The Neolithic Revolution
Tatum Anderson
The Neolithic Revolution was a change in the way prehistoric people obtained food and organized themselves.The neolithic revolution didn't happen quickly, it took several thousand years. Humans largely shifted away from hunter-gatherers and began farming in settled community's.The neolithic revolution started around eleven to fourteen thousand years ago. Humans did not have to hunt any more, the animals and plants were right in front of them. Humans built civilization up causing them to grow food and other people had different jobs because of the " beasts of burden"such as ox, cattle and bison. Not everyone farmed. Some continued to be nomadic or sill hunted and gathered. Hunter-gatherers still hunted and gathered berry's and nuts. They did not stay in one place they fallowed the migration patterns with the animals they hunted. Farming started in the Neolithic Revolution.Women most likely started farming by noticing the patterns in wild plants growth and began to cultivate. While women cultivated men continued to hunt. Farming went wrong for the people in the non fertile places. This caused some people to abandon their settlements and returned to hunter-gatherers. The domestication of animals was a big change in human life. Wolves were the first animals to be domesticated. They were domesticated around ten thousand years ago in Mesopotamia.Humans domesticated sheep and goats not much later. Humans domesticated them because they provided hides, horns, wool and milk. Sheep and goats were probably easy to domesticate because of their small size, their plant diet and their tameness. The Horns of the animals were used to make arrow tips. Humans did not just farm in the fertile crescent, they farmed in many different regions of the world In China they manly grew millet and rice. In India they grew mostly barley and wheat. The Middle East grew figs, rye and lentils. In North America they grew corn, beans and squash. Domestication of animals changed the animals as well of humans. The domesticated animals appear to be smaller then wild animals. Domesticated birds don't molt or shed feathers like wild birds do. The domestication of animals provided a reliable food source for humans.The domesticated animals can be bread more in all seasons so humans got more animals. Instead of fallowing the packs of animals they hunted, humans directed the animals to a rich food source and kept herds near human settlements. Humans lead to the domestication of wolf pups so they domesticated wolves to dogs. The domestication of wolves were to help with hunting. The wolf and the human have good quality's to hunt. Wolves are fast to catch up with there pray. Humans have short and long range weapons. Domestication altered (changed) the condition, humans needed to survive. Instead of hunting and gathering, people could farm, raise animals, and produce a surplus of food. Domestication of animals helped set the stage for the growth of cities. Domestication of animals is a good thing and a bad thing. The good things is that we have dogs and cats, we can farm with animals, the animals fertilize our crops, we can breed them any time of the year to get more animals to trade and show a sign of wealthiness, their hides and wool to make clothes, their horns are used to make weapons and they provided us with meat. The bad thing is the animals that they domesticated held diseases and now we get sick. When the rivers flooded because of the rain they learned how to build irrigation. Irrigation's means they learned how to control the rivers. they built a levee (a big pile of dirt) and when they needed the water to water the crops they opened the gate and they could control the flood. Fewer people were needed in the fields to farm because of the "beasts of burden" so more people could specialize in more treats like doctors and republicans
Beasts of burden doing the hard work for humans pulling the plow
Wild wheat humans domesticated
wolf pup a human took in to help the human and to have the wolf hunt with him