1. The Neolithic Revolution
World History: Libertyville HS

2. The Neolithic Revolution
Setting the scene
10,000 years ago: ice age was ending
Climate became stable
Game became more scarce
Agriculture first emerged in Southwest Asia, China, and the Americas, independently
Agriculture then spread to Greece, Egypt
In Europe, agriculture spread from SE to NW between 6000 and 3000 BC

3. Steps to an Agricultural Society
Hunter Gatherers: how man had lived for millions of years
Follow herds of wild animals
Gather food from wild plants
Short step from H-G to herding domesticated animals
Type of animals depended on location: sheep, pigs, even reindeer!
More stable than H-G: why?
Also hunted, gathered food

4. Agricultural Society Grow your own food
Crops grown depended on where people lived
Hunting and herding supplemented agriculture
Result = food surplus
Implications of farming?
Man settled down in one place
Food surplus led to larger families
Food surplus led to communities

5. Did the steps happen at the same pace, everywhere?
NO!!!
Some people never got past herding
Others skipped herding and went right to farming
Still others stayed as H-G
Farming developed over years
Occurred spontaneously
H-G / herders / farmers co-existed, sometimes with conflict

6. Types of Agriculture Dry farming Slash and burn Irrigation
First kind of farming developed
Dependent on amount of rainfall only
Subsistence farming (little surplus)
Slash and burn
Burn forest / grassland
Ash fertilized ground
Subsistence farming
Irrigation
Used rivers to water fields
Dug trenches, ditches & control systems for flow of water
Required lots of people and organization
BUT allowed for food surplus

7. Irrigation in SW Asia Mesopotamia (“Land Between Two Rivers”)
Irrigation developed around 4000 BC, probably because people were forced out of hills into river valley
Causes?
Overpopulation?
Conflict?
Irrigated agriculture led to Civilization!

8. Civilization Characteristics of Civilization Advanced cities
Large population in small area; challenges?
Concentration of people became center of trade for region
Specialized workers
Most people worked as farmers
B/c of food surplus, some workers became skilled in specific area of work
If not farming, you had better be producing something important!
Complex institutions
Government arose to organize farmers to maintain irrigation systems

9. Civilization Characteristics (continued) Complex institutions
Religion arose to explain the world
Record keeping
Government needed to keep track of taxes, laws
Religion maintained calendar, stories of gods / goddesses
Trade kept track of debts, transactions
Advanced technology
Agriculture led to ox drawn plows
Metallurgy (using metal for tools, instead of stone, bone or wood)