02v JERICHO Neolithic revolution

The Origin of Civilization Around 10,000–7000 years ago (8000–5000 BC), humankind experienced perhaps its most important revolution. The Neolithic revolution, as it is called, forever changed the interaction between humans and the world around us by introducing the basic ingredient that makes civilization possible: agriculture. In this sense, the Neolithic revolution made the rest of history possible. Though modern humans have existed for the last 150,000 years, it is only in the last few thousand years, since the discovery of agriculture, that civilization has existed. We have no written records for the period in which this happened. In fact, it is considered prehistory, since humans had not yet begun recording their histories, but we can piece events together with the help of archaeology. It is important to note, however, that much of this information is guesswork, and dates are approximate at best. In addition, these dates correspond roughly to when events took place in the Middle East (the focus of this reading). Similar developments also took place elsewhere, but happened a little later.

The Beginnings of Sedentary Life Prior to the Neolithic agricultural revolution, people existed as hunter-gatherers, constantly on the move to feed themselves. They were organized in small nomadic groups, mostly bands of around twenty to thirty people, incapable of sustaining large populations because of their limited food supply and need to keep moving. They survived on hunting animals and eating vegetation, and would stay in one place only as long as they could forage food from that area. During the Paleolithic (Old Stone Age—before 10,000 BC), all humans were nomadic hunter-gatherers. By the Mesolithic Period (Middle Stone Age—10,000–8300 BC—sometimes also called Epipaleolithic), starting in the Middle East, people began settling down in more permanent communities, engaging in intensive hunting and gathering. This means instead of moving around, hunting and gathering as nomads, they settled down in small settlements and gathered their food from the area around them. Such people living in Mesopotamia are known as the Natufians. The Natufians did not have agriculture, but they were hunter- gatherers who were able to live sedentary lives by collecting wild wheat and barley, and hunting gazelles and deer. A number of factors aided in this change. First, in the wake of the last ice age, the climate slowly changed from cold and dry to warm and wet. Under these new conditions, the Fertile Crescent of Mesopotamia (the area between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in modern-day Iraq) became incredibly rich in plant and animal life. In fact, the climate became so humid that most of the Middle East was not dry and desert-like as it is today, but lush and teeming with biodiversity. Because of the abundance of food, the populations living there did not have to move around as much to survive, and they got used to more sedentary lives. The Neolithic Revolution Around 9000 BC, the climate may have begun to change again, becoming colder and dryer once more. If this is true, this led to fewer resources, meaning that the land had a lower carrying capacity. People living in settlements had to return to nomadic hunting and

THE VILLAGE BY THE LAKE

Around 20,000 years ago, a fire started in a village on the shore of Lake Tiberius. Within minutes it had destroyed the brushwood huts and left six smoldering rings of charcoal where the village had been. If there were people living here at the time of the fire, they moved on; and within a few years, the rising water of the lake covered the site in a deep layer of silt.

In the autumn of 1989, after a drought that saw the water recede by some 10 meters, archaeologists found the remains of these houses in the exposed mud of the shore. Working quickly before the lake submerged the dig, they reconstructed a picture of life in one of the world’s first settled communities.

Towards the end of the last ice age, a band of nomadic hunter-gatherers arrived on the beach of the newly formed lake. Rather than moving on, they settled down to forage and fish and hunt, raising their children and burying their dead here at the water’s edge. They cooked on fire pits outside, knapped flint into sharp blades, and threw discarded shells and bones into a dumping ground.

One of the huts contained over 90,000 seeds, including many species of wild wheat and barley, as well as fruits which may have been dried in the sun and stored for the winter. There was also a heavy grinding stone set into the floor and surrounded by grain, as though someone – perhaps the mother of the family - had been making flour not long before the fire started. 

Jericho is the oldest walled town in the world. Its walls were first built around 8,000 BC - just after the start of agriculture. (Jericho has had many walls through its long history and several different cultures have lived there). Before Jericho was founded people lived by hunting and also be gathering wild grains. However Jericho is sited on a spring and that enabled people to grow crops of wheat and barley. They may have also irrigated their crops.

The first walls around Jericho were about 2 meters thick at the bottom (we don't know exactly how tall they were) and they were made of boulders laid edge to edge without mortar. Jericho was also protected by a tower, which is about 4.5 meters in diameter at the bottom. Neolithic Jericho also had a trench dug out of solid rock to protect it.

Neolithic Jericho probably had a population of about 2,000-3,000 many of whom would have been part-time soldiers. They would have fought with spears and bows and arrows.

Jericho must have been wealthy for its people to build such fortifications, the first in the world. Most of its people would have lived by growing crops although they also hunted animals.

When the first walls were built about 8,000 BC pottery had not been invented so bowls were made of stone. Food was cooked in clay ovens. The people of Jericho knew how to make sun dried bricks and they used them to make houses.