1. The Beginning of Agriculture

2. The Neolithic Revolution
The New Stone Age
10000 BC BC
Sometimes termed the
Agricultural Revolution.
Humans begin to slowly domesticate plants and animals. Agriculture requires nomadic peoples to become sedentary.
Populations begin to rise in areas where plant and animal domestication occurred.
1st domesticated animal-dog
1st domesticated plant-fig

3. Advantages of Agriculture
The Neolithic Revolution
Advantages of Agriculture
Advantages
Steady food supplies=Steady diet, Live longer
Surplus of food- more than enough
Greater populations and villages grew
Leads to specialization- Not everyone had to farm because of the surplus. People were able to do one specific job.

4. Agriculture Slowly Spreads:
The Neolithic Revolution
Agriculture Slowly Spreads:
What is life like if all plants and animals had to remain in their indigenous locations? How would the world have developed differently? Similar?
Choose a topic/product/idea- what does their “Spread” Map look like now(2010)?

5. Agriculture and Specialization
The New Stone Age
Agriculture and Specialization
Led to bartering:
Kind of trade
No money
Market Day:
Your mother carries fresh cheeses, and your father has made strong wooden bows. They hope to trade for cloth to make warm capes . You see old friends, and you notice strangers who speak in languages you don’t understand. They bring clay pots or tools or baskets to trade for products from your village.

6. Farming Techniques and Adapting Surroundings
The New Stone Age
Farming Techniques and Adapting Surroundings
People built terraces
(level platforms of Earth
that climb a hill like a
staircase)
Some practiced slash & burn agriculture.
Brought water to the crops through canals and reservoirs
Early people also studied the weather.

7. The New Stone Age Tools for Farmers * Adze- a kind of ax
* Hoe- Keeping weeds out of
gardens
* Sickle- cutting fields of grain

8. The Neolithic Revolution
First Towns Develop
Catal Huyuk
Modern Turkey
First settled:
c. 7000BCE
Jericho
Modern Israel
First settled:
c. 7000BCE

9. (POSSIBLE B/C FOOD SURPLUSES!)
The Neolithic Revolution
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)

10. Towns Present Evidence of:
The Neolithic Revolution
Towns Present Evidence of:
Religious structures
(burial rites, art)
Political & Religious leaders were the same
Still relied on limited hunting & gathering for food

11. The Neolithic Revolution
Roles of Women
Women generally lost status under male-dominated, patriarchal systems.
Women were limited in vocation,
worked in food production, etc.
Women may have lacked the
same social rights as men.

12. Metal Working: From Copper to Bronze
The Neolithic Revolution
Metal Working: From Copper to Bronze
The working of metals became very important to early human settlements for tools & weapons.
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.

13. Further Technological Advancements
The Neolithic Revolution
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

14. Early Human Impact on the Environment
The Neolithic Revolution
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.

15. Advanced Civilization: The Next Step?
The Neolithic Revolution
Advanced Civilization: The Next Step?
By 3500BCE, relatively large, advanced preliterate societies had developed along the Indus, Huang He, Nile, and Tigris & Euphrates Rivers.
As societies grew in size and need, sedentary human beings were once again faced with pressures to adapt to changing natural and human environments.