1. History of human civilization and origin of Agriculture
Lecture 2

2. Before agriculture, humans were hunter-gatherers
By 1900, hunter-gatherer societies were restricted to small areas that were too dry, too cold or too wet for agriculture.
In good areas, people of hunter-gatherer societies don't have to learn to plant.
Some gatherers do plant seeds. Some gatherers replant parts of root crops.
Most cultures are based on seeds, not root crops, although many root crops are important in the lowland tropics.
Some gatherers also irrigate.
Gatherers learned how to cook or otherwise detoxify food plants.
A hunter-gatherer or forager[1] society is a nomadic society in which most or all food is obtained from wild plants and animals, in contrast to agriculturalsocieties, which rely mainly on domesticated species

4. 99% of mankind’s existence on Earth has been as a HUNTER & GATHERER!
A 19th century engraving of an Indigenous Australian encampment.

8. Ice age hunters and gatherers

9. Paleolithic Societies

10. The Technology of Paleolithic Societies
Early tools - wood, bones, animal skins, and stone,
Tools provided shelter, protection, clothing and food.
Tools used to build tents, huts, wooden and stone structures.
Fire for light and warmth
First weapons included rocks and clubs, knives, spears, axes, and the bow and arrow.
Mats and baskets were used to carry nuts, berries, and plants.
Between 2 and 3 millions years ago, humanity's immediate ancestors appeared in Africa. Between 100,000 and 200,00 years ago, true humans or homo sapiens, (meaning wise human), appeared. The best known of homo sapiens are the Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon man. What seems certain is that homo sapiens originated in Africa and then migrated outward. This is called the “Out of Africa” thesis.

11. Social Organization During Paleolithic Age
Family Unit
Extended families clustered together, forming clans bound by ties of kinship.
Larger groups such as bands and tribes.
Social groups sustained themselves by hunting and gathering (foraging).
Most hunter-gatherer societies were mobile or nomadic.
Coordination and teamwork were needed to hunt large creatures and wage war.

12. Their tools

13. Social Organization During Paleolithic Age
Gender Division of Labor
Men hunted, made war, and performed heavy labor.
Women gathered nuts, berries, and plants; prepared food; maintained home; and tended children.
Some historians believe women and men were basically equal.

14. Religion of Paleolithic Societies
Worshipped gods or deities.
Practiced a variety of religious rituals.
Buried their dead.
Made sacrifices to gods and spirits
Performed various ceremonies

15. Paleolithic Societies
Oldest cave paintings discovered to date are 16,000 years old.
Lascaux is the setting of a complex of caves in southwestern France famous for its Paleolithic cave paintings. The original caves are located near the village of Montignac, in the Dordogne département. They contain some of the most well-known Upper Paleolithic art. These paintings are estimated to be 16,000 years old. They primarily consist of realistic images of large animals, most of which are known from fossil evidence to have lived in the area at the time. In 1979, Lascaux was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Sites list along with other prehistoric sites in the Vézère valley.[1]
Lascaux caves, France

16. Intellectual Characteristics of Paleolithic Societies
Humans expressed themselves in art and music.
The first known musical instruments are flutes from 30,000 years ago.
The Divje Babe flute is a cave bear femur pierced by spaced holes that was found at the Divje Babe archeological park located near Cerkno in northwestern Slovenia. It has been suggested that it is the world's oldest known musical instrument,[1] but this is in dispute.[2][3][4] The continuing dispute notwithstanding, the artifact remains on prominent public display as a flute in the National Museum of Slovenia (Narodni Muzej Slovenije) in Ljubljana. The museum's visitor leaflet maintains that manufacture by Neanderthals "is reliably proven".[5]
Divje Babe flute : cave bear femur

17. Agricultural Revolution or Agricultural Transition?
Agriculture was not a sudden transformation.
The term, “revolution,” is often used because of the magnitude of change involved.

18. Why Change?
Most evidence suggests that hunters-gatherers resisted agriculture as long as they could.
Why?
traditional explanation: no incentive
hunter and gatherers maintain small populations
infanticide, abortion, lactation taboos
lacking stimulus for radical change?
empirically aware of the natural cycle of plants?
plants come from seeds?
they need water and sunlight?
same time, same place, each year?

19. The Neolithic Revolution
(8000BCE-3500BCE)
Sometimes termed the
Agricultural Revolution.
Humans begin to slowly domesticate plant and animal stocks in Southwest Asia.
Agriculture requires nomadic peoples to become sedentary.
Populations begin to rise in areas where plant and animal domestication occurred.

21. Development and Spread of Agriculture
Farming developed first in the Middle East, in an arc of territory running from present-day Turkey to Iraq and Israel (Fertile Crescent)
Barley and wild wheat were abundant
organized agriculture
sedentary life-style
based on farming a few simple crops
for surplus
Middle East
about 10,000 B.C.
near the end of the last ice age

22. Development and Spread of Agriculture
Farming then spread to parts of India, north Africa, and Europe.
Agriculture spread much later to Africa.
Agriculture was invented separately in the Americas much later (around 5000 B.C.)
Followed by Southeast Asia and Japan
And then Central Asia

23. Problems and Advantages
food supply is at the mercy of the elements
food supply is more varied and healthy
food supply requires less work to acquire
Non-nomadic lifestyle avoids disease

24. Independent Development vs.
Cultural Diffusion
Areas of Independent Development:
SW Asia (wheat, pea, olive, sheep, goat)
China & SE Asia (rice, millet, pig)
Americas (corn, beans, potato, llama)
Areas of Agriculture Through Diffusion:
Europe
West & Sub-Saharan Africa
Indus River Valley (rice cultivation)

25. Agriculture Prompted New Ideas and Techniques
The need for storage facilities for grains and seeds prompted the development of basket-making and pottery.
Agricultural needs also encouraged certain kinds of science, supporting the human desire to learn more about weather or flooding.
Discovery of metal tools (4000 B.C.) in the Middle East
Copper was the first metal, followed by bronze – a more resilient metal.

26. Neolithic Pottery

27. Sedentary Agriculturalists Dominate
High starch diets slowly allow
Sedentary populations to grow.
First plow invented c.6000BC;
crop yields grow exponentially by 4000BC.
Pop. grows from 5-8 million to million.
Eventually agricultural populations begin to spread out, displacing or assimilating nomadic groups; farming groups grow large enough for advanced social organization.

28. Grains grinding

29. Domestic plants? (sedentary agriculture)
four grasses: wheat, maize, rice, sugar
starches: potatoes, yam, manioc, banana
legumes: lentils, peas, wetches, beans, peanuts, soybeans

30. (POSSIBLE B/C FOOD SURPLUSES!)
First Towns Develop
Towns require social differentiation: metal workers, pottery workers, farmers, soldiers, religious and political leaders.
(POSSIBLE B/C FOOD SURPLUSES!)
Served as trade centers for the area; specialized in the production of certain unique crafts
Beginnings of social stratification (class)

31. First Towns Develop
Catal Huyuk
Modern Turkey
First settled:
c. 7000BC
Jericho
Modern Israel
First settled:
c. 7000BC

33. Surplus Food and the Specialization of Labor
Emergence of villages and towns
Discoveries at Çatal Hüyük, Turkey, occupied BC
Tremendous range of manufactured products
Pottery, Jewelry, Textiles, Copper tools
Development of crafts

34. Towns Present Evidence of:
Religious structures
(burial rites, art)
Political & Religious leaders were the same
Still relied on limited hunting & gathering for food

35. Roles of Women
Women generally lost status under male-dominated, patriarchal systems.
Women were limited in vocation,
worked in food production, etc.
Women may have lacked the
same social rights as men.

36. Metal Working: From Copper to Bronze
Early settlements gradually shifted from copper to the stronger alloy bronze by 3,000BC—ushers in the Bronze Age!
Metal working spread throughout human communities slowly as agriculture had.

37. Social Organization: Villages
nuclear family: man, woman, children
extended family: two or more married couples and their children
clans: groups of families
tribes: inhabitants of the villages of a given region

38. Extended Family
more suitable for village economic life
more hands to work
more efficient at planting and harvest
more intensive labor

39. Further Technological Advancements
Wheeled Vehicles
Saves labor, allows transport of large loads and enhances trade
Potters Wheel (c.6000BC)
Allows the construction of more durable clay vessels and artwork
Irrigation & Driven Plows
Allows further increase of food production, encourages pop. growth

40. Early Human Impact on the Environment
Deforestation in places where copper, bronze, and salt were produced.
Erosion and flooding where agriculture disturbed soil and natural vegetation.
Selective extinction of large land animals and weed plants due to hunting & agriculture.

41. Discovery of Neolithiic Village Catal Huyuk (shot-l- hoo-yook) in southern Turkey (est. 7000 BCE)

42. Neolithic Village: Catal Huyuk (shot-l- hoo-yook) in southern Turkey
on 32 acres
Houses made of mud bricks set in timber frameworks crowded together with few windows
People spent time on rooftops to experience daylight and make social contact
Houses were lavishly decorated with hunting scenes
Religious images of powerful male hunters and mother goddesses representing agricultural fertility

43. Neolithic Village: Catal Huyuk (shot-l- hoo-yook) in southern Turkey
Some trade with hunting people who lived in surrounding hills
Large villages like Catal Huyuk ruled over smaller communities, bringing about specialization in politics and organization of military.
Accumulation of wealth initiated social classes.
By 3000 B.C., Catal Huyuk had become part of a civilization.

44. Drawing Depicting Catal Huyuk (shot-l- hoo-yook) in southern Turkey

45. Wall Painting from Catal Huyuk (shot-l- hoo-yook) in southern Turkey

46. Statue from Catal Huyuk (shot-l- hoo-yook) in southern Turkey

47. Civilizations
Developed writing, starting with cuneiform (writing based on wedge-like characters) in the Middle East around 3500 B.C.
One of the earliest written records from the Middle East is a recipe for making beer.

48. Civilizations
People in civilizations looked down on any society lacking in civilization.
The ancient Greeks coined the word “barbarian” to describe such cases.
As a result of labels like this, it is easy to think of much human history as divided between civilizations and primitive nomads.

49. In conclusion…. Mankind has a long history of hunting and gathering.
Prehistoric societies evolved away from nomadic lifestyles approximately 10,000 years ago in many locations around the world.
Agriculture contributes to the development of civilization.