Rhitu Chatterjee Where Did Agriculture Begin

The emergence of agriculture was a major stepping stone in human history. During this birth of agriculture, also known as the Neolithic revolution, humans began inhabiting permanent settlements, grow their own crops, and domesticate both plants and animals for food (Weisdorf, 2005). Considering humans have been hunter-gatherers for the majority of their approximately 7 million years of existence, the emergence of agriculture in the Old World only occurring 10,000-5,000 years ago, marks a significant transformation in food sustenance techniques (Weisdorf, 2005). However, this turning point in history is associated with both positive and negative implications. There is much controversy over whether or not the introduction of

| Most of the settlements began along the borders of Mesopotamia and date from the 10th to the 9th millennium BC. Because of the dry climate and flooding of the river, farmers had to adapt and eventually began to grow crops of fruits and vegetables.

Farming is a very important job. Humans didn’t start with framing thougth. At first we were hunters and gatherers moving with the food. Over time we started to farm; after the Ice Age there was a huge drought. Humans started to farm and live at one spot. Document 1-1

1B: The first civilizations formed at around 10,000 BCE, when humans settled around the Fertile Crescent to plant crops like wheat, barley and cereal. Cereal’s property of sweetening when soaked in water, and fermenting over time were discovered, making it a significant grain that led to permanent settlements, and eventually, the development of civilizations.

After 11,000 B.C., technology in the Fertile Crescent developed immensely. Inventions including flint blades for harvesting, baskets and containers for collecting crops, and underground storage pits made it possible for food production to occur. “These cumulative developments constituted the unconscious first steps of plant domestication” (Diamond 111). Utilizing the further geographical advantage of rich soil, people of the Fertile Crescent leapt into the world of food production. Food production, in turn, yielded large food surpluses stored in baskets, allowing the society to move toward a sedentary lifestyle and a more organized, specialized community. Simple agricultural tool advancements led to a

Response- Humans started agriculture in the Neolithic time. When humans found out that they can plant they started to evolve. More ideas started to grow and finally humans figured out that they can make technology people switched from farming to making things and trading for new stuff .which caused the change in human lifestyles.

Anna Belfer Cohen and A. Nigel Gorring-Morris. 釘ecoming Farmers: the Inside Story.Current Anthropology, Vol 52, No. S4 (October, 2011): n pag. The Origin of Agriculture: New Data, New Ideas. Web. 20 Nov. 2013.

The two books " A History of the World I Six Glasses," by Tom Standage and " A People's History of the World," by Chris Harman both talked about ancient world history. Agriculture was a big party in ancient civilization. Before agriculture civilization started with hunters and gatherers. But, after the domestication of plants and animals it helped with the economy. This period was called the Neolithic Era. After that human society began to evolve, creating an easier life style.

Farming spread into Europe from Southwest Asia. Both DNA analysis of European skeletal remains and domesticated plant and animal species confirm that migration of farmers helped spread agriculture into Europe. The first farming settlements mainland were established around 6500BC in east-central Greece on settlement mounds. As populations outgrew the lowland basins, communities moved to adjacent sites with

It has recently been discovered that the first people to arrive in America had migrated in small groups over the Bering Strait via the land bridge that once connected Asia to North America. However, it has not been discovered exactly when this occurred. The most widely accepted theory is that these migrations took place approximately 15,000 years ago. By 11,000 B.C.E., these people had spread across the North and South American continents. They were nomadic hunter-gatherers that organized into small communities near food supplies. Agriculture may have begun about 10,000 years ago starting with the cultivation of squash and beans. Maize, possibly along with other crops, began to be cultivated in 5,000 B.C.E. by

There are certain geographical conditions to grow wheat and they’re mostly dry lands, medium amount of rainfall, a place that’s not too cold. Wheat and Sago are very different food sources, because Wheat has a lot more protein, long term storage, and surplus of calories. Wheat lead to specialist in the Fertile Crescent because with wheat, they had more time to start building and evolving their civilization. But places such as Papua New Guinea couldn't have specialist because most of their time was spent gathering food because Sago couldn't last for a long time unlike wheat. Agriculture connects with geography because due to where they were in the world, they could not have certain plants or animals to be able to support them as they built a civilization due to where they were located at.

Agriculture or cultivating food happened about 10,000 years ago. It is rather a quite recent phenomenon. Hunting for food was the only job our ancestors needed to do. They ate raw, salt less, uncooked food mainly meat, fish, fruits and vegetables from plants. Moreover, no food grains. Mind that cultivation never happened then.

The people living in the Fertile Crescent were keenly simple. They started out as Hunters and Gatherers, but with time took to farming as a source of longer lasting and easier to get food. They grew Wheat and Barley, and seemingly selectively only harvested the biggest and best of it. This is an early example of mankind selectively breeding. A process which ends with almost all of the selectively bred product being just the way you want it to be - naturally! Furthermore, today according to PBS “There are around 570 million acres of wheat worldwide”, (Prososki.Wheat) and that's not even including barley! On another note, in addition to growing wheat and barley these early farmers of the fertile crescent also domesticated livestock.

The advancement of man from hunters and gathers to farms was not a hasty process. People did not just put down there bows and spears and pick up the hoe. Farming came about through a long process of domestication. We have looked at places like Wadi Kubbaniya where people harvested nut grass to eat. Without people continually gathering the nut grass it would grow to the point that it would choke the soil.

Despite popular belief that the adoption of agriculture improved human life because of the growth in population, it actually created several biological changes in the human body which lead to an overall decline in health due to various skeletal and dental pathologies and an increased spread of disease among the community. One of the first regions of the world to have agriculture was Southwest Asia (Flannery 1973). According to archaeological findings, several regions in Asia seemed to have some form of a village lifestyle before agriculture even began (Flannery 1973). When people began settling in villages instead of constantly shifting from place to place, the population size of groups increased. An