the neolithic revolution world history: libertyville hs
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The Neolithic Revolution World History: Libertyville HS. 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 - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
The Neolithic RevolutionWorld History: Libertyville HS
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
Agriculture then spread to Greece, Egypt
In Europe, agriculture spread from SE to NW between 6000 and 3000 BC
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
• Herders: domesticating herds of animals– Short step from H-G to herding– Animals depended on location:
sheep, pigs, even reindeer!– More stable than H-G– Still hunted, gathered food
Agricultural Society• Grow your own food• Crops grown depended on
where people lived• Hunting and herding
supplemented agriculture• Result = food surplus• Implications of farming?– Settled down in one place– Food surplus led to larger
families– Food surplus led to
communities
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 2-3000 years– Occurred spontaneously– H-G / herders / farmers co-
existed, sometimes with conflict
Types of Agriculture• Dry farming
– Dependent on amount of rainfall only
– Subsistence farming• Slash and burn
– Burn forest / grassland– Fertilizes ground– Subsistence farming
• Irrigation– Used rivers to water fields– Dig trenches, ditches, control
systems for flow of water– Required lots of people and
organization– BUT allowed for food surplus
Irrigation in SW Asia
• Mesopotamia (“Land Between Two Rivers”)– Irrigation developed
around 4000 BC– Population pressure in
hills led to people moving into river valley
• Irrigated agriculture led to Civilization!
Civilization• Characteristics of Civilization
(pg. 20 of book)– Advanced cities
• Large population in small area• Concentration of people became
center of trade for region– Specialized workers
• Most people worked as farmers• 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
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)