Chapter 3: From Hunters And Gatherers To Farmers

Chapter 3: From Hunters and Gatherers to Farmers Neolithic Societies Around the World

In Chapter 3 of History Alive! The Ancient World, you learned about the shift from hunting and gathering to farming. This enormous change in people’s lives is called the Neolithic Revolution. Your study of this dramatic change focused on the earliest Neolithic settlements in western Asia. But over time, humans made the shift to farming in many other places as well. Let’s take a closer look at where and why the Neolithic Revolution happened. To understand this story, we need to take a step back and look at what came before the shift to farming.

Pre –Neolithic Societies

Between about 100,000 and 35,000 b.c.e.., early humans spread from Africa to Europe, Asia, and Australia. Humans first migrated to the Americas from Asia as long ago as 25,000 B.C.E. Like their hominid ancestors, these early humans were hunter-gatherers. They used their intelligence and toolmaking ability to adapt to many kinds of environments. For example, those who lived near lakes and rivers learned to fish. In central Africa, people used barbed bone points to catch large catfish as much as 80,000 years ago. Near oceans and seas, people learned to collect shellfish and hunt sea mammals and seabirds. Elsewhere, bands of hunters worked together to stalk and kill large animals. Different groups became skilled in hunting the kinds of animals that lived in their area. In parts of western Europe, people specialized in hunting reindeer. Farther east, they hunted horses. In central Asia, hunters killed mammoths (a kind of hairy elephant). In the plains of North America, they hunted giant bison, mammoths, and mastodons (a hairy, elephantlike creature). Humans adapted in other ways as well. They made animal skins into clothing. They fashioned tools and art from bones, ivory, and antlers. In the Ukraine, in eastern Europe, one team of scholars found an entire village made of mammoth bones.

Adapting to a Change in Climate

Modern humans first appeared during the last great ice age. During ice ages, temperatures are cold, and glaciers cover much of the Earth. The most recent ice age reached its peak about 20,000 years ago. Vast sheets of ice covered much of Europe, Asia, and North America. Hunter-gatherers adapted to the cold by using fire for warmth, making clothing of animal skins, and taking shelter in caves. By 8000 B.C.E., the cold period had come to an end. Earth began getting warmer. Glaciers melted and retreated north. This change called for new adaptations. The new conditions were less friendly to large ice-age mammals like the mastodons. Hunting had already reduced their numbers. Now many of them became extinct. Some animals that were adapted to the cold, such as reindeer and elk, moved north. Familiar plants also disappeared, while other kinds of animal and plant life became more abundant. Forests spread over much of Europe and Asia. Humans adapted to these changes in two main ways. Most learned to collect and hunt more kinds of plants and animals. This was especially true in forested areas and in places such as eastern Europe and North America, where large animals still roamed. Others made a much bigger adaptation. Gradually, they learned to collect the seeds of useful plants and replant them. They began domesticating (taming) wild animals. This was the beginning of farming—the biggest change in humans’ way of life in all of history.

Neolithic Societies

People didn’t learn to farm all at once. They started raising plants from seeds while continuing to hunt and gather much of their food. Gradually, some groups learned to rely on farming for most of their food. This shift marks the beginning of the Neolithic Revolution.

As you have learned, the shift to farming happened first in western Asia around 8000 b.c.e.. For the first time, people could settle down in one place instead of wandering about in search of plants and animals to eat.

Over the next few thousand years, Neolithic societies appeared in other parts of the world. By about 5000 b.c.e., there were farming communities in parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Several major centers of Neolithic culture were located in fertile river valleys. Among them were the valleys of the Nile River (Egypt), the Indus (India), and the Huang He and Chang Jiang rivers (China).

Some groups in the Americas also discovered farming. People grew squash in Mexico as early as 8000 b.c.e., though settled villages came much later. By 2500 b.c.e., there were thriving Neolithic settlements in Central America and in Peru.

Adapting to Local Conditions

Like hunter-gatherers, early farmers had to adapt to local conditions. They grew the plants and domesticated the animals that thrived in their areas. Early farmers in western Asia grew wheat and other cereal grains, and domesticated wild goats and sheep. In eastern Asia, farmers grew millet and rice and raised a type of chicken.

In Mexico, people grew plants that were native to the Americas, such as squash and maize (corn). In Central America, people grew cotton along with food crops like corns, beans, and squash. They used cotton to make fishing nets as well as cloth. People in the high mountains of Peru grew potatoes and domesticated llamas.

Farmers had to adapt in other ways as well. In Egypt, farmers relied on the regular flooding of the Nile River to water their lands. In other places, farmers learned to store water and build irrigation systems. People in different areas built shelters out of local materials, such as mud brick, stone, and timber.

Over time, great civilizations grew up around the early centers of Neolithic culture. Farming villages grew into cities, states, and empires. A new chapter in the human story had begun—one that continues to this day.