Prehistory &Agricultural Revolutions Unit 1 8000 BCE – 600 CE

Stone Age 2 million years ago until 2000 BCE Stone tool-making (Stone, Bone & Wood) Categories Paleolithic Neolithic

Hunting and Gathering Foragers Matrilineal kinship Comparable status Men hunted Goddess worship; animism Group size limited

Neolithic Revolution Changeover from food gathering to food producing Not very accurate term; Neolithic means “new stone” Occurred at different times in different parts of the world over a millennia Therefore, agricultural revolutions is more accurate Middle East

Animal husbandry Domestication of animals Also a part of the agricultural revolutions Dog probably first closely followed by cat Some adopted animal husbandry while maintaining a H/G lifestyle – called pastoral nomads

Why the transition? Climate changes Minor reason - population growth After Ice Age - melting glaciers Flood accounts in religions (would have happened in areas of first humans) Minor reason - population growth H/G could no longer sustain the population

How? Accidental Women probably played the major role Began to select best wild crops for domestication

Effects Permanent settlements Food storage Population growth Loss of comparable status Vulnerability to disease Vulnerability to drought & natural disaster Exploitation of land & natural resources Harder & longer days work

Genesis 3:17 “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.”

Effects cont. Stratification of Society Political organization, standing army, Villages to cities to trading to writing to conquest to civilizations to empires New religious beliefs

Characteristics of Agricultural Settlements Megaliths Round, mud-bricked cities Houses Irrigation networks Public markets Government buildings Taxation Specialization of labor

Catal Huyuk One of oldest and most prosperous towns from 6700 to 5700 BCE Modern day Turkey Trade Goddess worship Volcanic obsidian Evidence of art Metal-working

Interaction of Pastoral Nomads & Settled Farmers Major theme Trade Did Nomads learn to farm or did farmers replace nomads?

Indo-European Nomads Most influence Name from initial common language that spawned related languages of today from that region Spread throughout Europe Spread language & imposed military power Eventually abandoned nomadic pastoralism for farming

Refamiliarize Yourselves with the Following From Guns, Germs, & Steel: How the earth was peopled Linguistic patterns Indo-European Bantu Semitic How ag shaped the environment and society Earliest places with independent food production, why, and where Why some groups would remain H/G when shown how to farm Specific domesticated animals per region Globalization of ag (climate, axis, etc.)