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

    • 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:
  • 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

early villages

  • Ba'ja, Jordan
    • 7,000 BC settlement in isolated, mountainous region in southwest Jordan
    • period is PPNB (Pre-Pottery Neolithic B)
    • up to 600 inhabitants in 1-2 story, connected houses built into the landscape
    • built on a small plateau surrounded by sandstone formations
    • lived on legumes and animals
    • villagers had extensive stone working abilities for shell-jewelry and small sandstone rings
      • the rings were possibly used for trade or wealth display
    • see

early cities

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

>> why the need for walls?

see Cucuteni–Trypillia culture: Cucuteni–Trypillia culture - Wikipedia

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