Lecture 2
Lecture 2
Lecture 2
The agricultural
revolution
The traditional view
• Agriculture: the first great leap forward
• V. Gordon Childe: the Neolithic Revolution
• Originated in Southwest Asia, spread west to
Europe, south to Africa, and east to India as a
result of migration and rising population
• Led to an increase in food supply, created a
surplus making possible a range of activities
other than food production. Good for
economic welfare!
The traditional view
• The agricultural revolution made possible and
thus led to:
– Sedentism (permanent settlements)
– Civilization (writing, monumental architecture, a
non-working elite, private property)
– The state
– Ultimately helped to create the modern world
• Since it was so obviously beneficial, it was
adopted as soon as someone had the bright
idea; the only problem is explaining the idea
What happened?
Multiple independent ‘hearths’
Multiple independent ‘hearths’
And many
sources of
origin even
within the
Fertile Crescent
hearth
Multiple independent ‘hearths’
Some aspects
of what later
becomes
agriculture
occurs among
Natufians 5000
years earlier..
How did it happen?
The Natufians (14500-11500 BP)
cultivated wheat and barley
• They typically lived where hills met plains
• Gazelle lived on the plains and were hunted
• The hills contained oaks and pistachios which
gave nuts as food
• Also on the hillsides were stands of wild wheat
and barley, which they harvested
• They lived in semi-subterranean houses with
stone foundations and probably wood
superstructures
Natufian landscape
Wild barley growing on a hillside
Presence of wild cereals
Natufian tools included:
• Flat bladed sickles
• Mortars
• Grinding stones
• Storage pits
“Economics is the
science which studies
human behaviour as a
relationship between
ends and scarce
means which have
alternative uses”