In today's world, what we call modernity, people began to walk the path of modernity about 12,000 years ago - with the beginning of the Neolithic Age. The most important part of the Neolithic Age was the agricultural revolution. At the beginning of the Neolithic Age, people were deeply involved in the hunting system, roaming in different villages, hunting and conserving wildlife. At some point, the course of their lives changed. They leaned towards an agrarian society. Today's event is about why and how human civilization started the agrarian revolution by moving away from hunting-dependent life.
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Women cultivate wheat in Monte, Portugal; Image Source: nationalgeographic.com ️ VOLKMAR K. WENTZEL
After a certain age we often hear about settling down. That is, to move away from bohemianism and become interested in a tidy, tidy life. The main controller of the agrarian revolution was the enthusiasm for a slow-moving life of the people.
People did not have a specific address in the hunting system. Just like a nomad, constantly running from one area to another to hunt animals. Hunting and conserving animals, both of which made it impossible for them to live in a particular place for a long time. The agrarian revolution began with the Fertile Crescent. A region of the Middle East is called the Fertile Crescent, or fertile crescent, which looks like a single crescent moon. The region, which looked like a crescent-shaped moon, consisted of the Persian Gulf, modern Jordan, Lebanon, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Israel, and the northern part of Egypt.
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Ancient Times: A History of the Early World Book cover; Image Source: amazon.com
Egyptian scholar James Henry Brested was the first to use the term Fertile Crescent in his 1917 book Ancient Times: A History of the Early World. In this context, his statement-
The fertile crescent area looks almost crescent shaped. The open part faces north, the west side faces northeast of the Mediterranean Sea, the middle part faces north of Arabia, and the east side faces the northern part of the Persian Gulf.
Fertile moon art is closely related to the traditions of the Abrahamic, such as Judaism, Christianity and Muslim religions. Different groups came to the fertile moon art and started farming. Basically, the agrarian revolution is not a single event, but a combination of different events that took place at the same time. There are several theories as to why human civilization has shifted from hunting to farming:
In order to cope with the pressure of the growing population, people need extra food.
It was vital to be physically and mentally strong in order to hunt. Thinking from that point of view, people feel the need for equal participation of the previous and next generation in agriculture. Food production became easier with the balanced efforts of all, young and old.
Changes in plant lifestyles. Humans began to domesticate plants as well as animals for their own needs, that is, they began to grow plants by giving them a home environment. As a result, plants also become dependent on humans. And so a different kind of environment becomes necessary for their growth than the wild environment.
Climate change.
Improving the human brain inspired people to live in an organized way.
Although the question of why and how people became prey to agriculture became preoccupied today, at that time people were gradually concentrating on settling down. In the Middle East, two peoples started farming independently and from there, agriculture gradually spread over a wide area of Europe, Asia and Africa. The data came from analyzing the genomes of 44 people who lived thousands of years ago in present-day Iran, Turkey, Armenia and Jordan. The peasants of Iran spread to India and Pakistan, while the peasants of the eastern hemisphere spread to Africa.
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A farmer threshes grain in front of the Egyptian Pyramid of Medium; Image Source: nationalgeographic.com © ️ THOMAS J. ABERCROMBIE
Did anyone think that the war, Damama, inequality would be created because of the agriculture that gave a new dimension to human civilization? The thing that inevitably went away as soon as farming started was the surplus crop. As a result of individual cultivation of different peoples, according to the seasons, they started producing different crops. The practice of power, influence, etc. started from here.
The foundation of contemporary economy was laid through agriculture. Human civilization began to move in the direction of trade, productivity, etc. As a direct effect of surplus cropping, the demand for continuous agriculture declined. That is, when a certain amount of crop was available, people no longer had to worry about working every moment. As a result, it became necessary for people to play different roles in different parts of the society. At first these were only related to agriculture, such as: making machinery, threshing crops, etc. Over time there has been a massive change in the role or function of man. Notable among these are the priests praying for rain for the sake of good crops, the guards for the protection of the crops produced and the political personalities for the purpose of investing economic power as social capital.
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Paintings of Neolithic agricultural work found in Libya; Image Source: theguardian.com © ️ Roberto Esposti / Alamy
In addition to starting research on agriculture, people also try to specialize their relationship with animals at this time. They focus on domesticating animals. Studies in Iran and Anatolia (present-day Turkey) have found evidence of goat and sheep rearing about 12,000 years ago. People began to benefit from the use of animals in agriculture as a beneficial aspect of domesticating animals. As a result, agriculture became more dynamic and at the same time domestic animals began to meet the growing demand for meat and milk of the population.
The class division in the society started slowly. The distribution of power among the people was due to fears of scarcity of resources and food and dependence on land. As a result of stratification at the social level, there is no longer a balanced issue in the supply of nutrients. Some members of the society became malnourished and this led to the spread of infectious diseases. The source of these infectious diseases was domesticated animals.
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On the way to Syria, a man rides a donkey with a flock of sheep; Image Source: nationalgeographic.com © ️ JAMES L. STANFIELD
As a direct result of the Neopolitan era, significant changes took place in the fauna of the Mediterranean basin. Some domesticated animals were added to the basic animals that lived before this time. The endemic mammals of Cyprus were not so rich. Among these limited fauna were hippopotamuses, pygmy elephants, rats, and so on. In many ways, positive and negative, the agrarian revolution or the Neolithic Age brought a new dimension to human civilization. The way we define the present civilization in terms of knowledge, industry, trade, technology, its journey started from the hands of this new stone age.
important information. I think it helps us to know agriculture history.