Ancient Civilizations: Notes to Lectures #5 and #6

The Rise and Fall of Ancient Civilizations

Notes to Lectures #3 and #4

The Near Eastern Neolithic: Agricultural Origins

Introduction
The world's first civilization developed in the ancient Near East
First criterion for civilization = domestication and agricultural economy capable of producing a stored surplus
Need to begin by considering origins of Near Eastern agriculture

The "Neolithic Revolution" (V. Gordon Childe)
Change from food collecting to food producing was one of the major transformations in human history

An economic change that altered social and political institutions, religion, etc.

BUT not as rapid as Childe thought

In Near East, look at period roughly 9000-6000 B.C.

9000 B.C.--all hunter-gatherers

Then domestication of plants and animals, rise of sedentary village farming pattern

Becomes predominant way of life by 6000 B.C.

The Geographical Setting
Archaeologists' "Near East" = modern political "Middle East": Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the Gulf States

Located at junction of Asia and Africa--movement of crustal plates has produced varied topography of mountain ranges, plateaus, rift valleys, basins

Seat of first civilization = Mesopotamian basin

Land between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers

Long trough between mountain ranges; slopes downward from northwest to southeast and empties into the Persian Gulf

Uplands: Taurus Mountains (Turkey), Zagros Mountains (Iraq-Iran), coastal ranges of eastern Mediterranean (the Levant)
Lowlands:

Northern Mesopotamia--undulating plain with relatively ancient sediments

Southern Mesopotamia--fertile silts deposited by Tigris and Euphrates

Background by 10,000 B.C.

Fully modern humans

Glacial retreat, improving climate, modern plant and animal species

Local "settling in": Natufian culture 11,000-9000 B.C.

Hunter-gatherers, but concentrated wild resources allow sedentism in some places (e.g., Ain Mallaha, Munhatta, Abu Hureyra)

Maybe cultivated rye at Abu Hureyra during Natufian times (first reported September 1998, new dates July 2001; still questionable)

This is the setting for the world's first transition from hunting and gathering to food production

Then development of world's first cities, states, literate urban civilizations

Domestication
Domestication = process of altering plants and animals so that they are no longer bound to the natural habitats of their wild ancestors

Become more productive, useful to people

Changes in genetics and morphology (form)--may reach point where plant or animal species needs human intervention to survive

Major Near Eastern domesticated species

Plants: 7 "founder crops": 3 cereals (emmer wheat, einkorn wheat, barley), 4 legumes (peas, chickpeas, lentils, bitter vetch)

Animals: cattle, sheep, goats, pigs

Also DOGS--in Near East, dogs domesticated at least several thousand years before any other animal or plant

(Controversial genetic evidence suggests dogs may have been domesticated as much as 135,000 years ago)

Implies humans already had some knowledge of how process of domestication works when they began to domesticate other species

Examples of changes brought about by domestication

Wheat: grain size increases, number of rows of grains increases from 2 to 6

Glume (grain coating) becomes less tough, easier to digest

Rachis (attachment to stalk): rachises ripen at same time, so harvesting can be done over shorter span of time

BUT become less brittle, harder to separate from stalk, so processing into food requires more work

Reduction in size of goat and sheep horns; sheep produce more wool

Generalization: Plants and animals were bred to have more and bigger useful parts.

BUT first evidence may be kill patterns (e.g., Zagros goats)

Not all changes were intentional--some were unintended by-products (e.g., the less brittle rachis)

Data on key sites may be found in the LKS textbook
Try drawing a timeline and putting the data in chronological order

Note that domesticated species don't appear everywhere at the same time

Note that domesticated species appear in different orders at different sites, in part because the wild ancestors of domesticated species have different distributions

Only zone with wild ancestors of all 7 founder crops is southeastern Turkey-northern Syria

Note especially that changes do not happen all at once--except for dogs, domestication began 9000-8500 B.C.

BUT people maintained mixed economies, did not become "fully Neolithic" for several thousand years

In some areas there were hunter-gatherers as late as 6500-6000 B.C.

Some people never became sedentary village farmers--even today there are nomadic herders in the Near East

Some General Statements About Causes
1) Were the changes a matter of necessity or choice?

Longstanding debate: Childe said necessity, Braidwood said choice (see LKS textbook)

Based on different views of human nature

Arguments that changes were necessary usually rely on population pressure and/or climatic change

2) There are problems with population pressure arguments, like those by Binford and Flannery in the LKS textbook

Population pressure occurs when population begins to exceed the carrying capacity of the environment, given existing technology

BUT population levels and densities seem very low in the Near Eastern Neolithic

Only by the end of the Neolithic were population densities high enough that, within the natural habitat of wheat and barley, most villages were within a day's walk of their nearest neighbor--much of Near East was still empty ca. 6500-6000 B.C.

Throughout entire transition from hunting and gathering to early farming,doubtful that population ever exceeded 30% of carrying capacity

3) Arguments based on climatic change keep recurring

Most recent one was proposed in 1991 and is discussed in LKS textbook--it implies a single source for Near Eastern agriculture

Colder, drier climate led to the domestication of wheat and barley in communities in the Levant within 50-100 miles of the Dead Sea--diffused outward from there

BUT new data since 1991 raise objections

Wheat (and pigs) were domesticated in Turkey at least as early as around the Dead Sea, if not earlier

Genetic evidence suggests that einkorn wheat was first domesticated in southeastern Turkey, not in the zone around the Dead Sea

If single source, more likely to be SE Turkey-N Syria (founder crops)

Evidence suggests that the only major Near Eastern crops first domesticated around the Dead Sea were grapes and olives, which happened later than the domestication of the staple grains

New pollen evidence and Carbon 14 dates, announced in September 1998, suggest that the cultivation of wheat and barley actually began during a warmer, wetter period (not a colder, drier one)

That is, domestication began at a time when conditions were improving for the wild plants, not getting worse and decreasing their range

4) There are also problems with arguments that treat the beginning of farming as a matter of choice

We cannot simply assume that the adoption of farming was progress (that is, that the advantages of farming were immediately obvious)

Early farming involves higher risks of failure than hunting and gathering, and people hedged their bets by making extensive use of wild foods well into the Neolithic

Recent studies of skeletons show that early farming populations had poorer nutrition, higher rates of disease than hunter-gatherer populations of the same period

Abu Hureyra skeletons show lots of physical stress from harder work

Arthritis and other problems, especially among women

5) It is beginning to seem that sedentism came first, THEN farming (not the other way around)

Sedentism easier on very young children, the elderly, pregnant and nursing mothers

Did hunter-gatherers choose to settle down whenever possible??

Did agriculture then arise as matter of necessity? choice? accident?

6) These questions, the topic of Essay #1, are unresolved. Your paper needs to contain a logical, internally consistent argument, not a final answer.

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Last updated: 22 January 2002
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