The Neolithic Revolution Ms. Carmelitano

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

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

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

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

“Invention of Farming”

Effect of the NR: 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

Map of Crops

Effect of the NR: 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

Effect of the NR: 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

Effect of the NR: 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

Effect of the NR: 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 disease helped people develop immune systems

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