Neolithic Revolution & Rise of Agriculture

Bell Work  List the five categories of humans during the Paleolithic Age and a characteristic for each one  What were the roles of men and women during the Paleolithic Age?

Neolithic Revolution  “The New Stone Age”  The end of the last Ice Age marked the start of the Neolithic Revolution – What is a revolution?  A new shift in the way humans lived – Farming, Labor, Society – No longer nomadic – How is the Neolithic Revolution a revolution?

Farming  Systematic Agriculture – Keeping of animals and growing of food on a regular basis – No longer relied on just hunting and gathering  Domestication of Animals – Adapting animals for human use – Readily available source of food – Animals were also used for work

Farming  Agricultural Revolution – Able to give up their nomad ways to settle in cities/communities – Possibly most important development in history…why?  Growing Crops – Southwest Asia Europe and Mediterranean Sea Egypt and other parts of Africa Mesoamerica (Central, Latin, South America) – Wheat, Barley, in some places yams and bananas

 Spread of Farming Spread of Farming

Division of Labor  Farming was not the only way of life – Food surplus led to other jobs  Artisans – Skilled workers – Made goods to trade and barter with neighboring villages  Led to the development of better material and tools to work with

Effects of Neolithic Revolution  Societal Structure – Walls, Protection, Division of Labor, Agriculture, Roles of Men and Women  Bronze Age – Produced more efficient tools (Copper&Tin)  Armies and Cities developed, creating the first civilizations

Closure  How/why is the Neolithic Revolution considered a revolution? – Think about what the term revolution means  How did societal structure change from the Paleolithic Age to the Neolithic Age?