From The Origins Of Agriculture To The First River Valley Civilizations

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Chapter 1: From the Origins of Agriculture to the First River-Valley Civilizations
800-1500 B.C.E I. Introduction
• Civilization had been discovered since B.C. The question is when and where is its hearth or origin? Most of Scholars and Scientists claimed that it emerged before 3000 B.C.E in Mesopotamia and Egypt, although the claim needs to be carefully explains. Political, social economic and technological phenomena also are indicators of civilization. This chapter will cover the domestication of Ice Age then to the society of Mesopotamia and Egypt.

II. Before Civilization 1. Introduction
• Human art first originated around 1940 near Lascaux in France. The development of artistic display influence by the society and community, not just art but animals and transmission of practices also, this constitute to culture and lead to history. • Stone Age last its stone-making from 2 million years ago until 4000 years ago. Its generation tools were also made of other poorly material. Neolithic started after 10000 years ago after Paleolithic ended => Paleolithic last for 6000 years

Old Stone Age = Paleolithic
New Stone Age = Neolithic

2. Food Gathering and Stone Technology
• Stone Age people scavenge and hunt for food, although anthropologists believe they don’t really depend on meat to survive but also wild vegetables food.
• Stone Age people also wove their material from leaves and use wooden stick to dig up edible roots. • Cooking also appears after wildfire was discovered about 1-1.5 million years ago. Studies said that women were fit to cooking and gathering while men hunt animals for foods. • The same studies said that early foragers lived in groups to defense themselves from predators and divided the foods and profits within to survive, it usually contains 50 people.
• Some regions, people built huts of branches, stone, skins and bones ….And woven clothes (appear about 26,000 years ago)
• Art, Religion, and Science were also dated to the Stone Age
• Music and dancing left no traces but visual artwork did, cave painting were discovered about 32,000 years ago. Although cave arts have a well religion development but without texts, it’s hard to know that they believe

3. The Agricultural Revolutions
• Around 10,000 years ago, people started to domesticated plants and animals to eat and survive, although hunting is still around
• The agricultural revolution means the new domestication of food, nothing much emphasizes after that. Bands of people migrated to the same seasonal camps to grow food every year.
• Stone Tools were also created to work on the farm like blazers, stone mortars, using ashes to fertilize, (Men clear fields, and women collect foods)
• Wheat and barley were discover in 8000 B.C.E. in the Middle East, the domestication of crops from Middle East were spread to the adjacent lands, but agriculture rose independently
• Eastern Sahara went through wet period, Greece used M.E. crops and light-soiled plains, some other places practice shifting cultivation, Mediterranean has complex agriculture techniques (mix crops), Southern China and India domesticated rice since 10,000 B.C.E. and keep progressing, ETC
• The domestication of animal also started about before Neolithic time.
• Wild species were evolving domestic forms during centuries before 3000 B.C.E, it soon spread to the adjacent areas just like plants. Animals products like milk, droppings, wool, could also be use
• Pastoralism also discovered which is the a life depends on the large herds of grazing livestock (arid regions mostly)
• Believes show that Agriculture occurred simply because of climate change (most convincing evidence), the temperate lands occur between 6000 and 2000 B.C.E.
• Agriculture also helps the population increase 4. Life in Neolithic Communities
• Farmers enjoyed life better than foragers. Their diet contains less variety of nutritious than foragers. There are violent struggles between