1. The Neolithic Revolution
Ms. Carmelitano

2. The Neolithic Revolution
The “New Stone Age”
The Agricultural Revolution
The shift from “food gathering” to “food producing”
Began between 9000 – 5000 BCE

3. Important Note This was not one sudden “Revolution”
It was a slow change from hunter-gathering to farming
These changes took place at different times all over the world

4. Where it all Began "Fertile Crescent" in what is now modern Iraq
A crescent-shaped region
Contains moist and fertile land in otherwise arid area
Agriculture and pastoralism diffused from Mesopotamia to Egypt, Western Europe and the Indus Valley

5. Causes of the Neolithic Revolution
Warmer Climate Change
Big game migrated to the mountains, limiting the food source
Longer growing season and drier land
This leads to a population boom
Hunting and gathering could no longer support the population
Farming provides a steady source of food

6. “Invention of Farming”

7. Effect of the NR: 1. New Farming Techniques
Slash and burn farming – cut trees and grasses and burned them to clear a field
The ashes fertilized the soil
Crops planted for a year or two and then moved to a new area so the grasses could grow back
Domestication of animals - taming
Horses, cows, goats, pigs
Pastoral Nomads
They moved their animals to new pasture grounds and watering holes

8. Map of Crops

9. Effect of the NR: 2. Job Specialization
In Hunter-Gatherer clans
every person was required for hunting or gathering
In sedentary societies, people could now have specialized jobs
Builders
Inventors/scientists
Artists – wove baskets, made pottery and jewelry

10. Effect of the NR: 3. The Economy
The establishment of traditional economies
An economy based on agriculture, manufacturing, and trade
The first social classes emerge as a result
Warrior, farmer, craftsman classes
Stratification between men and women

11. Effect of the NR: 4. Metal Tools
Metal tools and weapons replaced stone tools
Farming allows for job specialization
Smiths could make innovations to tools
Useful to agriculture and herding
Metal farming tools were more efficient
Metal plow
Metal hoes and farm tools
Advanced tools  increased food production  increases the population  more job specialization  more inventions to make life easier

12. Neolithic Ice Man
The Neolithic Ice Man has given scientists evidence of Neolithic tools
He was found with:
a 6-foot long bow
14 arrows
a stick with an antler tip for sharpening flint blades
a flint dagger
a copper ax
a medicine bag
He was found in the mountains between Austria and Italy

13. Effect of the NR: 5. New Diseases
Clans began to live in close quarters with animals
Disease became rampant
Smallpox, Tuberculosis, measles, influenza, malaria
The rat
Immunity
Introduction to these diseases helped people develop immune systems

14. Spread of Ideas
As nomadic clans passed through these new settlements, the ideas spread