1. Farming and the Emergence of Complex Societies 10,000 – 1,000 BCE.
Big Era Three
Farming and the Emergence of Complex Societies
10,000 – 1,000 BCE.

2. Resources for Era Three
Reading: World History For Us All - Era Three
Video: Bridging World History - Agricultural and Urban Revolutions
A complete transcript for the video can be found at: Video Transcript

3. Objectives
Identify regions of the world in which agriculture first began and speculate why this region was able to support agriculture.
Evaluate historical and scientific theories about the causes of the Agricultural (Neolithic) Revolution.
Analyze the increasing complexity human societies experienced as a result of the Agricultural and Urban Revolutions in the areas of government, economics, technology and social/gender stratification.

4. Tasks
Online discussion #1 in Edmodo class site: After watching the video and doing the reading, propose what you believe in the strongest argument about why the Agricultural Revolution began. Be sure to provide evidence, then respond to another classmate’s choice that differs from yours. Remember our discussion standards. Move the discussion along with insight and questions.

5. Tasks cont’d
Create a diagram or flow chart that includes changes that occurred within human society as a result of the Agricultural and Urban revolutions.
You must include a minimum of six changes and you must address all categories listed in the objective. (You might have one from two categories and then two from two other categories for example.)
Share your diagram as a file or web link,( if you are using Lucid Chart for example) in the Edmodo site.
Reflection pairs will be posted in Edmodo
Reflect and offer feedback to your reflection partner.

6. Tasks Cont’d Online discussion #2, post in Edmodo class site
Post what you feel are a positive and a negative consequence of the Agricultural and Urban revolutions.
Respond to at least two classmate’s posts.
Remember discussion guidelines, ask for more evidence and state why more evidence is needed or ask a question for further clarification.

7. Farming and complex societies?
Where did they come from?
Between 10,000 BCE and 1000 BCE an abrupt change occurred in the way many humans solved their most basic needs. No longer did all humans hunt and gather to support themselves. As a result of collective learning—generations of humans passing on knowledge, tiny changes in the way people lived, made over time, resulted in what we know as the Neolithic Revolution, or the Agricultural Revolution—the advent of farming.
I thought we were still
hunting and
gathering!

8. Farming and complex societies are the result of CHANGE…
…and changes have always been—and still are—part of human history.
Big Eras 3-9
Big Era 1
200k yrs ago
Today
10k years ago
Big Era 2

9. Big Era Two is the era that covers the period from 200,000 to 10,000 years ago.
Big Era Two had
many changes.
Shall we do a
quick review?
Big Eras 3-9
Big Era 1
200k yrs ago
Today
10k years ago
Big Era 2

10. Changes that occurred by the end of Big Era 2
(Beginning of Big Era 3)
1. Homo sapiens appear.
2. Language develops.
3. Habitats expand.
4. Technology multiplies.
5. Wall painting and sculpture are created.
End of Big Era Two
(Beginning of Big Era 3)
1,000 years ago
Today
Big Eras 4-9
Big Era 2
10,000 years ago
Big Era 3

11. Keeping those changes in mind, let’s look
at life all the way at the end of Big Era Three, that is, about 1,000 BCE.
Big Eras 4-9
Big Era 2
Big Era 3
10,000 years ago
1,000 years ago
Today

12. Can you guess what changes occur? Why do you these changes happened?
Big Eras 4-9
Big Era 2
Big Era 3
10,000 years ago
1,000 years ago
Today

13. Notice any Differences? Quite a few, Huh?
Here we are at the end of Era Two, small hunting and gathering tribes of homo sapiens, nomadic, egalitarian , nature-based shamanistic beliefs with simple technology.

14. 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.
In 10,000 BCE there were no agrarian communities, no crop surpluses, no cities, no governments, no law codes, no monumental buildings, no written languages, no job specializations. By 1,000 BCE, all of these things existed on all of the continents except for Australia and Antarctica.

15. One of the major changes is reflected in this frieze on a
wall in Mesopotamia (today Iraq) :
which reflects the DOMESTICATION of…
animals
and plants
About 12,000 years ago some human communities began to move in a new direction. For the first time, they began to produce food in a systematic way rather than hunt or collect all their food in the wild. The emergence of farming and the far-reaching social and cultural changes that came with it sets Big Era Three apart from the first two.
From one perspective, the advent of farming was a slow, fragmented process. It happened independently in several different parts of the world at different times. It occurred as a result of people making thousands of small decisions about food production without anyone being conscious that humans were “inventing agriculture.” And even though some people started farming, others continued for thousands of years to live entirely on wild resources or to combine crop growing with hunting and gathering.
1,000 years ago
Today
Big Eras 4-9
Big Era 2
10,000 years ago
Big Era 3

16. 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…
The fundamental technological element of this interplay was domestication, the ability to alter the genetic makeup of plants and animals to make them more useful to humans. Scholars have traditionally labeled the early millennia of agriculture the Neolithic era, that is, “new stone age,” because humans developed a more varied and sophisticated kit of stone tools in connection with the emergence of farming.
1,000 years ago
Today
Big Eras 4-9
10,000 years ago
Big Era 3
Big Era 2

17. (cultivating domesticated plants),
Crop-growing
(cultivating domesticated plants),
and…
1,000 years ago
Today
Big Eras 4-9
10,000 years ago
Big Era 3
Big Era 2

18. FARMING COMMUNITIES the development of…
We may define farming as a set of interrelated activities that increase the production of those resources that humans can use, such as cattle, grain, or flax, and reduce the production of things humans cannot use, such as weeds or pests. In order to increase the production of resources they can use, farmers systematically manipulate their environment, removing those species they do not want and creating conditions that allow the species they favor to flourish. Thus, we plow and water the land so that our crops can thrive, and we provide food and protection to the animals we need. This is why the emergence of societies based on agriculture, what we call agrarian societies, involved a complex interplay of plants, animals, topography, climate, and weather with human tools, techniques, social habits, and cultural understandings.
1,000 years ago
Today
Big Eras 4-9
10,000 years ago
Big Era 3
Big Era 2

19. 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.
From another perspective we might argue that agriculture took the world by storm. The Paleolithic era of hominids and human tool-making went on for about 2,000,000 years. Farming settlements, however, appeared on all the major landmasses except Australia within a mere 8,000 years. Foraging societies may have retreated gradually, but today, just 12,000 years after the first signs of agriculture, they have all but disappeared.
1,000 years ago
Today
Big Eras 4-9
10,000 years ago
Big Era 3
Big Era 2

20. Prior to farming, population size in any one area was limited
by the availability of wild game, grain, berries, seeds, and nuts.
POPULATION
INTENSIFICATION
Farming and the large, relatively dependable crops it provides allowed for…
That means population increases in certain areas. Population in those areas became both larger and denser.
Systematic food production contributed hugely to the amazing biological success of Homo sapiens. In our discussion of Big Era Two, we introduced the concept of extensification, the idea that in Paleolithic times humans multiplied and flourished by spreading thinly across the major landmasses of the world, excepting Antarctica, and by adapting to a wide range of environments, from equatorial forests to Arctic tundra. In Big Era Three, however, a process of “intensification” got under way. This meant that by producing resources from domesticated plants and animals, humans could settle and thrive on a given land area in much greater numbers and density than ever before.

21. SURPLUS FOOD PRODUCTION
At the same time, farmers in some places were, in spite of population growth,
able to produce
SURPLUS food.
What does
SURPLUS FOOD PRODUCTION
mean for a society?
The consequences of intensification were astonishing. In the 9,000 years of Big Era Three, world population rose from about 6 million to about 120 million, a change involving a much faster rate of increase than in the previous eras. Such growth, in turn, required unprecedented experiments in human organization and ways of thinking.

22. SURPLUS FOOD PRODUCTION…
…means that not everyone has to grow food or tend animals. They can take on other tasks. They can specialize in some non-farming task.
                                                                 
Some people took up full-time specialized occupations and professions (artisans, merchants, soldiers, priests, and so on) rather than spending most of their time collecting, producing, or processing food.

23. Men and women may become:
This is called…
Job Specialization.
Men and women may become:
Weavers
Stone Masons
Potters
Priests
Scribes
Traders
Army officers
No longer must individual families survive on their labor alone. Specialization allowed individuals to focus on one specific craft, task or activity, allowing individuals to make advancements in their jobs.

24. So, let’s have a quick review of that last sequence of events.

25. Domestication of Plants and Animals
Farming
Population
Intensification
Surplus Food
Specialization
Complex Society,
also known as
CIVILIZATION
What are the positive and negative consequences of this process. During your online discussion pose a positive and negative outcome to the Agricultural and Urban Revolutions and respond to at least two classmates who posed a different outcome than you. State why you do or do not agree with their point of view.
1,000 years ago
Today
Big Eras 4-9
Big Era 2
10,000 years ago
Big Era 3

26. Civilizations have a number of elements in common.
These will help us identify civilizations as they rise and fall throughout history.

27. Civilization Can you define it? Did you catch that term? Remember it.
Write it down.
Answer: A civilization is a complex society.

28. Elements of civilization include:
1) Advanced Cities
Mohenjo Daro
It’s the
law
2) Central governments
And Law codes
Advanced cities are not defined by population but by whether they are centers of economic activity. Cities became centers where goods were created and traded. As more people began to live together, it became necessary to create organization and rules which to live by. Laws and property needed to be defined and consequences given for disturbing or breaking with the rules that kept order.
Hammurabi’s
Law Code
Pharaohs

29. 4) Highly organized institutions
Elements of Civilization include:
1) Cities
2) Central governments
and law codes
3) Writing and
record keeping
Can you identify
the society
represented
by each of these two
writing samples?
Writing and record keeping became necessary to keep record of trade transactions, property ownership, laws and religious beliefs. Institutions helped to provide long lasting organization from generation to generation.
4) Highly organized institutions
Example: government, religion, economic systems

30. Elements of Civilization include:
1) Cities
2) Central Governments and law codes
5) Specialized Jobs
3) Writing and record keeping
4) Highly organized religion
Sumerian Scribe
6) Social Classes
Specialization, like this scribe, led to differences in wealth and social status, thus leading to social classes. Differences also emerged between men and women. During Era Two, men and women were both necessary to the survival of the tribe. Women probably provided the majority of food since hunting was not always successful. Now, women became tied to the home and bearing children which the men could pass their property onto. Thus, women activities became regulated to ensure her offspring were that of her husband.
A hierarchy of social classes appeared in which some men and women—the elite class—had more wealth, power, and privilege than did others. Also, men became dominant over women in political and social life, leading to patriarchy. “Patri” means male, a male dominated hierarchy.
Assyrian slaves
In Egypt

31. Elements of Civilization include:
1) Cities
2) Central governments and law codes
7) Complex Technologies
3) Writing and record keeping
4) Highly organized institutions
Chariot
5) Specialized jobs
6) Social classes
Specialization also led to increasing technologies as people now had more time to refine their tools and craft. Governments oversaw the building of large irrigation projects opening more land to farming, again in turn, increasing population and from an environmental standpoint , putting more stress on the surrounding environment as humans altered the natural landscape to suit their needs.
Bronze Sword

32. So, have you been paying attention
or doing a bit of day dreaming?
Can you list some of the
elements of a civilization?
Let’s check!
Clue:
There were 7!

33. Check your answers below:
Good job if your list includes:
Check your answers below:
1. Advanced Cities
2. Central governments and law codes
3. Writing and record-keeping
4. Specialized jobs
Social classes
Complex technologies
Highly organized institutions
Good job, huh?

34. By 3,000 BCE, societies in Southwest Asia and Egypt were developing elements of complex societies.
Are we supposed
to know this?
First in the Tigris-Euphrates (modern Iraq) and Nile River valleys, then the Indus(Southwest India) valley, and later in China’s Huang River (Huang He) valley and a few other regions, societies emerged that were far larger and denser than the farming communities of the Neolithic period. We refer to these big concentrations of people as complex societies, or, more traditionally, as civilizations.
Their most conspicuous characteristic was cities. Early cities were centers of power, manufacturing, and creativity. Building and preserving them, however, required drastic alterations of the local environment to produce sufficient food, building materials, and sources of energy. The price of this intervention was high. Dense urban societies were extremely vulnerable to changes in weather, climate, disease conditions, wood supplies, and trade links to distant regions. After the appearance of complex societies, humans stepped up their efforts to manipulate and control their physical and natural environment.
1,000 years ago
Today
Big Eras 4-9
Big Era 2
10,000 years ago
3,000 years ago
Big Era 3

35. There were also two new ones in the Americas.
By the end of Big Era Three, about 1000 BCE, there were several well-established civilizations in Afroeurasia.
There were also two new ones in the Americas.
At least two civilizations in Afroeurasia, the Minoan in the Mediterranean region and the Harappan in the Indus River valley had already come and gone.

36. Now, looking back over Big Era Three, let’s review the major changes.
Be sure to read the in-depth treatment of this topic on the website: Big Era 3
1,000 years ago
Today
Big Eras 4-9
Big Era 2
10,000 years ago
Big Era 3

37. Domestication of Plants and Animals
Farming
Population
Intensification
Surplus Food
Specialization
Complex Society,
also known as
CIVILIZATION
1,000 years ago
Today
Big Eras 4-9
Big Era 2
10,000 years ago
Big Era 3

38. Complex belief systems
That translates into:
Farmers
Herders
Cities
Central governments
Armies
Monumental buildings
Written language
Social hierarchies
Complex belief systems
In 10,000 BCE none of these existed in the world. By 1,000 BCE they all did.

39. Not only has life changed culturally and technologically, but also the rate of change has accelerated.
Letters and
envelopes
Writing
Irrigation
Wheel
Pyramids
Copper
smelting
Temple building
Walled cities .
Dogs, sheep. goats, horses, wheat, rice, chiles, potatoes—all domesticated
Plow farming
Alphabet
Chariots
Pottery
360-degree circle
Sailing technology
Law Codes
Regular trade routes
Today
Big
Eras
4-9
1k years ago
Bow & arrow
Art
200k yrs ago
Language
Calendars
Big Era 1
BE3
Big Era 2
10k years ago

40. You may have noticed that the difference between the rate of change in Big Era Two and in Big Era Three is enormous.
What factors do you think might account for this increasing rate of change?
Make a few notes and discuss this question with your fellow students in your online discussion

41. As you move on to Big Era Four (1,200 BCE to 500 AD), keep your eye on the rate of change. Does it keep increasing? Level off? Slow down?
Do the factors you have identified as affecting the rate of change in Big Era Two and Big Era Three still apply?
For an in-depth treatment of this topic please refer to
Come to think of it, things changed REALLY fast In the 20th century. I wonder what the rate of change is going to be like in the 21st century?

42. Well, that’s all for Big Era Three, but don’t go away.
Hang on to your notes and stay tuned for…

43. Coming SOON to a classroom near you.
Big Era Four!
Coming SOON to a classroom near you.