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Section B
Early History
Copyright © 2012 Johns Hopkins University and Brent Kim. Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License 3.0.
Early Humans

Origins: 150,000 years ago

Hunter gatherers
Left: Lost crops of Africa. Gingerbread plum (Mobola). National Academies Press. Center: Bill
Tarpenning, USDA. Right: Public Library of Science. Woolly mammoth in a late Pleistocene landscape
in Northern Spain. 2008. Creative Commons.
3
Transition to Agriculture

11,000 BCE: Early evidence
of agriculture

6000 BCE: Most farm
animals domesticated

5000 BCE: Agriculture
practiced in every continent
except Australia
Simmon, R. (2003). NASA Earth Observatory. Retrieved from
www.earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/HarranPlains/
4
Effects of Agriculture

More labor intensive, in some cases

10 to 100 more calories per acre
Grave chamber of Panehsi, scene with farmers and ass. Circa 1298– 1235 BCE.
Available at Wikimedia Commons.
5
Population Growth

10 000 BCE: ~4 million

1000 BCE: ~50 million

1 CE: ~200 million
Data source: McEvedy, Colin, and Jones, Richard. (1978). Atlas of world population history
(pp. 342–351). New York: Facts On File, Inc. Retrieved from
http://www.census.gov/population/international/data/worldpop/table_history.php
6
Growth of Civilizations

Early cities: Uruk, 3000 BCE;
population 50,000

Arts

Literature

Technology

Politics

Social classes
Photo: Uruk temple façade. Available at: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pergamonmuseum_-_Vorderasiatisches_Museum_007.JPG
7
Drivers of Famine

Population growth

Resource degradation

Changing climate

Drought

Conflict
Photo by Litchfield District Council. CC BY-NC-ND.
8
Soil Fertility
Photo by Chesapeake Bay Program.
CC BY-NC.
Photo by Simon Q. CC BY-NC-ND.
Photo by kt.ries. CC BY-NC.
9
The Plow

“… the plow has been
more destructive than
the sword”
Funerary stele from the Louvre
Museum features plowman, cattle.
Circa 100–300 CE, Southern Arabia.
Available at Wikimedia Commons.
10
Soil Erosion

Dust Bowl, 1930s

Midwestern United States
USDA. Buried machinery in barn lot in Dallas, South Dakota, United
States during the Dust Bowl. (1936). Public domain.
11
Population Growth

10 000 BCE: ~4 million

1000 BCE: ~50 million

1 CE: ~200 million
Data source: McEvedy, Colin, and Jones, Richard. (1978). Atlas of world population history
(pp. 342–351). New York: Facts On File, Inc. Retrieved from
http://www.census.gov/population/international/data/worldpop/table_history.php
12
Europe

Periodic famine
Wolgemut, M. (1493). Dance of death. Public domain.
13
Thomas Malthus

Assumptions, 1798
-  Exponential population
growth
-

Linear increases in food
production
Warned of widespread famine
Linnell J. (1822). Portrait of Thomas Malthus. Public Domain.
14
Population Growth

1650 CE: 550 million

1850 CE: 1.2 billion

1900 CE: 1.65 billion
Data source: McEvedy, Colin, and Jones, Richard. (1978). Atlas of world population history
(pp. 342–351). New York: Facts On File, Inc. Retrieved from
http://www.census.gov/population/international/data/worldpop/table_history.php
15
Synthetic Nitrogen Fertilizers

1900s

Credited for fueling
population growth
from 1.6 to 6 billion
Ammonia, used in synthetic nitrogen fertilizers, is
manufactured in plants like this one.
Photo by Carlee Ross. CC BY-NC.
16
Review
17