The Origins of Agriculture

LECTURE

Normally, tributary rulers, tribute-taking rulers, the kings and

emperors of this world, were more interested in capturing wealth than

in producing it. A successful war could generate wealth much more

quickly and much more effectively than investment in infrastructure.

T

he previous lecture de¿ ned agriculture and explained why its impact
was so revolutionary. This lecture discusses the evidence used to trace
the origins of agriculture and asks why agriculture appeared. Why did
humans in so many different parts of the world suddenly start getting the food
and energy they needed in entirely new ways? Agriculture appeared at least
6,000 years before there were written records, so we must study it through
archaeology. Rather than discussing the evidence abstractly, it may help to
focus on a particular cluster of sites associated with the “Natu¿ an” peoples,
who lived in the Fertile Crescent (in modern Jordan and Israel) from about
14,000 to about 12,000 years ago. (The Fertile Crescent is a loop of highlands
running from the Nile along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean, then
west and south along the border between modern Iraq and Iran.)

Natu¿ an sites are strikingly different from those of most foragers. Their
dwellings were more substantial, often built into the ground for warmth,
with well-built drystone walls. Natu¿ ans hunted gazelle, but growth bands
on gazelle teeth show that they did so year-round from the same place. That
and the presence of rodent bones suggest they lived in their houses year-
round. Other surprises include the presence of grindstones for grains such as
emmer, a type of wheat, and sickles made by setting À int blades into bone
handles. Microscopic study of the blades shows they were used to harvest
grains. In short, these look like agricultural villages.

However, by studying grain pollen, archaeologists can distinguish between
wild and domesticated species, and it turns out that the Natu¿ ans were
harvesting wild grains. They were not farmers, but sedentary or semi-
sedentary foragers. Below, we will see how study of the Natu¿ ans has
helped solve some of the puzzles that surround the “agricultural revolution.”