The Origins of Agriculture Lecture 25
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 yearround. Other surprises include the presence of grindstones for grains such as emmer, a type of wheat, and sickles made by setting Àint 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 semisedentary foragers. Below, we will see how study of the Natu¿ans has helped solve some of the puzzles that surround the “agricultural revolution.” 113
