The Neolithic Revolution was the first and most important in a series of agricultural revolutions, shaping the future of all modern civilisation by bringing groups of people together to live in large communities, sharing tasks and labour, and producing enough food-stock for all, year-round. It also led to the beginnings of technology, art, culture, trade, and government. In short, it marked our emergence as the most advanced species on earth. But, how and why did it happen?

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Until around 10,000BC – 9,00BC, most human societies consisted of small, nomadic communities of hunter-gatherers, usually totalling around 20 to 30 related individuals. However, some settlements were established in the Middle East as long as 20,000 years ago, but it would be thousands of years before the idea would spread from isolated centres to encompass entire regions. The first of these are believed to have been Anatolia, Mesopotamia, Southern China, and Central America.

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It’s been assumed the main reasons for the emergence of permanent settlements were: the dramatic change in climate the earth experienced at the end of the preceding Ice Age, increasing human migration, and a change in food availability (the latter two probably being the result of the fore-mentioned climate change). However, this is an area of debate, with some arguing that settlement initially occurred prior to the beginnings of agriculture, with farming being a logical next-stage in the process. This has led to other suggestions as to the reason for early settlement, such as a revolutionary change in human psychology, resulting in mother-Goddess worshiping societies – famous for the creation of the large-breasted, pot-bellied mother-Goddess statues found in various locations around the world.

“Jack Harlan, examining the causes for the Neolithic Revolution, suggests 6 principal reasons which can be summarized to 3 principal categories:

1. Domestication for religious reasons
2. Domestication by crowding and as a consequence of stress
3. Domestication resulting from discovery, based upon the perceptions of food gatherers”

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Whatever the cause, as societies developed and became sedentary, as apposed to nomadic, the level of disease and sickness increased, and the mortality rate also grew. This was probably the result of poor personal hygiene and inadequate sanitation, as well as the domestication of animals that took place during this period – animals which would have carried various illnesses and infections. This period would have been the first time humans had lived in such close proximity to other families to whom they were unrelated, so it’s natural to suppose a period of time would be needed to enable people to build immunity to any new germs present in their environment.

One less expected result of the revolution was that, despite selective planting, the quality of agricultural produce dropped once man started growing and harvesting crops, resulting in a decrease in human height of roughly 3″ – with men shrinking from an average of 5′10″ to 5′6″, and women from approximately 5′3″ to 5′1″. It wasn’t until the 20th century that humans reached their average height prior to the revolution. We are yet to reach our previous levels of fitness, however, and it’s been suggested recently that today’s men have less muscle than their female partners would have done, and that the fastest man on the planet couldn’t possibly have kept up with a typical man from that period.

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Prior to the Neolithic Revolution, there were no crops, and people would simply have gathered fruit, nuts, berries, grains and seeds from wherever they could find them, as well as hunting for animals to eat. They were unable to store additional produce to see them through the coming winter, so they chose their places of residence according to local food availability. The revolution saw this way of living change dramatically, as people began to change their environment to suit their needs, selecting seeds for crops they found to be agreeable to the palette or useful for textiles, and disposing of those which weren’t.

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Many crops that had abandoned in previous years (sometimes as long as three thousand years beforehand) were eventually domesticated by later groups, often on entirely different continents. Rye, for example, was brought to Europe and successfully cultivated, after unsuccessful attempts in the Middle East, and bananas were originally domesticated in Southeast Asia before their introduction to Africa, perhaps as long as five thousand years ago.

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The domestication of animals happened immediately after that of plants, as it became necessary for animals to be used in the production chain. Initially they would only have domesticated those animals that proved useful to them in several ways, such as cattle, which they used in the fields to enable easier labour, and from which they could obtain an on-going, natural source of protein, in the form of milk; eventually these same animals would provide them with meat and leather. Other early animals to be domesticated include dogs, pigs, and goats. Dogs (or wolves, as they were back then) were very useful for hunting and protection.

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It took thousands of years for the process to reach it’s final stages, with different countries and regions developing at different rates. The area known as the fertile crescent was the most important in terms of agricultural development: here, irrigation was first employed as a means to feed crops; and technology was designed for storing surplus produce. The fertile crescent was at a massive advantage compared with other regions, with the perfect climate and soils, and the right plants and animals to easily domesticate. They were also in a safer position regarding attack, and were surrounded by areas with a reasonable level of produce to trade.

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Living in one place and having surplus produce to trade with others made it far easier for people to accumulate physical possessions. It also provided a chance for those skilled in specialised labour, the arts, and social welfare to find their place within society, and to establish wealth, and consequently power. Social hierarchies developed and eventually governments were formed to establish law and order. Economies flourished with increasing importing and exporting taking place between local regions, and different countries, and thus: we became civilised.

However, even now there are some tribal communities still living in fairly small groups, surviving in much the same way as our ancestors, the hunter-gatherers, would have done, fifteen thousand years ago.

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