but rather, they either did not need agriculture or there just weren’t
the right plants and animals that could be domesticated. Usually,
they were cut off from outside infl uences, so those plants couldn’t
be introduced. By 7000 B.C., agriculture had reached Greece. By 6000 B.C., it
had reached Italy, eastern Spain, and central Germany, and by 5000
B.C., it had reached southern Britain. Some crops, such as olives,
couldn’t make it, but wheat defi nitely did. A north-south axis makes
transmission much more diffi cult—such as from North America to
South America—because there are too many climate zones to cross.
Growing plants and keeping animals not only led to a more
sedentary life, but also to agriculture, settled villages, or towns,
ultimately leading to civilization. More people living close together
led to more agreed ways of doing things, including formal laws.
It also led to trade, and where there’s trade, there’s some need to
regulate it.
This leads to rulers and the development of a social structure,
including classes. Then, soldiers emerge to keep the rulers in power,
collect taxes, protect the group from outside threats, or seize booty
or even territory from neighbors. In this case, it’s an advantage to
have a big population so that you have more soldiers to conquer
your neighbors.
Then, priests enter the picture to legitimate the ruler, create rituals
to appease the God, and support the priestly class. Rituals serve
to defi ne behavior by socializing members of the group, bringing
them under the authority of those in power and creating cohesion
among the group. Priests also tend to be the ones who develop
writing systems to keep religious texts and dogma, and they record
offi cial laws for the state. In most of the early states, priests also act
as bureaucrats.
Once an upper class is established, a specialized profession of
people (artists) provides luxury goods, adorning palaces, temples,