 6,500-3,500 B.C.  Most farming villages small—range between 200-1,000 people—everyone involved in agriculture in some way.  Agriculture is village’s chief occupation—but not the only one.  Once harvest grain—how to store it? How to transport water?

 Pottery—growth of the village artisan (not full time)—store grain, water  Development of weaving—basket weaving— better than pottery for grain as is lighter.—use same technology for manufactured cloth— based first on sheep’s wool.  Practical applications—clothes, blankets, items that can be traded.  Pottery and weaving emerged as important village handicrafts because their products met crucial storage needs.

 What to do if a neighboring village raids yours?  Manufacturing of weapons  Copper Age c. 6,500. Chalcolithic Era  Why copper? Pliable—heat copper ore to smelt it. Through accumulation can produce containers, tools (plowshare), weapons.  Evidence from Serbia c. 7,000 B.C. But Caucases, Asia Minor, Cyprus—need for copper stimulates trade, causes an early arms race.

 Better tools: sickles, knives, plows become more advanced. Otzi or the Ice Man had a copper axe.  What to do with excess manufactured goods: hides, pottery, grain, livestock?  Trade:--means of exchange or gift-giving to cement alliances.  Establish goodwill and alliances between villages by means of gift-giving.  But trade also: little copper in near East—but much in Cyprus. Early development of trade networks.

 Establishment of villages provokes warfare through the accumulation of goods.  Villages have material possessions (nomadic people had few).  Livestock, tools, people, fields—things to protect and to tempt potential attackers.  To some degree, village warfare stimulated the progress of technology—better weapons to defend yourself and your village.

 Çatal Hüyük in s. Turkey  c.7,000 B.C.—large walled Neolithic site of 5,000-8,000 people.  Farming community—but walled.  Entrances to houses on the roof.  Buried dead in village—often under the hearth or bed.  Important site for access to copper from Cyprus---Cyprus—Syria corridor.

 C. 6,800 B.C.—large walled village—on trading route between Egypt and Mesopotamia.  One of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world.  Like Çatal Hüyük, bury dead under the bed.  Evidence for habitation back to 9,000 B.C.

 Completely agricultural  Very few artisans (no full timers)  No specialization of services  Physical structure: may or may not be walled; few public spaces—structures private homes.  Little trade—communal defense.  In some areas, villages will develop into something new: the city.

 Bronze—result of the city  Appears c. 3,500 B.C. Bronze = alloy of copper and tin. Much more effective weapon and tool—Harder, more durable than copper.  Increases need for tin—encourages trade.