Neolithic

article to do >> change name to Neolithic outline >>? >> add Ag Package >> Neolithic Revolution w/ "Causes" as separate article?

• causes to include
  • Ag Package
  • NAR in the Levant
  • [[Ice Age[[ as agent but not direct cause
    • diversity of species with changing climate
      • from savanna to oak forests
    • warmer & wetter climate =
      • greater food supply
      • less need for movement
      • semi-sedentary
  • population growth
    • Mesolithic trade
    • exchange & spread of ideas
      • see Gobeleki article

>>> to do link

• • • • see Natufian culture
  • Younger Dryas
    • sudden cooling caused by lake Agassiz >> sp?
    • collapse of Natufian culture

• Essential Questions
  • Why did farming start in different places at different times?
  • Why did farming start after the Ice Age, but not immediately after the Ice Age?
  • Why did farming first start in the Levant

Domestication of Plants

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neolithic_founder_crops

Domestication of Animals

• dogs
• sources:
  • Dogs Decoded PBS site on dogs with articles, videos, links

• others >> todo

Settlement

• semi-nomadic & seasonal settlement
• long transition and spread of farming
  • northern European adoption of farming was a process of mixed diets, technologies, and lifestyles
    • see Early farmers’ fishy menu Agriculture may not have radically changed European diets at first (Sciencenews.org by Bruce Bower, October 24th, 2011)
      • 6,000 year old cooking vessel with wooden spoon found in Baltic region showed fish residue
      • biological lineage of northern European farmers shows origins in Asia Minor 8,500 years ago
      • as cultivation spread, it spread and mixed with hunter-gatherers ("foragers")

cities

• walls
  • Jericho (in Jordan)
    • date to 8,000 bc
    • 12ft high/ 6ft thick walls

>> why the need for walls?

Social Organization

• new skill sets
• division of labor/ responsibility
  • tool making
  • clothing / weaving
  • seeds
• technology:
  • measure time
  • using animals to plow (oxen and water buffalo)
  • dwellings
• pressure on social organization and technology
• other impacts:
  • new environmental conditions
  • new and more dependencies
• land & property

Metal Working & Rise of Civilization

• control of fire
• brick making
• metal:
  • copper, then bronze, then copper/tin mix

>> todo

Surplus & Trade

• to satisfy seasonal scarcities
• mutally beneficial exchanges
• surplus
  • Food <> Population cycle
  • trade
  • specializaton
  • power relationships
  • transportation
    • wheel
    • animal transportation

• environmental dependencies
  • dependency on surplus = vulnerability to
    • war, raids, invasion
    • natural events (floods, doughts, etc.)
    • soil degradation
• innovations
  • necessities
  • exchange
• standardization
  • record keeping
  • values
  • organization