The Neolithic Revolution transformed human societies from hunter-gatherer to agriculture-based, leading to permanent cities, specialization of labor, trade, and more. Domesticated crops emerged from human intervention, and the revolution began in present-day Iraq, leading to the world’s first major cities.
The Neolithic Revolution is the transformation of human societies from being based on hunter-gatherers to based on agriculture. This period, which occurred between 12,000 and 8,000 years ago, brought with it many profound changes in human society and culture, including the creation of permanent cities and dwellings, the specialization of labor, the baking of bread and the production of beer, personal property, the more complex hierarchy of social structures, non-agricultural crafts, slavery, statehood, official marriage, personal inheritance and more. The term “Neolithic Revolution” refers to both the time period in which it occurred and the lasting changes it caused.
Tens of thousands of years ago there were no crops: only the primitive ancestors of the plants we recognize as edible. After hundreds or thousands of generations of deliberate and accidental selection by human farmers, who would have destroyed or confiscated the seeds of plants with undesirable qualities, we have domesticated strains optimized for maximum nutrition and maximum yield. So-called “Neolithic founder crops” include spelled, spelt, barley, lentil, pea, chickpea, bitter vetch, and flax. These are all new species created by human intervention in wild ancestor species.
The use of fields for cultivation and granaries for food storage simplifies the entire nutritional endeavor for human beings, allowing for non-agricultural occupations in society. Systems of trade and barter emerged, as well as informal currencies. Farmers could be paid to provide food for others. Soldiers could be trained and armies formed. The creation of personal possessions and food stores caused looting by marauders to become more common, necessitating a soldier class to protect the peasants. The Neolithic Revolution was the first fundamental restructuring of human affairs seen in a couple of hundred thousand years.
The Neolithic revolution first emerged in the Fertile Crescent, around present-day Iraq, which would also be the founding site of the world’s first major cities, including Babylon. Humanity was most active and prosperous throughout the Near and Middle East at this time. Some of the oldest known human settlements were established in Lebanon, Syria and Turkey just a couple of thousand years after the conclusion of the Neolithic revolution.
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