up in the morning and pour your cereal or throw your bread in the toaster, thank a farmer. For today, I’m here to talk about the Agricultural Revolution and how it transformed the way of life and triggered the Industrial Revolution.
For decades archaeologists believed that plants and animals were first domesticated in the near east (Israel, Lebanon, Syria, south west Turkey, Iraq, western Iran) early in Holocene (8000 to 10000 years ago). It is now possible to mount a challenge to this archaeological dogma about the domestication of plants and animals as evidence of that has been found in Afghanistan and Mehrgarh on the Kachi plains of Pakistan. The roots of sedentism and village farming community have been documented in the 7th millennium BC, at the site of Mehrgarh on the Kachi plains of the central Indus valley. Farming was successful here because it is thought that Pleistocene Indus River flowed in this area...
The first people that started to depend on farming for food were in Israel and Jordan in about 80000 B.C.. Farming became popular because people no longer had to rely on just searching for food to get their food. In about 3000 B.C. Countries such as Egypt and Mesopotamia started to develop large scale irrigation systems and oxen drawn plows. In about 500 B.C. the Romans started to realize that the soil needed certain nutrients in order to bare plants. They also realized that if they left the soil for a year with no plants, these important nutrients would replenish. So they started to leave half of a field fallow (unplanted). They then discovered that they could use legumes, or pulses to restore these vital nutrients, such as nitrogen, to the soil and this started the process known as rotating crops. They would plant half the field one year with a legume...
Agriculture has been around for about 11,000 years. Around 9.500 BC, the first signs of crops began to show up around the coastlines of the Mediterranean. Emmer and einkorn wheat were the first crops that started to show up in this area, with barley, peas, lentils, chick peas, and flax following shortly. For the most part, everyone was a nomad and just travelled along with where a herd went. This went on until around 7.000 BC, and then the first signs of sowing and harvesting appeared in Mesopotamia. In the first ...
Farming has been an occupation since 8,500 B.C. On that year in the Fertile Crescent farming first began when people grew plants instead of picking them in the wild. Then nearly 5,000 years later oxen, horses, pigs, and dogs were domesticated. During the middle ages, the nobles divide their land into three fields. The reasoning for this was to plant two and leave one to recover. This was the start of crop rotation which is a big part of farming today. Burning down forest and then moving to another area is a farming technique used by the Mayans called Slash and burn. Mayan farmers also were able to drain swampy areas to farm them buy building canals. In 1701 Jethro Tull invented the seed drill and a horse drawn how that tilled the land. In Denmark they would plant turnips in the previously unplanted field. The turnips help restore the nutrients in the ground thus crop rotation is born. In England people began moving there fields closer to each other for a more efficient way of planting. Later in the 18th century selective breeding was introduce which made bigger, stronger, and more milk producing livestock. In the mid 1800’s a steam plough was invented. By the 1950 tractors, milking machines, and combines were used by almost farmers. The latest f...
Civilization began with agriculture, it allowed nomads to settle down, and form relationships, societies and eventually nations. But as our society developed, so did our means of farming. Whilst modern society greatly differs from our nomadic past, humanity still has fundamental dependence on agriculture.