Ch4 The Origins of Agriculture 02 08 2014 Introduction The First Farmers The major transition in the course of human prehistory Wheat is one of the most important domesticated crops on Earth important staple food for people and animals in many parts of the world At end of Pleistocene some human groups began to produced food rather than collect it to domesticate and control wild plants and animals achieving what is perhaps the most remarkable transition in our entire human past Agriculture way of obtaining food that involves domesticated plants and animals Hunter gatherers largely live off the land in an extensive fashion generally exploiting a diversity of resources over a broad area farmers intensively utilize a smaller portion of landscape and create a milieu that suits their needs Transition to agriculture humans truly mastered their Exploited intensively by humans domesticated Domestication changes the physical characteristics of the plant or environment animal involved o Process involves both inherent characteristics of plant or animal species and intensity and nature of human manipulation Agriculture requires several principal practices for long term success 1 propagation selection and sowing of seeds or breeding of animals period 2 husbandry the tending of plants or animals during growth 3 harvesting of plants when ripe or slaughter of animals at appropriate times 4 storage of seeds and maintenance of animals through nonproductive periods to ensure annual reproduction Plant propagation and husbandry involve cultivation clearing fields preparing the soil weeding protecting the plants from animals and providing water Evidence for early domesticated plants focuses on seed crops Root crops not well documented in archaeological record because they lack hard parts that are more resistant to decay o Potatoes yams manioc and taro may have been domesticated quite early Earliest domesticated animals were wolves dogs pigs goats sheep and cattle Domestication of both plants and animals may be related to storage of food storage provides a means to regulate the availability of food and to accumulate surplus goes hand in hand with idea of domestication Questions concerning origins of agriculture focus on primary centers where plants animals were first domesticated Secondary areas of agricultural development received plants and animals from elsewhere Until recently 6 known primary areas for domestication Southwest Asia East Asia sub Saharan Africa Mesoamerica South America and North America o Earliest known domesticates wheat barley rye peas lentils figs pigs goats sheep and cattle appeared in Old World in Southwest Asia between eastern Mediterranean Sea and Afghanistan at end of Pleistocene o Bread wheat olives grapes and flax gradually added to list Agriculture also invented in East Asia perhaps in two or three different areas sometime before 6000 B C sub Saharan Africa after 2000 B C Plants such as African rice sorghum and pearl millet were domesticated in In Americas agriculture first developed in Mexico in northwestern South America and in eastern North America Llamas probably domesticated and used to transport goods around mountains of South America Alpaca and Camelid like the llama may have been domesticated for both meat and wool Two regions have been added to list of centers for primary domestication South Asia and South Pacific especially high lands of New Guinea Antiquity of domestication to be pushed deeper into the past in many areas Archaeobotany helping to uncover and record information related to domestication Concept Explaining the Origins Of Agriculture The how and why of farming 02 08 2014 Hypothetical explanations of why domestication occurred include the oasis hypothesis the natural habitat hypothesis the population pressure hypothesis and edge hypothesis and the social hypothesis Consideration of these ideas also reveals much about the nature of archaeology and archaeologists Theories about origins of agriculture have often focused on the earliest evidence from Southwest Asia and for that reason may not be appropriate to all places where early domestication actually occurred During first half of century best information came on early farming villages from riverine areas of oases with springs in North Africa and Southwest Asia Nile River Egypt or Jericho Jordan Valley End of Pleistocene thought to have been period of increasing warmth and dryness in earth s climate research suggests that because the Ice Ages were cold and wet climate would naturally change to warm and dry Making vegetation grow around limited water sources oasis hypothesis suggested circumstances in which plants animals and humans would have clustered in confined areas of water o Argument that only solution to the competition for food in these situations would have been for humans to domesticate and control the animals and the plants Idea that domestication emerged as a symbiotic relationship for purpose of human survival Glaciers of Greenland have provided a layered record of changes in temperature and other aspects of climate for past 100 000 years or more Shows rise in CO2 in atmosphere would have fostered expansion of temperate species grasses New research 1940 s and 1950 s indicate no major climate change in Southwest Asia at close of Pleistocene no need to concentrate at oases Natural habitat hypothesis earliest domesticates therefore should appear where their wild ancestors lived hilly flanks of Fertile Crescent in Southwest Asia should be focus of investigation Excavated at site of Jarmo in Iraq evidence supports idea that domestication did begin in natural habitat But why domestication only explanation hypothesis technology and culture were ready by end of the Pleistocene humans were familiar with the species that were to be domesticated o At time archaeologists and others considered farming to be highly desirable and welcome invention providing security and leisure time for prehistoric peoples o Once human societies had recognized the possibilities of domestication they would have immediately started farming These ideas were challenged in 1960s new idea of population pressure hypothesis intensive Idea that farming was back breaking time consuming and labor Argue that human groups would not have become farmers unless there was no other choice that the origin of agriculture was not as fortuitous discovery but a last resort o Idea that increased population size may have been cause o Best