1 jan 9000 ano antes da era comum - Beginning of Neolithic Era

Descrição:

Crop raising, domestication of sheep and goats. Development of permanent villages. Agriculture marks this transition as historians see it.

Tigris and Euphrates River Valleys of southwest Asia and the Nile Valley of northeast Africa

Dogs were the first to be domesticated

pastoralism: raising and herding livestock

"...populations may have slowly grown beyond the readily available food supply, despite the warming climate that had boosted the supply of foraged foods and allowed sedentary villages to develop. This increase in population resulted from lower child mortality and longer life spans, and perhaps also from higher fertility rates resulting from a sedentary village lifestyle. Naturally occurring foods often included grains or other crops that could be ground and cooked into a mush soft enough for babies to eat. This mush — for which there is widespread archaeological evidence — allowed women to decide to stop nursing their children at a younger age and instead put their energies elsewhere. In so doing, women lost the contraceptive effects of breast-feeding, and children were born at more frequent intervals."

"A very recent archaeological find at Göbekli Tepe (guh-BEK-lee TEH-peh) in present-day Turkey suggests that cultural factors may have played a role in the development of agriculture as well, interweaving with demographic and social factors. Here around 9000 B.C.E. hundreds of people came together to build rings of massive, multi-ton, elaborately carved limestone pillars, and then covered them with dirt and built more. Archaeological remains indicate that the people who created this site ate wild game and plants, not crops. Once these pillars were carved and raised in place, however, their symbolic, cultural, or perhaps religious importance may have made people decide to adopt a subsistence strategy that would allow them to stay nearby. "

"Some scientists, in fact, describe the development of agriculture as a process of codependent domestication: humans domesticated crops, but crops also “domesticated” humans so that they worked long hours spreading particular crops around the world, especially wheat, rice, and later corn. Early farmers were also less healthy than foragers were; their narrower range of foodstuffs made them more susceptible to disease and nutritional deficiencies. They did have the consolation of alcohol...high-energy substance that also became their principal painkiller. Alcohol became part of social events, and its consumption was often ritualized, with beer and wine among the offerings given to spirits and deities, or consumed by shamans, priests, and worshippers."

"The division of labor allowed by plow agriculture contributed to the creation of social hierarchies based on wealth and power, which have been a central feature of human society since the Neolithic period."

"Slavery predates written records, but it developed in almost all agricultural societies."

"By the time writing was invented, social distinctions between elites — the nobles, hereditary priests, and other privileged groups — and the rest of the population were already in existence."

"Knowledge about the seasons and the weather was vitally important for those who depended on crop raising, and agricultural peoples in many parts of the world began to calculate recurring patterns in the world around them, slowly developing calendars."

"The rhythms of the agricultural cycle and patterns of exchange also shaped religious beliefs and practices. In many places multiple gods came to be associated with patterns of birth, growth, death, and regeneration in a system known as polytheism."

"rain gods and sun gods, sky goddesses and moon goddesses, gods that ensured the health of cattle or the growth of corn, and goddesses of the hearth and home."

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