Neolithic revolution

Also called: Beginning of agriculture, Agricultural revolution, Domestication of plants and animals · Topic: Prehistory: Human Origins and Stone Age Cultures · NCERT: Class 6, Ch 4 "Timeline and Sources of History"; Class 9, Ch 4 "Early Humans and Beginning of Civilisation"; Class 11, Ch 1 "Writing and City Life"

Meaning

The Neolithic Revolution was the slow change from food gathering (hunting animals and collecting wild plants) to food production. People made this change by domesticating plants and animals, which means bringing chosen species under human control and breeding them over many generations. It matters because farming gave people surplus food, pottery to store it in, and the first permanent villages. These are the base on which towns and later civilisation were built.

Explanation

Background: why the change became possible

• Hunter-gatherers lived on the same land for thousands of years. Over that time they learned a great deal about it:
• the seasons
• which plants grew where
• when animals gave birth

• when fruits ripened

• This deep knowledge made the next step possible: a gradual transition to food production.

• Britannica places one of the oldest such changes in Southwest Asia between about 14,500 and 12,000 BP (BP = "before present"). It happened among Epipalaeolithic people, who used very small stone blades called microblades [2].
• Dogs were domesticated in Central Asia by at least 15,000 years ago. This was before crop farming began [2].

Domestication: the core feature

• Domestication has two parts:
• humans chose which seeds to sow and which animals to breed

• over many generations this created new breeds, different from their wild parents

• So domestication is more than taming one animal. It changes the plant or animal itself.

• The earliest evidence of crop domestication is from around 12,000 years ago [2].
• Einkorn (an early kind of wheat) from Nevalı Çori in Turkey dates to about 10,500 BP [2].
• By about 10,000 BP, people of the eastern Fertile Crescent were keeping goats and sheep as livestock [2].

Diagnostic shifts: how archaeologists recognise the Neolithic

• Tools change their purpose.
• Earlier tools were for getting food: hunting, cutting and scraping.

• Neolithic tools were for producing and processing food. Examples are grinding stones, querns (stones for grinding grain), pestles, and polished axes for clearing land.

• Earthenware pottery appears, in many shapes and sizes.

• Pots let people store grain, cook it and carry water.

• Storage is the hidden key: people cannot keep a surplus if they have nowhere to store it.

• The first village settlements appear.

• People stopped moving with the herds and stayed in one place.

• Surplus food made communities grow in size and number.

• Settlements clustered near rivers, for two reasons:
• water for drinking and irrigation
• more fertile soil on the flood plains

Spread over time and its results

• The change happened at different times in different places. Each region domesticated its own plants and animals:
• Millet and rice were being domesticated in East Asia by about 8500–8000 BP [2].
• Squash was domesticated in southern Mexico and northern Peru by about 10,000–9000 BP [2].

• Grapes, olives and date palms came much later, from the end of the Neolithic into the Bronze Age, about 6000–3000 BCE [2].

• Social life became more complex.

• 'Chieftains' appeared. Their stated job was the welfare of the people. This was leadership based on responsibility, not yet kingship based on force.

• There was no individual ownership of land. The group sowed and harvested the land together.

• Hamlets grew into villages, and some villages grew into small towns.

• Villages exchanged food, clothing and tools.

• Networks of communication and exchange formed between them.

• New technologies followed settled life, in this order: pottery → copper → iron.

• Was it a "revolution"? The NCERT chapter answers both ways:
• It was gradual in speed. It took thousands of years, and there was no single moment of invention.
• It was revolutionary in result. Surplus food and goods made civilisation possible.

Time, place and evidence

• Period: This is the last phase of the Stone Age. The study note places the whole span of prehistory at c. 3.3 million years ago to c. 2600 BCE. The Neolithic changes begin in Southwest Asia around 14,500–12,000 BP [2].
• World sites and regions:
• Nevalı Çori, Turkey: einkorn wheat, c. 10,500 BP [2]
• Eastern Fertile Crescent: goats and sheep, c. 10,000 BP [2]
• East Asia: millet and rice [2]

• Southern Mexico and northern Peru: squash [2]

• Indian subcontinent: Mehrgarh, in Balochistan (modern Pakistan)

• The site spans roughly 8000 to 5000 BCE [3].
• Its first inhabitants, from about 6500 BCE, were farmers. They grew wheat and barley and herded cattle, sheep and goats [3].
• Barley was the main crop. It is the fully domesticated form, six-row barley [4].
• The grains are mostly small and round. This shows that local varieties were bred at Mehrgarh to suit local soil and weather [4].
• The people made pottery, built permanent mud-brick houses, and buried their dead with ritual [3].

• They made crafts and jewellery from seashells, turquoise and lapis lazuli. These materials are not found locally, so trade must have reached the coast and probably Central Asia [3].

• How we know: There are no written records from this period. All the evidence is archaeological: charred grains, animal bones, querns and polished tools, pottery, house remains and burials.

Don't confuse with

• Palaeolithic / Epipalaeolithic (Mesolithic) cultures: these people were food gatherers who used tools to get food. Microblades belong to the Epipalaeolithic people who came just before full farming [2]. Pottery and polished tools to produce food are Neolithic.
• Urban revolution: this was the later rise of cities (the Class 11 theme of "Writing and City Life"). The Neolithic Revolution created villages, which were the base for cities.
• Taming vs domestication: taming makes one animal used to humans. Domestication changes the species itself through selective breeding over many generations, producing new breeds.
• Mehrgarh vs Harappan cities: Mehrgarh is an early farming village site (c. 8000–5000 BCE) [3]. The Harappan cities came later, at the end of this long village story.

Prelims Hooks

• Earliest domesticated einkorn wheat comes from Nevalı Çori, Turkey, about 10,500 BP [2].
• Dogs were domesticated in Central Asia by at least 15,000 years ago, before crop farming. This is a trap: the first domesticate was an animal, not a crop [2].
• Mehrgarh (Balochistan): about 8000–5000 BCE. Farmers from about 6500 BCE grew wheat and barley and herded cattle, sheep and goats [3]. The main crop was six-row barley [4].
• Lapis lazuli and turquoise at Mehrgarh point to trade with the coast and Central Asia [3].
• The diagnostic markers of the Neolithic are earthenware pottery, polished/grinding tools and the first village settlements.
• Technology order after settlement: pottery → copper → iron. In Neolithic society land was owned collectively, not individually.

Mains Points

• It is called a "revolution" because of its results, not its speed.
• It took thousands of years, so it was gradual.
• It gave people surplus food, storage, permanent villages and time for crafts. These are the conditions that civilisation needs.

• This shows that in history a slow process can still be revolutionary.

• Surplus links the economy to society.

• Surplus food led to larger groups. Larger groups led to exchange between villages, then to chieftains who managed welfare, and finally to some villages becoming towns.

• This chain connects the Neolithic to the later urban revolution. Harappan cities should be read as the end of a long village story, not a sudden start.

• There was no single "cradle" of farming.

• East Asia (rice, millet), the Americas (squash) and Southwest Asia (wheat, barley) each domesticated their own species at their own time [2].
• Mehrgarh's locally bred small, round grains show that the subcontinent developed its own varieties [4]. This argues against the idea that farming spread from just one source.
• Land owned in common and leaders judged by welfare give a baseline for measuring later inequality, such as kings, taxes and private land.

Related concepts

• Neolithic age
• Domestication of animals

Read more

• The Neolithic Revolution