Farmers, on the other hand, could live in the same place
year aft er year and did not have to worry about transporting
young children long distances. Societies that settled down in
one place were able to shorten their birth intervals from four
years to about two. Th is meant that each woman could have
more children than her hunter-gatherer counterpart, which
in turn resulted in rapid population growth among farming
communities. An increased population was actually an ad-
vantage to agricultural societies, because farming required
large amounts of human labor.
Between 8000 and 4000 b.c.e. most settlements of the
region resembled one another. Th ey were all located near a
source of water. Th ey contained a number of houses built
of mud bricks. Th e settlement was surrounded by wheat or
barley fi elds and animals were pastured beyond them. Most
people could not read and spent their days handling their
basic needs: farming, hunting, cooking, hauling water, and
tending children. Life in farming communities was guided
by the agricultural calendar, with festivals and other events
tied to agricultural events such as the harvest. Agricultural
equipment gradually improved. People had started farming
by hand, using stone or metal tools to work the soil. Th e in-
vention of the wooden plow around 4000 b.c.e. made this job
easier, and employing animals to pull the plow helped farm-
ers produce even more crops.
Not all societies perfected every agricultural technique
at once. Some regions specialized in growing one or two
kinds of wheat. Others concentrated on herding goats. Re-
gardless of which agricultural methods they used, however,
communities did not depend entirely on agriculture for
their sustenance. People continued to gather wild foods such
as wild legumes, oats, wild alfalfa, and canary grass. Th ey
caught and ate fi sh, shellfi sh, turtle, migratory waterfowl, and
other waterbirds. Th ey continued to hunt gazelle, wild pigs,People in the ancient Middle East began domesticating wild sheep and goats around 8000 b.c.e. and wild cattle and pigs around 6000 b.c.e.
agriculture: The Middle East 27