1. The Agricultural Revolution
Unit 2 – Lesson 6
The Agricultural Revolution

3. 10,000 years ago life looked like this:

4. RECORDER REPORTER TIMEKEEPER ENCOURAGER
Small Group Activity
RECORDER
REPORTER
TIMEKEEPER
ENCOURAGER

5. 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.

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

8. Notice any
Differences?

9. 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.

10. Activity

11. 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.

12. 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.

13. ACTIVITY

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

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

18. 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

19. 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

20. 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…

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

22. the development of…
FARMING COMMUNITIES

23. 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

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

25. 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.

26. Prediction Activity

27. ??????????????????
Did the move from hunter-gather to farmer improve the quality of life of humans?

29. 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

30. 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