Early Humans and the Neolithic Revolution

 Modern humans evolved in eastern Africa between 50,000 and 100,000 years ago  Modern?  Physically modern bodies, like ours  Behaviorally modern too, they had:  Technology (tools of stone, bone and horn)  Art (painting, sculpture)  Religion (burial customs)

Found in Austria, age 25,000 years, size 4” tall

 Groups divide, mix, reunite, sharing genes, languages, customs, technology = STRONGER  60,000ya: spread to SW Asia (MidEast)  50,000ya: South Asia (India)  40,000ya: Australia  15-30,000ya: the Americas  How do we know this? DNA Mapping

This map shows both physically modern humans as well as pre- human ancestors like Neanderthals. The last of these died less than 24,000 years ago. Early modern humans probably met them, and even competed for resources with them. Mated?

 These modern humans were like us in many ways, but 1 very important thing made their lives very different from ours. What do you think it was?  Need a hint?  They had to keep moving around…  Looking for something…  FOOD!

 They were nomadic hunter-gatherers, moving around, hunting animals, gathering plants… why?  Then came the big discovery:  “If you put seeds in the ground, they turn into plants! Plants we can eat!!!”  THIS WAS REVOLUTIONARY!!!

 The nomads stopped moving around… why?  They started farming, this was a big change  THE NEOLITHIC REVOLUTION  (aka the Agricultural Revolution)

 WHAT: the change to farming  WHEN: beginning about 13,000ya  WHY: to produce food instead of hunt-gather  WHERE: first the Fertile Crescent, then China, India and (later) North and South America  HOW: Domestication of plants and animals

This map shows places where agriculture was developed. Places with a question mark are unsure if farming developed independently or if it was copied from another area.

This is where the Agricultural Revolution began. The first people to stop nomadic hunting and gathering and grow their own food started farming here, about 13,000 years ago. Fertile Crescent farmers domesticated the grains wheat and barley, together with some kinds of peas and beans. These first farmers and herders domesticated animals, too. They began with dogs and then goats, sheep, pigs and cows.

 The key to the Revolution was DOMESTICATION, making a wild plant or animal more useful to humans.  How? Controlled breeding. More useful?  Plants: bigger edible parts (fruit, leaves or seeds)  Animals: more products or useful services  Must have wild stock to begin with, some places do, some don’t. Advantage? Effects?

AreaCrop Type Cereals, GrassesPulses Fertile Crescentwheat, barleypea, lentil, chickpea Chinamillet, rice soybean, adzuki bean, mung bean Mesoamericacorn common bean, tepary bean, scarlet runner bean Andes, AmazoniaCorn lima bean, common bean, peanut West Africa and Sahelsorghum, millet, African ricecowpea, groundnut India [wheat, barley, rice, sorghum, millets] hyacinth bean, black gram, green gram Ethiopia teff, finger millet, [wheat, barley] [pea, lentil] Eastern United States maygrass, little barley, knotweed, goosefoot New Guineasugar cane— Examples of Early Crops around the Ancient World

Species Date (B.C.) Place Dog10,000 Southwest Asia, China, North America Sheep8,000Southwest Asia Goat8,000Southwest Asia Pig8,000China, Southwest Asia Cow6,000 Southwest Asia, India, (?)North Africa Horse4,000Ukraine Donkey4,000Egypt Water buffalo4,000China? Llama / alpaca3,500Andes Bactrian camel2,500Central Asia Arabian camel2,500Arabia Dates of Domestication of Large Mammal Species

 This was a BIG change, a revolution  What effects do you think this had on the lives of these early people, the first farmers?  Think about food, homes, population, society, health, work, the environment…