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Humans Try to Control Nature

MAIN IDEA WHY IT MATTERS NOW TERMS & NAMES

ECONOMICS The development New methods for obtaining • nomad • slash-and-

of agriculture caused an food and the development of • hunter- burn farming
increase in population and the technology laid the foundations gatherer • domestication
growth of a settled way of life. for modern civilizations. • Neolithic
Revolution

SETTING THE STAGE By about 40,000 years ago, human beings had become
fully modern in their physical appearance. With a shave, a haircut, and a suit, a
Cro-Magnon man would have looked like a modern business executive.
However, over the following thousands of years, the way of life of early humans
underwent incredible changes. People developed new technology, artistic skills,
and most importantly, agriculture.

TAKING NOTES Early Advances in Technology and Art

Outlining Use an outline
to organize main Early modern humans quickly distinguished themselves from their ancestors,
ideas and details. who had spent most of their time just surviving. As inventors and artists, more
advanced humans stepped up the pace of cultural changes.
Humans Try to
Control Nature Tools Needed to Survive For tens of thousands of years, men and women of the
I. Early Advances in
Old Stone Age were nomads. Nomads were highly mobile people who moved
Technology and Art from place to place foraging, or searching, for new sources of food. Nomadic
A. groups whose food supply depends on hunting animals and collecting plant
B. foods are called hunter-gatherers. Prehistoric hunter-gatherers, such as roving
II. The Beginnings
g of bands of Cro-Magnons, increased their food supply by inventing tools. For
Agriculture example, hunters crafted special spears that enabled them to kill game at greater
distances. Digging sticks helped food gatherers pry plants loose at the roots.
Early modern humans had launched a technological revolution. They used
stone, bone, and wood to fashion more than 100 different tools. These expanded
tool kits included knives to kill and butcher game, and fish hooks and harpoons
to catch fish. A chisel-like cutter was designed to make other tools. Cro-
Magnons used bone needles to sew clothing made of animal hides.
Artistic Expression in the Paleolithic Age The tools of early modern humans
explain how they met their survival needs. Yet their world best springs to life
through their artistic creations. Necklaces of seashells, lion teeth, and bear claws
adorned both men and women. People ground mammoth tusks into polished beads.
They also carved small realistic sculptures of animals that inhabited their world.
As you read in the Cave Paintings feature, Stone Age peoples on all continents
created cave paintings. The best-known of these are the paintings on the walls
and ceilings of European caves, mainly in France and Spain. Here early artists
drew lifelike images of wild animals. Cave artists made colored paints from
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charcoal, mud, and animal blood. In Africa, early artists engraved pictures on rocks
or painted scenes in caves or rock shelters. In Australia, they created paintings on
large rocks.

The Beginnings of Agriculture

Vocabulary For thousands upon thousands of years, humans survived by hunting game and
Edible means “safe gathering edible plants. They lived in bands of 25 to 70 people. The men almost
to be eaten.” certainly did the hunting. The women gathered fruits, berries, roots, and grasses.
Then about 10,000 years ago, some of the women may have scattered seeds near a
regular campsite. When they returned the next season, they may have found new
crops growing. This discovery would usher in the Neolithic Revolution, or the
agricultural revolution—the far-reaching changes in human life resulting from the
beginnings of farming. The shift from food-gathering to food-producing culture
represents one of the great breakthroughs in history.
Causes of the Agricultural Revolution Scientists do not know exactly why the
agricultural revolution occurred during this period. Change in climate was proba-
bly a key reason. (See chart on page 17.) Rising temperatures worldwide provided
longer growing seasons and drier land for cultivating wild grasses. A rich supply
of grain helped support a small population boom. As populations slowly rose,
hunter-gatherers felt pressure to find new food sources. Farming offered an attrac-
tive alternative. Unlike hunting, it provided a steady source of food.
Early Farming Methods Some groups practiced slash-and-burn farming, in
which they cut trees or grasses and burned them to clear a field. The ashes that
remained fertilized the soil. Farmers planted crops for a year or two, then moved to
another area of land. After several years, trees and grass grew back, and other farm-
ers repeated the process of slashing and burning.

The Neolithic Ice Man

In 1991, two German hikers made an accidental
discovery that gave archaeologists a firsthand
look at the technology of early toolmakers. Near
the border of Austria and Italy, they spotted the
mummified body of a prehistoric traveler, preserved
in ice for some 5,000 years (upper right).
Nicknamed the “Ice Man,” this early human
was not empty-handed. The tool kit found near
him included a six-foot longbow and a deerskin
case with 14 arrows. It also contained a stick with
an antler tip for sharpening flint blades, a small
flint dagger in a woven sheath, a copper ax, and a
medicine bag.
Scientific research on the body (lower right)
concluded that the Ice Man was in his 40s when
he died in the late spring or early summer from
an arrow wound. Scientists also determined that
in the hours before his death, he ate wild goat,
red deer, and grains. The Ice Man is housed in a
special museum in Bolzano, Italy.

The Peopling of the World 15

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Domestication of Animals Food gatherers’ understanding of plants probably

spurred the development of farming. Meanwhile, hunters’ expert knowledge of
wild animals likely played a key role in the domestication, or taming, of animals.
They tamed horses, dogs, goats, and pigs. Like farming, domestication of animals
came slowly. Stone Age hunters may have driven herds of animals into rocky
ravines to be slaughtered. It was then a small step to drive herds into human-made
enclosures. From there, farmers could keep the animals as a constant source of
food and gradually tame them.
Not only farmers domesticated animals. Pastoral nomads, or wandering herders,
tended sheep, goats, camels, or other animals. These herders moved their animals
to new pastures and watering places.
Agriculture in Jarmo Today, the eroded and barren rolling foothills of the Zagros
Mountains in northeastern Iraq seem an unlikely site for the birthplace of agricul-
ture. According to archaeologist Robert Braidwood, thousands of years ago, the
environmental conditions of this region favored the development of agriculture.
Wild wheat and barley, along with wild goats, pigs, sheep, and horses, had once
thrived near the Zagros Mountains.
In the 1950s, Braidwood led an archaeological dig at a site called Jarmo. He
concluded that agricultural settlement was built there about 9,000 years ago:

PRIMARY SOURCE
We found weights for digging sticks, hoe-like [tools], flint-sickle blades, and a
Analyzing
wide variety of milling stones. . . . We also discovered several pits that were
Primary Sources
probably used for the storage of grain. Perhaps the most important evidence of
Why do you
all was animal bones and the impressions left in the mud by cereal grains. . . .
think Braidwood
The people of Jarmo were adjusting themselves to a completely new way of life, believes that we
just as we are adjusting ourselves to the consequences of such things as the can learn from
steam engine. What they learned about living in a revolution may be of more early peoples?
than academic interest to us in our troubled times.
ROBERT BRAIDWOOD, quoted in Scientific American

The Jarmo farmers, and others like them in places as far apart as Mexico and
Thailand, pioneered a new way of life. Villages such as Jarmo marked the begin-
ning of a new era and laid the foundation for modern life.

Villages Grow and Prosper

The changeover from hunting and gathering to farming and herding took place not
once but many times. Neolithic people in many parts of the world independently
developed agriculture, as the map at the right shows.
Farming Develops in Many Places Within a few thousand years, people in many
other regions, especially in fertile river valleys, turned to farming.
• Africa The Nile River Valley developed into an important agricultural center
for growing wheat, barley, and other crops.
• China About 8,000 years ago, farmers along the middle stretches of the
Huang He (Yellow River) cultivated a grain called millet. About 1,000 years
later, farmers first domesticated wild rice in the Chang Jiang River delta. Making
• Mexico and Central America Farmers cultivated corn, beans, and squash. Inferences
• Peru Farmers in the Central Andes were the first to grow tomatoes, sweet What advan-
potatoes, and white potatoes. tages might farming
and herding have
From these early and varied centers of agriculture, farming then spread to over hunting and
surrounding regions. gathering?

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Agriculture Emerges, 5000–500 B.C.

120°E
80°E
0 1,000 Miles A S I A
E U R O P E
0 2,000 Kilometers

AN
40°N MAK e
KL I H
TA ESER T

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Jarmo Hu e

llo
Eu
hr Tig (Y

p
ate r
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is
Jericho R. Pan-po

R.
.
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us
CHINA

I nd
SAHARA R

A
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E ABI

D
SE A INDIA
RT N
A F R I C A

INDIAN OCEAN
80°W

NORTH
SONORAN
DESERT AMERICA ATLANTIC
OCEAN Major crops
Tropic of Cancer Sorghum Wheat
Bananas Grapes
Tehuacan Soybeans
Valley Barley Olives
NA

Agriculture by 5,000 B.C.

MIB

Corn Potato Agriculture by 3,000 B.C.

KALAHARI
D

Agriculture by 2,000 B.C.

P A C IF IC
ESE

0° Equator DESERT Cotton Rice

Agriculture by 500 B.C.
OCEAN
RT

SOUTH
AMERICA
MA DESERT

0 1,000 Miles
Tropic of Capricorn Agricultural Revolution
Temperature Population
A T A CA

0 2,000 Kilometers
World Population (in millions)

60° 150
Average Global Temperature

Post-
58° 125
Agricultural
(in Fahrenheit)

100 Revolution
56°
75 Agricultural
beginnings of
54° Revolution
agriculture
50
Hunting-
52° 25 gathering
last ice age
50° 0 stage
25 20 15 10 5 0 25 20 15 10 5 0
▲ A Neolithic grindstone and vessel Years Ago (in thousands) Years Ago (in thousands)
used to grind grain Source: Ice Ages, Solving the Mystery Source: A Geography of Population: World Patterns

SKILLBUILDER: Interpreting Maps and Charts

1. Map What geographic feature favored the development of agricultural areas before 5000 B.C.?
2. Chart What effect did the agricultural revolution have on population growth? Why?

The Peopling of the World 17

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Catal Huyuk In 1958, archaeologists discovered the agricultural village now

known as Catal Huyuk (chuh•TUL hoo•YOOK), or the “forked mound.” It was
located on a fertile plain in south-central Turkey (about 30 miles from modern-day
Konya), near a twin-coned volcano. Catal Huyuk covered an area of about 32 acres.
At its peak 8,000 years ago, the village was home to 5,000 to 6,000 people who
lived in about 1,000 dwellings. These rectangular-shaped houses were made of
brick and were arranged side-by-side like a honeycomb.
▼A 9,000-year-old
Catal Huyuk showed the benefits of settled life. Its rich, well-watered soil pro-
baked-clay figurine duced large crops of wheat, barley, and peas. Villagers also raised sheep and cattle.
found in Catal Catal Huyuk’s agricultural surpluses supported a number of highly skilled workers,
Huyuk such as potters and weavers. But the village was best known at the
time for its obsidian products. This dark volcanic rock, which looks
like glass, was plentiful. It was used to make mirrors, jewelry, and
knives for trade.
Catal Huyuk’s prosperity also supported a varied cultural life.
Archaeologists have uncovered colorful wall paintings depicting ani- Vocabulary
mals and hunting scenes. Many religious shrines were dedicated to a Shrines are places
mother goddess. According to her worshipers, she controlled the where sacred relics
are kept.
supply of grain.
The new settled way of life also had its drawbacks—some of the
same that affected hunter-gatherer settlements. Floods, fire, drought,
and other natural disasters could destroy a village. Diseases, such as
malaria, spread easily among people living closely together. Jealous
neighbors and roving nomadic bands might attack and loot a wealthy
village like Catal Huyuk.
Despite problems, these permanent settlements provided their resi-
dents with opportunities for fulfillment—in work, in art, and in leisure
time. As you will learn in Section 3, some early villages expanded into
cities. These urban centers would become the setting for more com-
plex cultures in which new tools, art, and crafts were created.

SECTION 2 ASSESSMENT

TERMS & NAMES 1. For each term or name, write a sentence explaining its significance.
• nomad • hunter-gatherer • Neolithic Revolution • slash-and-burn farming • domestication

USING YOUR NOTES MAIN IDEAS CRITICAL THINKING & WRITING

2. Which effect of the 3. How did Cro-Magnon’s new 6. MAKING INFERENCES What kinds of problems did Stone
development of agriculture tools make survival easier? Age peoples face?
was the most significant? 4. What factors played a role in 7. SUMMARIZING In what ways did Neolithic peoples
the origins of agriculture? dramatically improve their lives?
Humans Try to
Control Nature 5. What were the first crops 8. HYPOTHESIZING Why do you think the development of
I. Early Advances in grown in the Americas? agriculture occurred around the same time in several
Technology and Art different places?
A.
9. WRITING ACTIVITY SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Write a two-
B.
paragraph opinion paper on the most significant
II. The Beginnings
g of
Agriculture consequences of the Agricultural Revolution.

CONNECT TO TODAY CREATING A CHART

Use text information on Jarmo and Catal Huyuk to make a chart listing the tools,
weapons, and other artifacts that archaeologists today might find at an ancient site of a
farming settlement.

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