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Websites
- “Neolithic Revolution,” Encyclopedia Britannica
https://www.britannica.com/event/Neolithic
Encyclopedia Britannica’s website offers an amazing exploration of the Neolithic Revolution—also known as the Agricultural Revolution—as it occurred in Central Africa, China, and throughout what is now referred to as the “modern world.” This take on the development and rise of agriculturalism is significant in that it begs the question of whether or not this particular shift in means of subsistence happened cross-culturally, spontaneously, via independent invention, or via diffusion.
- Gobeklitepe
http://gobeklitepe.info/
The famous site of Gobeklitepe, the world’s first temple compound with monumental architecture in the form of megaliths, is remarkable because it was produced by transitional hunters and gatherers. It challenges many contemporary assumptions about the development of agriculture.
- Comparative Pathways to Agriculture (ComPAg)
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/research/directory/compag-fuller
The University College of London’s Institute of Archaeology began a project called “Comparative Pathways to Agriculture” (ComPAg) in 2013. Its goal is to produce the first comparative, worldwide synthesis of early domesticates using archaeobotanical data (e.g., preserved seeds).
- Çatalhöyük Research Project
http://www.catalhoyuk.com/
This site explores this Neolithic site that has been excavated since the 1960s and provides a glimpse into the emergence of a large town. This site details the architecture, social life, and economic adaptations of these people, while detailing the work of archaeological reconstruction.
- New Stone Age online textbook
https://www.penfield.edu/webpages/jgiotto/onlinetextbook.cfm?subpage=1525826
This website provides an overview of the Neolithic period with additional pages on the major states of the period and their types of organization. It also gives a range of links, images, and maps that help to situate the major Stone Age periods in conjunction with each other, providing an overview for students that is easily read.
Videos
Aigouy, Philippe, and Anderson, Patricia C. 2000. Tools, Techniques and Tablets: Retracing Ancient Agricultural Heritage. CNRS Université Laval. http://www.archaeologychannel.org/video-guide/video-guide-menu/video-guide-summary/144-tools-techniques-and-tablets-retracing-ancient-agricultural-heritage.
This film explores the origins of agriculture in the Near/Middle East, with a focus upon Syrian archaeological sites. Through a combination of experimental archaeology, material culture discovered on archaeological sites, and analyses of ancient cuneiform documents, archaeologists are able to determine that technologies such as the threshing sledge are considerably older than was previously thought. Ultimately, it is shown that archaeological interpretation necessitates the use of multiple perspectives and methods.
Lambert, Tim, and Cassian Harrison. 2005. Guns, Germs and Steel—Episode One: Out of Eden. Lion Television. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9q1eRmJLd0
In this film, Jared Diamond explores the relationship between social inequality and the processes of animal and plant domestication. Citing environmental and ecological evidence, he asks why many societies in the world (e.g., Papua New Guinea) did not develop agriculture, and examines the problematic assumption that agriculture is readily equated with notions of “progress.”
Toensmeier, Eric. 2011. “Ancient Seeds: Growing out the Eastern Agricultural Complex.” YouTube video, 9:05. Posted Dec 2011, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlNtuxBkR4M.
The Eastern Agricultural Complex refers to a number of plants that Indigenous people of NE North America experimented with and domesticated prior to domesticating maize, beans, and squash.
Books and Articles
Aiello, Leslie C. 2011. “The Origins of Agriculture: New Data, New Ideas.” Current Anthropology 52: S161–S162.
The author discusses the results of a discussion, held in 2009, regarding the use of new field and laboratory research and new radiocarbon dates to better understand the origin of agriculture. The scholars agreed that this discussion was global in nature and that areas outside the traditional regions of focus—the Near East and Mesoamerica—needed to be considered. These areas include Papua New Guinea, Africa, and eastern North America. Key findings include the fact that many of the first domesticates appeared at about the same time and that early agriculture did not take place in marginal areas but rather in areas of population and resource concentration.
Bowles, Samuel. 2011. “Cultivation of Cereals by the First Farmers Was Not More Productive than Foraging.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 108: 4760–4765.
Some have argued that the first farmers gave up a life of foraging because it was a better way to make a living. The author explores this question by estimating how many calories one obtained by foraging wild species as opposed to cultivating the plants used by the first farmers. His data suggests that farming is not more efficient and that social and demographic aspects of farming where more important than productivity.
Cohen, Mark. 2009. “Rethinking the Origins of Agriculture.” Current Anthropology 50: 591–595.
Cohen recognized that many scholars who examine the questions regarding the origins of agriculture often do not sufficiently communicate with one another. He discusses a meeting of scholars who addressed this question from multiple perspectives: ancient health; paleopathology; paleonutrition; paleodemography; evolutionary theory; genetics; climate change; and, many more. Cohen presents his perspective on the origins of agriculture based on these scholarly communications, focusing on what he sees as common core events and causes.
Cowgill, George L. 2004. “Origins and Development of Urbanism: Archaeological Perspectives.” Annual Review of Anthropology 33 (1): 525–549.
Cowgill notes that most scholars consider the presence of cities as an integral part of all state-level societies, although some question whether the early Egyptian state was very urbanized. The author argues that considering whether cities and states are closely intertwined is not the issue we should consider; rather, we should focus closely on the development and nature of cities themselves. Case studies from Mesopotamia and Mesoamerica are used to explore the complex nature of urbanism.
Crawford, Gary W., David G. Smith, Joseph R. Desloges, and Anthony M. Davis. 1998.
“Floodplains and Agricultural Origins: A Case Study in South-Central Ontario, Canada.” Journal of Field Archaeology 25(2): 123–137.
Through an exploration of archaeological data from south-central Ontario, Crawford et al. argue that the floodplains of the Grant River area provided the setting for early maize domestication in Canada. As such, many archaeological sites in this region, which date to the Ontario Iroquoian Princess Point tradition (500–900 AD) are critical sites for understanding the development of agriculture, sedentism, and changes in socio-political complexity within Ontario Iroquoian communities.
Diamond, Jared. 2002. “Evolution, Consequences and Future of Plant and Animal Domestication.” Nature 148: 700–707. doi:10.1038/nature01019.
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v418/n6898/full/nature01019.html
Jared Diamond examines the role of domestication in the development of the modern world.
Hart, John P. 2003. “Rethinking the Three Sisters.” Journal of Middle Atlantic Archaeology 19: 73–82.
When Europeans first encountered American Indian farmers in the Eastern US, most were focused on growing maize (corn), beans, and squash. These economically important crops were socially significant as well, hence their designation as the “Three Sisters.” Scholars have long assumed that these three crops have long been grown together. Using new advances in radiocarbon dating, Hart shows that these three crops have a much more complex history and that beans, in particular, were introduced centuries after American Indians began to farm maize.
Hayden, Brian. 2009. “The Proof is in the Pudding: Feasting and the Origins of Domestication.” Current Anthropology 50: 597–601.
Canadian archaeologist Brian Hayden argues for a social motive for the domestication of plants and animals: feasting. He argues that feasting reduces risk in traditional societies. Surplus-based feasting likely appeared during the Upper Paleolithic. Complex hunter-gatherers engaging in competitive feasting would have turned toward the intensification of food production to meet their new needs, eventually resulting in domestication.
Jones, Eric E., and James W. Wood. 2012. “Using Event-History Analysis to Examine the Causes of Semi-sedentism among Shifting Cultivators: A Case Study of the Haudenosaunee, AD 1500–1700.” Journal of Archaeological Science 39(8): 2593–2603.
Wood and Jones apply the technique of event-history analysis to an examination of such practices as settlement abandonment among the Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) of southern Ontario and upper New York state. Combining archaeology and ethnohistory, they look for possible reasons to explain the shift towards semi-sedentism and its relationship to agriculture.
Leacock, Eleanor, and Richard Lee, eds. 1982 Politics and History in Band Societies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Leacock and Lee’s seminal work on the relationship between political organization, social complexity, and modernization in band societies draws upon the ethnographic and ethnohistoric research of a wide range of anthropologists working among band societies in Canada, Africa, Australia, and elsewhere. Ultimately, they discuss issues of property and egalitarianism among societies that have not adopted agriculture.
Pearsall, Deborah M. 2009. Investigating the Transition to Agriculture. Current Anthropology 50 (5):609-613.
Looking at the relationships among indicators of diet and health, Persall notes that there are indicators to the long period of low-level food production before agriculture; direct indicators such as “those that assess diet or health from the human body itself” and indirect indicators of “archaeological remains of foods and their residues on the one hand and the implements and activities surrounding the food quest on the other” (610).
Redman, Charles. 1999. Human Impact on Ancient Environments. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press.
Redman provides an overview of how human domestication, in trying to secure greater food supplies, contributed to a completely different relationship with the natural world. By creating our own ecosystems, he argues, humans set up a new cognized environment both socially and physically, that shaped subsequent adaptive choices. Erosion, overproduction, river system alteration, and raised salinity in fields are just some of the negative impacts, coupled with growing inequality and social complexity. In this engaging work that ties Neolithic archaeology to modern society and our perpetual need for bread and balance, he discusses the different types of land use and agricultural systems around the world and dispels myths of pristine environments and the need to reconsider the human trajectory towards unsustainable practices.
Smith, Bruce D. 1989. “Origins of Agriculture in Eastern North America.” Science 246(4937): 1566–1571.
In this article, Smith traces the archaeological evidence for the development of agriculture in Eastern North America. As an independent centre for the transition to agriculture, maize became a critical crop that shaped the social, economic, and political organization of Eastern North American societies. This shift in subsistence contributed to the rise of sedentism within some populations.
Spencer, Charles S. 2010. “Territorial Expansion and Primary State Formation.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 107: 7119–7126.
Archaeologists have long wrestled with why the state first developed. Theories of the origins of the state are evaluated typically against cases of primary state formation, which involved the formation of first-generation states in areas where there were no pre-existing states. Spencer discusses the implication for his observation that the success of these early states involved expansion of territory that included political-economic control over areas more than a day’s round-trip travel from the capital.
Wason, Paul K. 1994. The Archaeology of Rank. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
The basic aim of this book is to understand the dynamics of inequality, and how it first appeared, and when, why, and how it become institutionalized, addressing the gap between archaeological data and social models of society. Wason first examines mortuary data, as differences in burial treatment can often reflect differences in the social group. Nutritional imbalances, infection, stress, and trauma can be discerned through skeletal analysis, and can point to stratification. Looking at differential access to monuments, living space, and artifacts also point to differences in age, gender, and social status. The many examples (such as Catal Hoyuk) show a clear trend towards inequality, particularly as the number and type of artifacts made increases, as it did through the Neolithic period. Wason notes three key items to look for in the sites: first, food items that contribute to basic subsistence (ties into bone evidence as well); second, tools for acquiring, producing, and preparing these foods; and third, protective devices for coping with the environment.
Spencer, Charles S., and Elsa M. Redmond. 2004. “Primary State Formation in Mesoamerica.” Annual Review of Anthropology 33: 173–199.
Spencer and Redmond examine how early state-level societies are recognized from the archaeological record. They note that palaces and temples are evidence of the development of early states. Their focus is on primary state development, where the earliest state-level societies developed independent of any other states, including Egypt, Mesopotamia, the Indus River Valley, China, Peru, and Mesoamerica. Spencer and Redmond look at the earliest states in Mesoamerica, notably at Monte Alban in the Valley of Oaxaca.
Wright, Gary A. 1992. “Origins of Food Production in Southwestern Asia: A Survey of Ideas.” Current Anthropology 33(1), Supplement: Inquiry and Debate in the Human Sciences: Contributions from Current Anthropology, 1960–1990: 109–139.
Food production—the domestication of plants and animals—represents the economic foundation for state-level societies. To understand the beginnings of food production, archaeologists must know two things: the environmental characteristics of the area with the earliest domesticates, and the climate at the time the earliest domesticates are found. Archaeological evidence suggests that the earliest domesticates are not found in optimal areas, but rather in the margins around these zones—a finding contrary to other hypotheses.
Zeder, Melinda. 2011. “The Origins of Agriculture in the Near East.” Current Anthropology 52: S221–S235.
Zeder describes the finding that agriculture in the Near East developed in the context of human efforts to modify local environments. She notes that plant and animal domestication in the area appears to have occurred at roughly the same time.