Lecture 26: The First Agrarian Societies

The First Agrarian Societies

LECTURE

The encounter between newly arrived humans and indigenous species

that had no experience of humans and no understanding of how

dangerous they could be may help explain the massive extent of the

die-off of large mammals in Sahul in the millennia after the arrival

of humans.

T

his lecture surveys the 5,000 years of the “early Agrarian” era, a

period that is often neglected by historians because it left no written

records and lacks the glamour of the great civilizations. We will see

that in reality many important changes occurred during this era. We will

also discuss how most people lived during the early Agrarian era. We de¿ ne

the “early Agrarian” era as the period beginning with the appearance of

agriculture and ending with the appearance of cities and states. Globally, it

lasted for 5,000 to 6,000 years, but locally, its duration varies. For example,

it never began in Australia, while in neighboring Papua New Guinea, it

began early and has lasted to the present day. Historians often neglect this

era, but this is a mistake. It embraced at least half of the last 10,000 years and

laid the foundations for the eventual appearance of Agrarian civilizations.

During this era, the largest and most powerful communities were villages

or small towns.

Many important changes occurred in the early Agrarian era. The most

important large-scale change was the spread of agriculture in the Afro-

Eurasian and American world zones. For the most part, agriculture seems to

have spread by diffusion from a few initial centers.

x About 10,000 years ago, agriculture was con¿ ned to the Fertile

Crescent and maybe Papua New Guinea.

x About 8,000 years ago, it could be found in China, in Southeast

Asia, and along the Nile.