Agriculture The turn toward agriculture occurred about 10,000 years ago. Agriculture arose in several places within about 8,000 years.

Coprolites Evidence of the turn toward agriculture has been gathered from fossilized human feces, called coprolites.

“Domestication” The domestication of plants and animals began independently in several parts of the world except Europe.

Advantage of Agriculture Hunter-gatherers Needed 10 square miles to feed one person. Farmers One square mile could feed at least 50 people.

To Store & Preserve Food Because agriculture provided more food per unit of land, agriculture forced people to learn to store and preserve food.

The Dog Probably the first animal to allow itself to be domesticated was the dog (from the gray wolf). 13 mammals over 100 lbs., including Horse, Cow, Sheep, Goat, Donkey, Camel, Water Buffalo, etc.

The Fertile Crescent

7500 BCE By 7500 BCE in the Fertile Crescent, people began to settle in permanent villages, growing crops and animals.

Language = Indo European As farmers fanned out from the Middle East and Turkey, they also spread their language, known as Indo-European.

Bartering = Trading Surplus food meant that people needed containers in which to store food. This led to the specialized skills of POTTERY and BASKETS. From this, early barter type economies were born.

Storing Food in Pottery

Storing Food in Baskets

The Sumerians 4000 – 1000 BCE

Cuneiform Writing Sumerian merchants developed earliest written language: cuneiform.

Ziggurat Sumerian cities contained a divine household or temple.

The Epic of Gilgamesh Written 2100 BCE First Written Literature

An actual person who ruled the city of Uruk around 2750 BCE. Gilgamesh

Sargon of Akkad Sumerian king who declared himself to be divine like God.

Atum + Egyptian creator god + Bi-sexual + Associated with Ra, the sun god.

The Minoans - Lived on the Isle of Crete near Greece. - Used an early writing system - Created a trading empire - Used ships to found colonies

China In China, urban areas evolved from villages near the Yellow River.

Chinese Writing Has always been pictographs and symbols.

The Phoenicians Created the first alphabet of letters and sounds. Alphabetic writing was slow to catch on because it did not simplify reading and writing.