Neolithic Revolution The Neolithic Revolution was the first agricultural revolution.

It was the wide-scale transition of many human cultures from a lifestyle of hunting and gathering to agriculture and settlement. Archaeological data indicates that various forms of plants and animal domestication evolved independently in six separate locations worldwide circa 10,0007000 years BP (8,0005,000 BC). The earliest known evidence exists in the tropical and subtropical areas of southwestern/southern Asia.[1] However, the Neolithic Revolution involved far more than the adoption of a limited set of food-producing techniques. During the next millennia it would transform the small and mobile groups of hunter-gatherers that had hitherto dominated human history into sedentary societies based in built-up villages and towns, which radically modified their natural environment by means of specialized food-crop cultivation (e.g., irrigation and food storage technologies) that allowed extensive surplus food production. These developments provided the basis for high population density settlements, specialized and complex labor diversification, trading economies, the development of nonportable art, architecture, and culture, centralized administrations and political structures, hierarchical ideologies, and depersonalized systems of knowledge (e.g., property regimes and writing). The first full-blown manifestation of the entire Neolithic complex is seen in the Middle Eastern Sumerian cities (ca. 3,500 BC), whose emergence also inaugurates the end of the prehistoric Neolithic period. The relationship of the above-mentioned Neolithic characteristics to the onset of agriculture, their sequence of emergence, and empirical relation to each other at various Neolithic sites remains the subject of academic debate, and seems to vary from place to place, rather than being the outcome of universal laws of social evolution.[2][3] The Neolithic Revolution is the term for the first agricultural revolution, describing the transition from nomadic hunting and gathering communities and bands, to agriculture and settlement, as first adopted by various independent prehistoric human societies, in numerous locations on most continents between 10-12 thousand years ago. The term refers to both the general time period over which these initial developments took place and the subsequent changes to Neolithic human societies which either resulted from, or are associated with, the adoption of early farming techniques and crop cultivation - the domestication of plants and animals. The first agricultural revolution introduced dramatic social changes, including an increasing population density, specialization in non-agricultural crafts, such as clay figurine making in Catalhoyuk, barter and trade, the organization of a hierarchical society; the introduction of slavery, armies, the state, official religions, official marriage and personal inheritance. This revolution marked a dramatic expansion of human "control" over nature and of humans over humans. The neolithic revolution began when people discovered agriculture. Because of agriculture people could now farm instead of hunting and gathering. This allowed people to settle down and live in one place. This led to settlements and the development of group living. Since people after the neolithic rev began living in tighter more complex social situations this also led to better and more complicated forms of communication. The neolithic rev also eventually led to the development of governments because now that people were living in settlements they started dividing the work. They needed people to hunt, farm, cook, and do other things, and since not everyone could do the same thing they needed orginization to decide who would do what. This led to higher forms of orginization and ultimately to forms of government. Also with the discovery of agriculture people began to have food surpluses, this led to population growth and trade. It led to trade becasue people would now trade the extra food that they grew. Lastly the neolithic rev led to the switch from a matriarchal system to a more patriarchal system. In hunting and gathering times women were though higher of then men because they hunted and gathered just like the men did, and on top of that they also gave birth or created life. After the neolithic revolution there was no longer a need for the women to hunt and gather. A family could live off of the males work in the farm, because they then only needed one person to feed the family women fell into more homemaker roles and began to lose importance. Oh, and agriculture also led to recreational activity because less time was needed to get the necesary amount of food, so familys had free time, and they needed stuff to do. Hunter-gatherer life For most of our time on Earth2, we humans lived as hunter-gatherers. Every day, groups of people would trap and kill wild animals, while others collected and prepared wild plants, nuts, fungi, and berries. If they were lucky and food was abundant, they were able to provide enough food for themselves and their children. If they were unlucky, they starved and died. In order to stay close to their food sources, hunter-gatherers needed to be mobile. They set up temporary camps, lived there for a while, and moved on when the food supply began to dwindle. For mobility, tribal units were small just a few families, all of whom worked hard to keep themselves and their children alive. Because of the vagaries of weather, animal migrations, and the long seasons3, starvation was always just one step away. People had precious little time to do anything other than find food, warmth, and shelter for themselves and their families.4 The dawn of the Neolithic Age Fourteen thousand years ago, at the end of the last Ice Age, a new lifestyle, known to archeologists as the Natufian culture, began to emerge in the Middle East. The Ice Age was coming to an end and temperatures were warming very quickly. Food became available in relative abundance for the first time in thousands of years. Instead of having to travel long distances to find food, some groups were able to live in the same place all year round. People started to build permanent dwellings. By 10,000 BC, the end of the Younger Dryas period, they were discovering that certain animals, such as goats, sheep, cattle and pigs, had temperaments and dispositions that made them easy to manage within close proximity to their dwellings. They selected and cultivated certain grasses, such as oats, wheat and barley, which provided nourishment to larger groups of people. These plants became common anywhere there was human settlement, eclipsing all other

plant-food sources. They discovered how to store and preserve food over the harsh winter months. Thus, farming began and a new age, the Neolithic Age, was ushered in. The Effects of the Neolithic Revolution The move from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to a sedentary farming lifestyle did not take place overnight. Neither was it unique to the Middle East: Latin America and China experienced totally independent Neolithic Revolutions at later periods in time. In fact, it can be argued that in the beginning, it was in many ways an inferior lifestyle to hunter-gathering, since settled people were easier targets for attack, their nutrition undoubtedly suffered due to lack of a balanced diet, and they were more likely to suffer diseases. However, by 7000 BC, it was the dominant occupation in the Middle East, and it was already taking hold in Southern Europe and Northern Africa. For those people affected, the change that had taken place was enormous. The changes were so profound they live on with us today. Population Growth The changes brought about by farming can be distilled into two key concepts - a sedentary lifestyle, and a food surplus. In hunter-gatherer societies, women need a gap of at least three to four years between children, as multiple, highly dependent babies are incompatible with a mobile lifestyle. No such limitation existed when people lived in permanent settlements, and so it became possible for women to have children much more frequently. Additionally, as the techniques of plant cultivation and animal husbandry became more refined, it was possible to feed entire groups of people from relatively small numbers of food-sources, and still have food left over for storage during the winter months. People in agricultural communities were less subject to the whims of nature than hunter gatherers and thus had a higher chance of survival. Thus, a population explosion occurred, and over time villages, then towns, and eventually cities, took shape. The most important technological development ever to occur in human history was the domestication of plants (agriculture) and animals (pastoralism). Together these developments are called the Neolithic Revolution and they allowed the development of urban centers (towns and, later, cities), trade and most of the other things we consider to be components of "civilization." When and how did this most important event occur? The Neolithic Revolution occurred first in the so-called "Fertile Crescent" or Mesopotamia in what is now modern Iraq. It also occurred independently (probably) at later dates in China, the Americas and possibly in parts of Africa and New Guinea. Agriculture and pastoralism diffused from Mesopotamia to Egypt, Western Europe and the Indus Valley (modern ......... The Neolithic Revolution is the transformation of human societies from being hunter-gatherer based to agriculture based. This period, which occurred between 12,000 and 8,000 years ago, brought along many profound changes to human society and culture, including the creation of cities and permanent dwellings, labor specialization, the baking of bread and brewing of beer, personal property, more complex hierarchical social structures, non-agricultural crafts, slavery, the state, official marriage, personal inheritance, and more. The term "Neolithic revolution" refers both to the period of time when it occurred as well as the enduring changes it caused. Tens of thousands of years ago, there were no crops: only the primitive ancestors of the plants we recognize as being edible. After hundreds or thousands of generations of purposeful and accidental selection by human farmers, who would destroy or confiscate the seeds of plants with undesirable qualities, we domesticated strains optimized for maximum nutrition and largest yield. The so-called "Neolithic founder cops" include emmer, einkorn, barley, lentil, pea, chickpea, bitter vetch, and flax. These are all new species created by human intervention into wild ancestor species. The use of fields for crop-growing and granaries for the storage of food simplify this whole nutrition endeavor for humans, allowing for non-farming occupations in society. Trade and barter systems emerged, as well as informal currencies. Farmers could be paid for supplying others with food. Soldiers could be trained and armies raised. The creation of personal goods and food stores meant that plundering from raiders became more common, necessitating a soldier class to protect the farmers. The NeolithicNeolithicNeolithic revolution was the first fundamental restructuring of human affairs seen in a couple hundred thousand years. The Neolithic Revolution first emerged in the Fertile Crescent, around present-day Iraq, which would also be the founding site of the world's first large cities, including Babylon. Mankind was most active and prosperous around the Near and Middle East at this time. Some of the oldest known human settlements were founded in Lebanon, Syria, and Turkey just a couple thousand years after the conclusion of the Neolithic revolution. Consequences Social change It is often argued that agriculture gave humans more control over their food supply, but this has been disputed by the finding that nutritional standards of Neolithic populations were generally inferior to that of hunter gatherers, and life expectancy may in fact have been shorter, in part due to diseases. Average height, for example, went down from 5' 10" (178 cm) for men and 5' 6" (168 cm) for women to 5' 3" (165 cm) and 5' 1" (155 cm), respectively, and it took until the twentieth century for average human height to come back to the pre-Neolithic Revolution levels.[29] The shift to agricultural food production supported a denser population, which in turn supported larger sedentary communities, the accumulation of goods and tools, and specialization in diverse forms of new labor. The development of larger societies led to the development of different means of decision making and to governmental organization. Food surpluses made possible the development of a social elite who were not otherwise engaged in agriculture, industry or commerce, but dominated their communities by other means and monopolized decision-making. Subsequent revolutions Domesticated cow being milked in Ancient Egypt. Andrew Sherratt has argued that following upon the Neolithic Revolution was a second phase of discovery that he refers to as the secondary products revolution. Animals, it appears were first domesticated purely as a source of meat. [30] The Secondary Products Revolution occurred when it was recognised that animals also provided a number of other useful products. These included:

hides and skins (from undomesticated animals) manure for soil conditioning (from all domesticated animals) wool (from sheep, llamas, alpacas, and Angora goats) milk (from goats, cattle, yaks, sheep, horses and camels) traction (from oxen, onagers, donkeys, horses, camels and dogs) guarding and herding assistance (dogs)

Sherratt argues that this phase in agricultural development enabled humans to make use of the energy possibilities of their animals in new ways, and permitted permanent intensive subsistence farming and crop production, and the opening up heavier soils for farming. It also made possible nomadic pastoralism in semi arid areas, along the margins of deserts, and eventually led to the domestication of both the dromedary and bactrian camel. Overgrazing of these areas, particularly by herds of goats, greatly extended the areal extent of deserts. Living in one spot would have more easily permitted the accrual of personal possessions and an attachment to certain areas of land. From such a position, it is argued, prehistoric people were able to stockpile food to survive lean times and trade unwanted surpluses with others. Once trade and a secure food supply were established, populations could grow, and society would have diversified into food producers and artisans, who could afford to develop their trade by virtue of the free time they enjoyed because of a surplus of food. The artisans, in turn, were able to develop technology such as metal weapons. Such relative complexity would have required some form of social organisation to work efficiently, so it is likely that populations that had such organisation, perhaps such as that provided by religion, were better prepared and more successful. In addition, the denser populations could form and support legions of professional soldiers. Also, during this time property ownership became increasingly important to all people. Ultimately, Childe argued that this growing social complexity, all rooted in the original decision to settle, led to a second Urban Revolution in which the first cities were built.
The Neolithic Revolution The Paleolithic Period lasts from the beginnings of human life until about10,000 BCE. Evidence suggests that the earliest humans lived in East Africa, and slowly migrated to Europe and Asia. Over time, some of these early peoples migrated across a land bridge from Asia to America and spread out there. Others moved by boat to the various Pacific island chains. During these migrations, ideas and beliefs were transmitted between different ,cultures through warfare and trade. Background During the Paleolithic Period, which lasts from the beginnings of human life until about 10,000 BCE, people were nomads. They lived in groups of 20 -30, and spent most of their time hunting and gathering. In these groups, work was divided between men and women, with the men hunting game animals, and women gathering fruits, berries, and other edibles. These early peoples developed simple tools such as, spears and axes made from bone, wood, and stone. Human beings lived in this manner from earliest times until about 10,000 BCE, when they started to cultivate crops and domesticate animals. This is known as the Neolithic Revolution. The Neolithic Revolution was a fundamental change in the way people lived. The shift from hunting & gathering to agriculture led to permanent settlements, the establishment of social classes, and the eventual rise of civilizations. The Neolithic Revolution is a major turning point in human history. Great Discoveries About 10,000 BCE, humans began to cultivate crops and domesticate certain animals. This was a change

from the system of hunting and gathering that had sustained humans from earliest times. As a result, permanent settlements were established. Neolithic villages continued to divide work between men and women. However, women's status declined as men took the lead in in most areas of these early societies. Villages were usually run by a Council of Elders composed of the heads of the village's various families. Some of these villages may have had a chief elder as a single leader. When resources became scarce, warfare among villages increased. During war, some men gained stature as great warriors. This usually transferred over to village life with these warriors becoming the leaders in society. Early social class divisions developed as a result. A person's social class was usually determined by the work they did, such as farmer, craftsman, priest, and warrior. Depending on the society, priests and warriors were usually at the top, with farmers and craftsman at the bottom. New technologies developed in response to the need for better tools and weapons to go along with the new way of living. Neolithic farmers created a simple calendar to keep track of planting and harvesting. They also developed simple metal tools such as plows, to help with their work. Some groups even may have used animals to pull these plows, again making work easier. Metal weapons were developed as villages needed to protect their valuable resources. Effects The Neolithic Revolution changed the way humans lived. The use of agriculture allowed humans to develop

permanent settlements, social classes, and new technologies. Some of these early groups settled in the fertile valleys of the Nile, Tigris-Euphrates, Yellow, and Indus Rivers. This resulted in the rise of the great civilizations in Egypt, Mesopotamia, China, and India.

Early River Civilizations Egypt: Ancient Egypt consisted of Upper Egypt in the south, and Lower Egypt in the north. About 3100 BCE, Menes, King of Upper Egypt, united the two kingdoms. Under Menes and his successors, the Nile river became a highway in the exchange of goods and ideas. Merchants would take ships and barges up and down the river trading goods from inner Africa, the Middle East, and the Mediterranean. This helped to make Egypt a very powerful nation. During the New Kingdom, (1550 BCE - 1100 BCE) powerful pharaohs conquered an empire that stretched from Nubia in the south, to the Euphrates River in Mesopotamia. For centuries, Nubia was a major rival and trading partner of Egypt's. Nubia sent ivory, cattle, and slaves to Egypt, and left a cultural mark when Egypt conquered them during the New Kingdom Period. Nubia conquered Egypt in the 8th century BCE, and ruled for about 100 years. Nubian influence can be seen in Egyptian art, which portrays Nubian soldiers, musicians, and prisoners of war.

Mesopotamia: The Sumerians in Mesopotamia established trade along the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, and across the desert. They traded goods within the Middle East, with Egypt, the Mediterranean, and as far away as India. Many other groups controlled this region at one time or another, adding to the diversity of culture. By the early 600s BCE, the Assyrians had conquered the entire Fertile Crescent, but their empire was short lived. Later, around 500 BCE, the region was conquered and made part of the Persian Empire under the great leader Darius. Under Darius, the Persian Empire covered the Middle East, Asia Minor, Egypt, and a small part of India. Extensive trade occurred throughout the empire which resulted in vast cultural diffusion.

. Inequality had arrived, and a whole new set of systems and structures would be required to deal with this. Security All this wealth, prosperity, and stability had a downside. There were lots of people around who greatly coveted it, and would stop at nothing to get hold of it security measures were required to keep unwanted people away from other peoples' possessions. Barriers and walls were constructed, leading in time to forts and citadels. Yet another group of specialists, soldiers, emerged, either to defend the property of the rich, or to attack others in order to achieve greater enrichment. Rules governing the rights of property ownership had to be devised and enforced, leading much later to the legal system as we know it today. Security still remains one of our biggest concerns today, with huge armies of soldiers and lawyers a common fea The Neolithic Revolution - How Farming Changed the World Front Page What is h2g2? Who's Online Write an Entry Browse Announcements Feedback h2g2 Help RSS Feeds This is the story of a revolution. It's not as well known as the French Revolution, or the Industrial Revolution, or the Information Revolution. Neither did it take place quite so quickly. No records were kept, so there is still much we do not know about it. Even so, it stands alone as the greatest revolution in the history of mankind. Were it not for the Neolithic 1 Revolution, society as we know it today would be vastly different, and none of these other revolutions mentioned would have ever taken place. Hunter-gatherer Life For most of our time on Earth2, we humans lived as hunter-gatherers. Every day, groups of people would trap and kill wild animals, while others collected and prepared wild plants, nuts, fungi, and berries. If they were lucky and food was abundant, they were able to provide enough food for themselves and their children. If they were unlucky, they starved and died. In order to stay close to their food sources, hunter-gatherers needed to be mobile. They set up temporary camps, lived there for a while, and moved on when the food supply began to dwindle. For mobility, tribal units were small just a few families, all of whom worked hard to keep themselves and their children alive. Because of the vagaries of weather, animal migrations, and the long seasons3, starvation was always just one step away. People had precious little time to do anything other than find food, warmth, and shelter for themselves and their families 4. The Dawn of the Neolithic Age Fourteen thousand years ago, at the end of the last Ice Age, a new lifestyle, known to archeologists as the Natufian culture, began to emerge in the Middle East. The Ice Age was coming to an end and temperatures were warming very quickly. Food became available in relative abundance for the first time in thousands of years. Instead of having to travel long distances to find food, some groups were able to live in the same place all year round. People started to build permanent dwellings. By 10,000 BC, the end of the Younger Dryas period, they were discovering that certain animals, such as goats, sheep, cattle and pigs, had temperaments and dispositions that made them easy to manage within close proximity to their dwellings. They

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selected and cultivated certain grasses, such as oats, wheat and barley, which provided nourishment to larger groups of people. These plants became common anywhere there was human settlement, eclipsing all other plant-food sources. They discovered how to store and preserve food over the harsh winter months. Thus, farming began and a new age, the Neolithic Age, was ushered in. The Effects of the Neolithic Revolution The move from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to a sedentary farming lifestyle did not take place overnight. Neither was it unique to the Middle East: Latin America and China experienced totally independent Neolithic Revolutions at later periods in time. In fact, it can be argued that in the beginning, it was in many ways an inferior lifestyle to hunter-gathering, since settled people were easier targets for attack, their nutrition undoubtedly suffered due to lack of a balanced diet, and they were more likely to suffer diseases. However, by 7000 BC, it was the dominant occupation in the Middle East, and it was already taking hold in Southern Europe and Northern Africa. For those people affected, the change that had taken place was enormous. The changes were so profound they live on with us today. Population Growth The changes brought about by farming can be distilled into two key concepts - a sedentary lifestyle, and a food surplus. In hunter-gatherer societies, women need a gap of at least three to four years between children, as multiple, highly dependent babies are incompatible with a mobile lifestyle. No such limitation existed when people lived in permanent settlements, and so it became possible for women to have children much more frequently. Additionally, as the techniques of plant cultivation and animal husbandry became more refined, it was possible to feed entire groups of people from relatively small numbers of food-sources, and still have food left over for storage during the winter months. People in agricultural communities were less subject to the whims of nature than hunter gatherers and thus had a higher chance of survival. Thus, a population explosion occurred, and over time villages, then towns, and eventually cities, took shape. Specialisation Another effect of the food surplus was that not everybody needed to be involved almost solely in the activity of finding and preparing food. People now had more time to do other things and some people were at liberty to dedicate themselves entirely to other pursuits. New skilled professions were born such as tool-making, milling, pottery, weaving, and carpentry, to name a few. Thus, the Neolithic Revolution gave rise to rapid technological progress that continues unabated to the present day. Trade Trade was always a feature of hunter-gatherer societies; however, with the development of farming it increased greatly in scope and scale. With excess food and newly created specialist crafts available, societies had a greater capacity to produce goods of value to others. A new class of specialists emerged to facilitate the exchange of goods : the merchants. In many cases these people became enormously wealthy and powerful. Inequality had arrived, and a whole new set of systems and structures would be required to deal with this. Security All this wealth, prosperity, and stability had a downside. There were lots of people around who greatly coveted it, and would stop at nothing to get hold of it themselves. New security measures were required to keep unwanted people away from other peoples' possessions. Barriers and walls were constructed, leading in time to forts and citadels. Yet another group of specialists, soldiers, emerged, either to defend the property of the rich, or to attack others in order to achieve greater enrichment. Rules governing the rights of property ownership had to be devised and enforced, leading much later to the legal system as we know it today. Security still remains one of our biggest concerns today, with huge armies of soldiers and lawyers a common feature of developed societies. Government The problems of these new, complex societies were many and varied: Dramatic increases in

population with pressing demands on housing and food supply; disputes flaring up regularly due to the close proximity of families to each other; crime and threats from both within and without, made strong leadership and organisational skills absolutely necessary to the survival of a community. A new political class emerged, specialising in the skills of governance. These people were in a position to enforce laws, punish law-breakers, rule over internal disputes, fight wars, and commission public works. They surrounded themselves with close groups of advisors and experts to help maintain their position of privilege. They raised finance for their endeavours by demanding tribute, or taxes, from their subjects. Myths were often invented to guarantee their exalted position over many generations. The art of kingship was born. Disease The new sedentary lifestyle brought with it an unprecedented and enduring threat. For the first time in history, large groups of humans, animals, waste material, and rubbish were concentrated together in the same households5. This close proximity conferred advantages to select organisms who were quickly able to jump species, infecting the human population in large numbers for the very first time. Examples included smallpox, tuberculosis and measles, influenza and malaria. It was around this time also that the rat attached itself to human societies and has prospered ever since. Although medicine has played a major role in quelling many diseases in modern society, many of them continue to kill millions of people each year. Other Outcomes Additional direct effects of the Neolithic Revolution would include pet ownership (cats, dogs), selective breeding (all farm animals, cereal crops, fruit, and vegetables), the foods that we eat today (e.g. bread, milk, beef, chicken, eggs), the clothes that we wear (wool, cotton, leather), the landscapes of today (massively denuded of trees, and in the Middle East, arid desert caused to some extent by over-farming during the Neolithic Age) and even, as has been suggested, our histories, in that relative agricultural advantages often led to political domination of one society by another in many parts of the globe. Conclusion Although it is widely acknowledged that agriculture did not occur overnight and that the transition from hunter-gatherer society to an agricultural society took a few thousand years to complete, it would be folly to underestimate the effects on society caused by its introduction. Fourteen thousand years on, the Neolithic revolution still dominates our everyday lives. ture of developed societies. Government The problems of these new, complex societies were many and varied: Dramatic increases in population with pressing demands on housing and food supply; disputes flaring up regularly due to the close proximity of Although it is widely acknowledged that agriculture did not occur overnight and that the transition from hunter-gatherer society to an agricultural society took a few thousand years to complete, it would be folly to underestimate the effects on society caused by its introduction.