The Agricultural Revolution Unit 2 – Lesson 6 The Agricultural Revolution

10,000 years ago life looked like this: http://wonderfuloldthings.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/neanderthal-family-life.jpg

RECORDER REPORTER TIMEKEEPER ENCOURAGER Small Group Activity RECORDER REPORTER TIMEKEEPER ENCOURAGER

What had been happening? 1. Homo sapiens had appeared. 2. Language had developed. 3. Habitats had expanded. 4. Technology had multiplied. 5. Wall painting and sculpture had been created.

Keeping those changes in mind, let’s look at life about 1,000 BCE.

Notice any Differences?

So, how did we get from… to HERE HERE? to Jot down some notes on what events you think might have taken place between 10,000 and 1,000 BCE.

Activity

Geographic Changes For much of the Paleolithic Age, the Earth was a very cold place, much of the landmasses were tundra. Then, about 15,000 years ago the Earth went through the Great Thaw.

The Great Thaw Temperatures increased Glaciers shrank Sea levels rose Plants, forests and large areas of vegetation grew. With more vegetation, animals began to flourish. There were so many natural resources available that bands of humans began to settle for long periods of time.

ACTIVITY

These artifacts come from settled, agrarian (farming)communities and represent the shift from most people foraging to most people farming.

More vegetation and animals Neolithic Age The Great Thaw More vegetation and animals Paleolithic Age

The Industrial Era 250 years Agricultural Revolution Our Place in Time The Era of Foragers 200,000 years The Agrarian Era 10,000 years The Industrial Era 250 years About 8000 BCE The Agricultural Revolution Era 1 Era 2 Era 3

The change from hunter-gather societies to farming societies is reflected in this frieze on a wall in Mesopotamia (today Iraq) : which reflects the DOMESTICATION of… animals and plants

Domestication of plants and animals was a monumental change. Have you ‘herd’ about pastoralism? It resulted in the new way of living we know as FARMING (AGRICULTURE)… …which included both PASTORALISM (herding sheep, goats, cattle, horses, and camels), and…

(cultivating domesticated plants), Crop-growing (cultivating domesticated plants), and…

the development of… FARMING COMMUNITIES

More vegetation and animals Neolithic Age The Great Thaw More vegetation and animals Food easier to obtain Paleolithic Age Population growth More and more people farming Less people moving

Perspectives on the Past Prediction Activity Perspectives on the Past Where do you think farming began? Give a reason for your answer.

Between about 12,000 and 1,000 BCE, farming Eastern North America China Fertile Crescent Nile valley West Africa Mesoamerica New Guinea Ethiopia Andes Amazonia Between about 12,000 and 1,000 BCE, farming appeared INDEPENDENTLY in a number of places, possibly in all of the places marked in red on the map.

Prediction Activity

?????????????????? Did the move from hunter-gather to farmer improve the quality of life of humans?

More vegetation and animals Neolithic Age The Great Thaw More vegetation and animals Food easier to obtain Paleolithic Age Population growth More and more people farming Less people moving

Lesson Summary The end of the Paleolithic Era coincided with the last Ice Age, and by this time, humans had spread across most of the earth. The end of the last Ice Age is known as the Great Thaw, occurring about 10,000 years ago, and it generated warmer, wetter, and more productive climates. These changes marked one of the major turning points in human history, a gradual shift from a time when all humans gathered their food (foraging) to one in which most humans produced their food (agriculture). Settled agriculture appeared independently in several different regions of the world that were well suited for farming because of environmental factors and population patterns. However, some groups remained foragers (in fact foragers still exist today