Facts About the Agricultural Revolution

1. The Neolithic revolution was actually a gradual event. It probably developed from the practice that some hunter-gathering societies have of encouraging their favorite plants to grow by clearing away competing plants (weeding or burning) and saving the seeds and planting them.
2. The shift from hunting & gathering to agriculture led to permanent settlements, the establishment of social classes, and the eventual rise of civilizations.
3. Neolithic villages continued to divide work between men and women.  However, women's status declined as men took the lead in in most areas of these early societies.
4. Why did the establishment of agriculture prevail over hunting and gathering? Agricultural societies simply fed more people, allowed for larger families and so could push out, absorb or slaughter the hunter-gathering societies in the long run.
5. While no one knows for certain what conditions caused the shift from hunting and gathering to sedentary agriculture, changes in the climate may have been significant factors. It is also probable that increases in human population prompted changes in food production.
6. The first plants domesticated were the wild grains - barley and wheat - that were common in many regions of the Middle East.
7. Sheep, goats, and pigs were among the first animals domesticated around 8500 B.C.E. Cattle, more aggressive and faster than the other animals, were added to the agricultural system around 6500 B.C.E. 
8. The development of sedentary settlements accelerated the pace of technological development. Many of these innovations were directly connected to agriculture, including plows, implements, techniques of seed selection, and irrigation. The development of better tools led to better housing and systems for the storage of grain.
9. The production of food surpluses allowed social differentiation and economic specialization. Some people were freed from the processes associated with the production of food to make other commodities, such as cloth, pottery, and leather goods. Economic specialization led to social stratification and the creation of elite classes of rulers.
10. The favorite settlement locations were river basins and flood plains. These areas could be relied upon to bring regular floods for the irrigation of crops. 
11. However, Neolithic societies were noticeably more hierarchical than the Paleolithic cultures that preceded them and hunter-gatherer cultures in general.
12. Families and households were still largely independent economically, and the household was probably the center of life
13. A significant and far-reaching shift in human subsistence and lifestyle was to be brought about in areas where crop farming and cultivation were first developed: the previous reliance on an essentially nomadic hunter-gatherer subsistence technique or pastoral transhumance was at first supplemented, and then increasingly replaced by, a reliance upon the foods produced from cultivated lands.
14. Neolithic peoples were skilled farmers, manufacturing a range of tools necessary for the tending, harvesting and processing of crops (such as sickle blades and grinding stones) and food production (e.g. pottery, bone implements). They were also skilled manufacturers of a range of other types of stone tools and ornaments, including projectile points, beads, and statuettes.

Sources:

1. Facts 1 & 4:The Neolithic Revolution
2. Facts 2 & 3: Regents Prep: Global History: Change & Turning Points: Neolithic Revolution
3. Fact 5 - 9: The Neolithic Revolution and the Birth of Civilization Outline
4. Image Source and Fact 10: Chapter 5: The Neolithic Revolution
5. Facts 11-14: Neolithic Period on Ancient History Encylcopedia

Categories: agricultural, animal, domestication, facts, plant, planting