What was the Neolithic Revolution?

Mankind achieved tremendous leaps and bounds that built the modern world. Easier connection, taller buildings, and greater food choices have been a far cry from where civilization took its roots during the Neolithic Age and the Revolution born on that period.

End of the Ice Age

Around 14,000 BCE the ice age just ended and came to the New Stone Age. Otherwise known for its Greek translation Neolithic, this age defined the period from 14,000 BCE up to 4,000 BCE. Humanity continued with its migration spreading across the world by crossing land bridges that connected now water-divided continents. We lived through hunting and gathering food. Prehistoric animals like mammoths fed humanity to survive until a change came with the dawn of the Neolithic Age.

Neolithic Age

The Neolithic Age saw great and tremendously profound developments in mankind’s history. Humanity began to farm crops and to use animals, which allowed for further developments such as the establishment of settlements and the start of religion as well as other crafts like pottery and textile. Our ancestors underwent a revolution that forged the foundation of man’s history.

The Neolithic Revolution came as an idea from the Australian archaeologist V. Gordon Childe. He believed that during the Neolithic age, humanity invented agriculture and became the most everlasting and profound contribution to the period. From agriculture grew civilization.

Exact reasons for the invention of agriculture had been a matter of debate. Childe believed that the end of the ice age and the warmer climates that followed brought humans and animals to stay close to freshwaters like rivers, springs, and oases. However, the theory fell into question when studies showed that the climate went wetter rather than warmer as Childe surmised. The marginality or edge theory offered an alternative explanation. Proposed in the 1960s, Lewis Binford of the University of New Mexico suggested that after the Ice Age humanity settled in areas best for hunting and gathering, but as people concentrated in such areas, it resulted in stiff competition forcing others to flee into marginal areas. To survive, they tamed plants and animals to their will, thus inventing agriculture and husbandry. Just as Childe’s theory, Binford’s theory also came under fire when early settlements proved to be located in hunting and gathering paradises. Despite the exact reason for the invention of agriculture and domestication remaining as one of humanity’s greatest mystery, the effects remained profound to this day.

Agriculture defined the Neolithic revolution. This alone created further developments that became a leap for mankind. Humanity learned to bend plants to its will and produce food in less hazardous means. Wheat, corn, and rice started to become a basic staple for various regions. It caused great progress in tools, infrastructure, and contributed to the development of an economy.

Animal domestication came as another important innovation during the Neolithic Revolution. A practice that began as far as 9,500 BCE, animals started to become food, pets, and companion in labor. Pigs came as a result of the domestication of wild boars with the oldest recorded in Turkey in 7,200 BCE. Goats came from domesticated Persian Ibex while sheep and cattle turned out by 8,700 BCE in Iraq. By 4,000 BCE, oxen, donkeys, and camels had already become humanity’s animal of burden. Animal domestication allowed easier access to sources of dairy and protein.

The transformation of mankind from nomadic hunters and gatherers to sedentary farmers contributed to the revolution. Agriculture allowed mankind to stay in one land to tend their farms and enjoy a much more secure food source. Houses began to be erected made of mud-brick walls and reed and straw roofs. The improvements in food production and the need for additional labor resulted in faster population growth and the magnitude of communities expanded. Farms became villages, then became towns. By 6,000 BCE earliest cities began to emerge.

The co-relation between agriculture and sedentary living, however, also sparked debates. The discovery of Ohalo II in the coast of Sea of Galilee shed doubt on the popular correlation. The site turned out to be a community of hunters and gatherers that dated as far back as 21,000 BCE. Furthermore, the site of Gobekli Tepe furthers questions. Located in southeastern Turkey, the existence of the massive mysterious temple site showed people organizing themselves to build such structure. Thus, doubts spread that sedentary living already existed before the development of agriculture and the famous relation a false one.

Further progress and development followed with agricultural development. Fire continued to be a source of energy, but soon became used in cooking bricks for houses and storage. New and better tools began to be used. Plows, rows, and sickle helped humanity to tend their farms easier. The quality of these tools also improved from being crude from chipping stones to smooth and polished stone tools. Grinding stones also helped in processing produce into ingredients for better food, for example from wheat into flour and then to bread. Pottery developed from the need of storage, and from pottery came the invention of the potter’s wheel to make it. A wish for a better harvest and further observation of nature allowed the worship of deities and gods, thus religion emerged. Arts soon sprouted as an expression of devotion, record, or just a past time. Weaving from cotton and wool also started to grow with communities. Observation of the wind and realization of its potential as a source of power for labor started to appear, from which sails began creating an impetus for the development of water navigation.

The development of agriculture and animal domestication paved a way for the bountiful progress and development of mankind. New technologies appeared creating further changes that powered humanity’s history. Additional crops such as lentils, chickpeas, and flax followed further developing the Mesopotamian diet. The use of wheat and barley later went beyond bread to become the main ingredient for the creation of beer. The scale of farming began with simple gardens and grew to become fields creating a surplus, thus giving impetus for the development of trade.

Regional Development

Various regions in the world developed agriculture differently with each other. The Mesopotamians differed from the development of Chinese agriculture as well as with those in Asia Minor. Mesoamerican culture also developed theirs independently from those in Asia and Africa.

Mesopotamia began their agriculture as far back as 8,000 BCE. They started with crops grown easily and harvested like emmer wheat and barley.

Catal Hoyuk reveled the advances made by the people of Asia Minor. From agriculture, they built one of the earliest cities in history with multistory houses, rich in culture, and vibrant worship of fertility deities.

In the Levant, numerous communities made the transition from hunter-gatherers to agriculturalists focusing on wheat and barley. The tells of Jericho and Abu Hureyra attested to this progress alongside developments in pottery and technology.

On the other hand, in China, several cultures flourished from 5,000 BCE that left pieces of evidence of their lives through potteries. They survived through hunting and gathering supplemented by the cultivation of wheat and to some extent rice as well as raising water buffalos, cattle, and pigs. Among these cultures included the Yangshao and Longshan Cultures in China and the Jomon and Yayoi Cultures in Japan.

Effects of the Neolithic Revolution

The Neolithic Revolution brought groundbreaking changes. In fact, the period built the foundations of civilization. It saw the development of new tools such as sickles and hoes used to till the soil. It also saw the development of pottery which besides storage purposes became a medium of artistic expression and medium of recording life during the old times. Society also developed becoming more organized but also stratified with divisions between rulers and workers, rich and poor, men and women. Furthermore, the Neolithic Revolution saw a rise in population and an increase in settlements. Connections between these settlements began through either trade or war. On the other hand, the period also saw the rise of new diseases as a result of the domestication of animals. Diseases such as influenza and smallpox appeared resulting in deadly effects in settlements. For good and bad, the Neolithic Revolution established the basics of a human society that lived on this day.

Bibliography:

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Blakemore, Erin. “What was the Neolithic Revolution?” National Geographic. Accessed on May 27, 2020. URL: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/topics/reference/neolithic-agricultural-revolution/

History.com Editors. “Neolithic Revolution.” HISTORY. Accessed on May 27, 2020. URL: https://www.history.com/topics/pre-history/neolithic-revolution

The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica. “Neolithic.” Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed on May 30, 2020. URL: https://www.britannica.com/event/Neolithic

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