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Agricultural Revolution or Transformation?
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.
Slash and Burn Technology
In many areas, tribes would burn off trees, farm the area until the soil was depleted and then move on (slash and burn agriculture)
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.
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.
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
How do we know?
Religion of Paleolithic Societies
• Oldest cave paintings discovered to date are 32,000 years old.
Intellectual Characteristics of Paleolithic Societies
• Humans expressed themselves in art and music.
• The first known musical instruments are flutes from 30,000 years ago.
Agricultural Revolution or Agricultural Transition?
• Agriculture was not a sudden transformation.
•The term, “revolution,” is often used because of the magnitude of change involved.
Why Change?
• Most evidence suggests that hunters-gatherers resisted agriculture as long as they could.
• Why?
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.
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
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.E.)
• Followed by Southeast Asia and Japan
• And then Central Asia
Origin and Spread of Agriculture
Independent Development vs. Cultural Diffusion
• Areas of Independent Development:
1. SW Asia (wheat, pea, olive, sheep, goat)
2. China & SE Asia (rice, millet, pig)3. Americas (corn, beans, potato,
llama)
• Areas of Agriculture Through Diffusion:
1. Europe2. West & Sub-Saharan Africa (?)3. Indus River Valley (rice cultivation)
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.E.) in the Middle East
•Copper was the first metal, followed by bronze – a more resilient metal.
•High starch diets slowly allowSedentary populations to grow.
•First plow invented c.6000BCE;crop yields grow exponentially by 4000BCE.Pop. grows from 5-8 million to 60-70 million. •Eventually agricultural populations begin to spread out, displacing or assimilating nomadic groups; farming groups grow large enough for advanced social organization.
Sedentary Agriculturalists Dominate
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)
First Towns Develop
Catal HuyukModern Turkey
First settled:
c. 7000BCE
JerichoModern Israel
First settled:
c. 7000BCE
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)
Towns Present Evidence of:
•Religious structures (burial rites, art)
•Political & Religious leaders were the same
•Still relied on limited hunting & gathering for food
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 thesame social rights as men.
Metal Working: From Copper to Bronze
•Early settlements gradually shifted from copper to the stronger alloy bronze by 3,000BCE—ushers in the Bronze Age!
•Metal working spread throughout human communities slowly as agriculture had.
Further Technological Advancements
Wheeled Vehicles•Saves labor, allows transport of large loads and enhances trade
Potters Wheel (c.6000BCE)•Allows the construction of more durable clay vessels and artwork
Irrigation & Driven Plows•Allows further increase of food production, encourages pop. growth
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.
Discovery of Neolithiic VillageCatal Huyuk (shot-l- hoo-yook) in southern Turkey (est. 7000 BCE)
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 (broken bones)
•Houses were lavishly decorated with hunting scenes
•Religious images of powerful male hunters and mother goddesses representing agricultural fertility
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.E., Catal Huyuk had become part of a civilization.
Drawing Depicting Catal Huyuk (shot-l- hoo-yook) in southern
Turkey
Wall Painting from Catal Huyuk (shot-l- hoo-yook) in southern
Turkey
Statue from Catal Huyuk (shot-l- hoo-yook) in southern Turkey
Civilizations
• Developed writing, starting with cuneiform (writing based on wedge-like characters) in the Middle East around 3500 B.C.E.– One of the earliest
written records from the Middle East is a recipe for making beer.
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.
