Emergence of agriculture and writing
To discuss the influence of agriculture and writing on the ways of life and social organization of humanity.
- New challenges for humanity
Humans organized themselves to face the new conditions they found in the places they arrived: other climates, new predators, even more primitive humans. In front of these groups, their superiority lay above all in language, which enabled them to act as a whole, to be more sagacious, to be better communicated.
They also improved their tools: they added handles, for example, to improve their efficiency; they invented the rope, fishing hooks, whistles, baskets.
Creativity began 40,000 years ago par excellence: art. The first things that appeared were lines, circles and symbols carved in stones (petroglyphs); then, small sculpted bone objects and, 30,000 years ago, the cave painting on the walls of caves: hands, human, and animal silhouettes, probably related to myths and beliefs.
In the cold areas, they needed animal skins to cover themselves and to hunt better; they invented the spear, the bow; and, to separate the flesh of the skin, better burins, chisels and flint knives.
- Agricultural revolution
Why and how did they do it?
Due to a decrease in the glaciation, the planet's climate improved, which in turn allowed certain grasses (herbs) that grow naturally will spread across the steppes. It also influenced some groups to observe that plants have a cycle: they are born, grow and bear fruit. Probably, it was the women who noticed that the grains they were germinating and began to sow them.
- Agricultural main centers
Andean America (today's Ecuador and Peru), 4,000 years ago
Mesoamerica (a term applied to central and southern Mexico and adjacent areas of Central America), 5,000 years ago
Northwest China, 7,000 years ago
The crescent-shaped strip of land located in the eastern Mediterranean (called the Fertile Crescent, which includes the current countries of Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Syria and Turkey), 10,000 years ago.
- Changes brought by agricultural revolution
The main and immediate change that agriculture brought the sedentary. Groups had to look after their plantations, harvest them and store the products that they did not immediately consume (surpluses); therefore, they could no longer travel to different places.
The second big change was in housing: branch sheds and caves were not enough, as in nomadic life. They had to build the first houses, with whatever was available in the area: stone, mixed wood,etc. The gathering of several houses, often behind a fence to protect themselves from predators and enemies, led to the formation of hamlets and villages.
The populations mastered the cultivation techniques: fertilizer, irrigation, seed selection and conservation of the surpluses, as well as the breeds of domesticated animals and the quality of the tools used. This increased the harvested product, which was the third big change
The availability of more consumable calories brought the increase in population, the fourth big change. Biologists have estimated that the total world human population, 10,000 years ago, was between 5 and 10 million. After 8,000 years, this figure had become 300 million.
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Invention of writing
The development of cities and agriculture led to the growth of trade. In one of these cities, and for hundreds of years, Sumerian merchants kept records of what they sold and bought on clay tokens in the form of animals, jars, and other items they traded. To keep track of the sellings they covered the chips with mud that they scratched with the tip of a cane. Towards the year 3300 B.C., they realized that they did not need figures, and began to scratch with simplified signs at any surface representing the articles: that was the beginning of writing. As the canes left marks in the form of a triangle or wedge, this type of writing is known as "cuneiform". When they wanted to keep track of the sellings, they made them in clay and baked them.
