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. Europe
2. 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 basketmaking 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.
Sedentary Agriculturalists Dominate
•High starch diets slowly allow
Sedentary 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.
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 Huyuk
Modern Turkey
Jericho
Modern Israel
First settled:
c. 7000BCE
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 maledominated, patriarchal systems.
•Women were limited in vocation,
worked in food production, etc.
•Women may have lacked the
same 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 Village
Catal Huyuk (shot-l- hoo-yook) in
southern Turkey (est. 7000 BCE)
Neolithic Village: Catal Huyuk (shot-lhoo-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-lhoo-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.