WHAT does 'neolithic' mean?

WHAT does 'neolithic' mean?

Neo = New Lithic = Stone (from the Greek lithikós)

Neolithic = New Stone Age

WHAT characterised the neolithic period?

WHAT characterised the neolithic period?

•More sophisticated stone tools• Food production - agriculture and

animal domestication• Sedentary living• Pottery

WHEN was the neolithic period?*

WHEN was the neolithic period?*

•8000 - 3500 BC

* Bearing in mind it happened in different times in different places.

WHY is an appreciation of the neolithic period important to our study of the civilizations of Mesopotamia and the

Ancient Mediterranean, beginning about 3000 BC?

WHY is an appreciation of the neolithic period important to our study of the civilizations of Mesopotamia and the

Ancient Mediterranean, beginning about 3000 BC?

• The Fertile Crescent (including Mesopotamia) was the first part of the world to enter the Neolithic stage and food production took off there in the most dramatic fashion. This goes a long way to explain why this is where we find the first 'civilizations' there.

The Fertile Crescent

Jared Diamond 2005, Guns, Germs & Steel

Chapter 5: Apples or Indians?

1. Two contrasting explanations of why agriculture arose in some places and not in others.

1.1 Agriculture never arose independently in some fertile & highly suitable areas.

1.11 Eg. California, Europe temperate Australia, subequatorial Africa

1.2 Problem with the local people or problems with the locally available wild plants?

Apples or Indians?

• 2. Wild plants2.1 Worldwide - 200, 000 wild flowering plants2.2 Vast majority are unsuitable for domestication2.21 They are woody2.22 No fruit, their leaves and roots are inedible2.3 Only a few thousand are eaten by humans and only a few hundred have been domesticated2.31 Of those plants that have been domesticated, most are only minor supplements to our diet. A dozen plants make up 80% of the world’s annual tonnage of all crops

Apples or Indians?

• 3. Plants domesticated in one area but not another3.1 Eg, why did the native people of southern Africa not cultivate sorghum for themselves?3.2 Eg, Western Europe and North Africa failed to domesticate flax3.3 Einkorn wheat not cultivated in the Balkans3.4 Apple and grape domesticated in Eurasia but not in Eurasia

Apples or Indians?

• 4. Many domesticable plants and animals necessary to make a food-producing existence worthwhile4.1 We need to assess the potential of an entire local flora for domestication.4.2 Fertile Crescent – the earliest centre of food production. New Guinea and the eastern United States domesticated local crops but they were few in variety.4.21 ‘Food package’ in PNG and US did not support extensive development of human technology and political organisation.4.3 Did flora and environment of the Fertile Crescent have advantages over PNG and the US?

Apples or Indians?• 5. Fertile Crescent

5.1 Earliest site for a whole string of developments; cities, writing, empires, civilization5.2 These developments enabled by the early development of food production5.21 food production > dense population > stored food surpluses > feeding of nonfarming specialists5.3 Extensive knowledge about rise of agriculture5.31 Relationship between crops and wild plant ancestors proven by genetic and chromosomal studies5.31 Geographic range of wild plants known5.32 Changes due to domestication known precisely – observable in the archaeological record5.33 Place and time of domestication known

Apples or Indians?• 6. Advantage of Fertile Crescent Flora #1 – annual

plants6.1 Mediterranean climate (long, hot, dry summers) selects for annuals.6.2 Annuals tend to put their energy into producing big seeds (ready to sprout quickly when the rain comes).6.21 Many of the big seeds are edible by humans (cereals and pulses).6.211 6 of the world’s 12 major crops today6.22 Annual seeds well adapted to being held in long storage by humans