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Overview

Agriculture probably began in the Neolithic Age (Politic Stone Age), around 9000 BC. The Neolithic Age is the period when tools made of polished stone were developed and the last ice age came to an end.

Historians have differing theories as to why societies transitioned from hunting and gathering to settled agriculture.

One of these theories is that the population is increasing due to overproduction. Because not everyone has to deal with food production, people have begun to specialize in the workforce and societies have become more complex.

The World Before Agriculture

According to the archaeological evidence we have today, humans that we might consider anatomically modern have lived for about 200,000-300,000 years. However, there is no evidence that our ancestors were farming 15,000-20,000 years ago. Instead, we think they are hunting and gathering for food. Sometimes they hunted a large animal and had more food than they needed. Sometimes they gathered or hunted a lot and did not know that they would be able to find food in a few days. If they couldn't find food, they or their families would starve. Even when there was food, they would have to walk miles to find it. In most pre-agricultural societies, most of the energy to survive and reproduce was spent on getting more energy, that is, food.

Also, not many people could live in an area because the amount of food was limited. Therefore, for a tribe of 100 hunter-gatherers to survive, only they had to live in an area of 50-500 square kilometers. These areas, full of life, such as tropical rainforests, were fertile places that could handle high density. Considering that only hunting and gathering sustained the human population at that time, the Earth is thought to support a human population of ten million. According to historians, the Earth's population 10,000 years ago was between six and ten million.

The discovery of agriculture

10,000-15,000 years ago, humans began to shape nature according to their needs, and agriculture arose in different parts of the planet. We think they arose independently of one another and began to spread from many places, such as Mesopotamia, China, South America, and the region of Africa south of the Sahara Desert. Presumably, as more discoveries are made, scientists will discover places where agriculture began even earlier. The birth of agriculture is called the Neolithic Revolution because it coincides with the Neolithic age, that is, the new stone age. The name of the Neolithic age comes from the fact that the stone tools found were softer and more processed than those found in the Paleolithic age, that is, in the Paleolithic age. Many of these tools facilitated the first agricultural practices.^1.

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Five stone agricultural tools found at the settlement at Bastida, Alcusses, Iberian Peninsula, ca. 5th century end- BC 4th century Tools are rough and brown.

Five stone agricultural tools found at the settlement at Bastida, Alcusses, Iberian Peninsula, ca. 5th century end- BC 4th century Tools are rough and brown.

Agricultural tools found in the Iberian settlement at Bastida of Alcusses date back to ca. 5th century BC 4th century image: Wikimedia Commons.

The earliest agricultural practices were probably the cultivation of wild plant species and the herding of livestock. Over time, humans got better at raising plants and animals for their needs. The corn you see in the market and the pigs, cows and sheep you see on the farm did not evolve independently in the wild. Over thousands of years, they went from their original and wild form to their present form through human cultivation.

Why did agriculture arise in the mentioned place and time?

To simply answer, we don't know. However, we have some theories. Do you have any other theories in mind?

End of an ice age: The last ice age ended between 10,000 and 15,000 years ago. This coincides with the birth of agriculture. After the ice age ended, the air was more humid, the ground was not as frozen as before, and there were better conditions for plants and animals. This environment also created favorable conditions for agriculture. There are some questions about this theory that have yet to be answered:

1) Why was there no evidence of agriculture in the last interglacial period, which occurred 100,000 years ago? Or is this evidence simply yet to be found?

2) Were there not some places suitable for agriculture in some tropical regions of the world even during the ice age?

Continuation of human development: Although humans that we can consider anatomically modern have been on Earth for about 200,000 years; our brain, language, and culture may have continued to evolve and change. It is also possible that this development and change took place by natural selection. Between 10,000 and 20,000 years ago, we may have experienced environmental, mental, and cultural developments suitable for agriculture.