arch. lecture 5

Question 1

Setting the Stage for Agricultural Origins

Answer 1

• At the end of the Pleistocene (Ice Age) and beginning of Holocene, environments were unstable and changing rapidly.
• sea levels rose
• climate changed from cold and dry to warm and wet
• ecosystems changed rapidly
• e.g. from tundra to forests in Europe; expansion and contraction of forests and grasslands in southwest Asia
• in many regions animals in large herds were replaced by more solitary species
• these factors posed a great challenge to hunter-gatherers, leading to broad-spectrum collecting.

Question 2

Broad-Spectrum Collecting

Answer 2

• instead of relying on a few major food sources, especially big game, development of a greater reliance on multiple food sources.
• often smaller package foods (think rabbits as opposed to mammoths), and foods that required more specialized technologies to hunt, harvest, or prepare (e.g., grains, nuts, fish, shellfish, birds, small mammals)
• broad-spectrum collectors in some cases developed further, leading to the origins of agriculture.

Question 3

Origins of Agriculture

Answer 3

• agriculture: subsistence based on domesticated plants and animals.
• domestication: taming of wild plants and animals by humans, involving physical and/or behavioural modification.

The Neolithic period – earliest food producing cultures

• Agriculture arose independently in multiple locations, over only a few thousand years
• Timing and importance based largely on the “luck of the draw” – some regions had naturally occurring plants and animals that were easily domesticated

Question 4

Plant Domestication

Answer 4

• most important are seed and root crops
• domestication involves selection of best individuals for planting
  
  • “best” means – large amount of edible material, easy to harvest, easy to store
• Example: wheat, domesticated in the Near East:
  
  • rachis (stalk connecting the seed to the seed head) changes from brittle to tough, making wheat easier to harvest
  • individual seeds become larger, providing more food
  • domesticated wheat is now dependent on humans for reproduction

How quickly does domestication happen?

• theories range from very fast (a few decades) to very slow (millennia).
• earliest stage: unintentional tending - plants are unintentionally helped by burning or disposing of seeds in optimal areas such as middens. Also, selecting biggest or best individuals to eat.
• later: intentional cultivation (e.g., removing weeds, dispersing seeds)
• eventually, this can lead to domestication in which the plant is altered enough that it needs human intervention for its survival

Question 5

Animal Domestication

Answer 5

• initially - probably domesticated for meat (with exception of dog)
• sheep, goat, cattle, pig, llama are all herd animals – “preadapted” to domestication - later - “Secondary Products Revolution” - used for purposes other than just meat:
  
  • e.g., milk (cheese, yogurt, butter, etc.), wool, skins, horn
  • also traction (strength) – horses for riding, cattle for pulling ploughs or wagons, etc.
• all of these involved some physical changes, observable archaeologically
• animal diseases become more common
• animal domestication may have begun with “herd management” - sparing females and young

Question 6

Why and How Did Agriculture Begin?

Answer 6

• Hunter-gatherer way of life was satisfying, and for tens of thousands of years, they had not developed agriculture.
• Broad-spectrum hunter-gatherers were complex and specialized, with intimate knowledge of a range of plants and animals in their territories, as well as specialized technologies for their acquisition and storage
• Unlike earlier hunter-gatherers, population densities were now quite high.

Question 7

Oasis Hypothesis | Beginning of Agriculture

Answer 7

• 1940s
• end of Ice Age, world became more hot and dry.
• people, plants, and animals became concentrated near oases.
• hunter-gatherers gradually developed symbiotic relationship with animals and plants.
• e.g. stubble from grain fields attracted animals.

Question 8

Natural Habitat Hypothesis | Beginning of Agriculture

Answer 8

• (“Hilly Flanks Theory”)
• 1950s
• certain restricted areas contained the wild ancestors of domestic species.
• hunter-gatherers in these areas simply became more and more familiar with plants and animals, exploiting and protecting them more and more efficiently.
• aspects of this hypothesis are valid, with major species domesticated in their wild ancestors’ range; examples:
  
  • ​rye: 10,000BCE
  • wheat and barley: 9000BCE
  • sheep/goats: 8500BCE
• ​however, this hypothesis doesn’t explain why agriculture happened.

Question 9

Population Pressure Hypothesis | Beginning of Agriculture

Answer 9

• 1970s
• gradual population pressure throughout human history has led to many major changes / innovations
• at the end of the Pleistocene, increasing populations led people to need to get more food out of each given area of land, leading in some cases agriculture as people experimented with new ways to increase yields.
• this process may have been most pronounced at the margins of “natural habitats” for domesticated species

Question 10

Recent Hypotheses | Beginning of Agriculture

Answer 10

• acknowledge that there may be no single “grand theory” to explain every case of agricultural origins
• are often specific to individual regions
• usually rely on a complex interplay of many factors, no “prime mover” (single factor)
• however, many rely in part on environmental change and population pressure as part of the explanation
• also, social factors are often considered: status-seeking individuals seek a surplus of food, which can be transformed into prestige through trade or distribution to others

Question 11

Adoption of Agriculture by Neighbouring Goups | Consequences of Food Production

Answer 11

• spread rapidly to all areas where it was feasible
• allows more people to make a living from a given area of land
• allows an advantage in competition with neighbouring hunter-gatherers

Question 12

Dramatic Population Increases | Consequences of Food Production

Answer 12

• food supply larger and more stable
• birth spacing can be reduced in a sedentary community

Question 13

Altering the Environment | Consequences of Food Production

Answer 13

• Environment altered more severely - cutting, burning, grazing, etc.
• especially deforestation

Question 14

Health Deteroirates | Consequences of Food Production

Answer 14

• hunter-gatherers generally have well balanced diets
• for agriculturalists, nutrition, health, and lifespan often decreased
• concentrated, larger settlements increased susceptibility to disease
• reliance on a few crops left populations vulnerable to critical shortages if crop failed

Question 15

Social Satisfaction | Consequences of Food Production

Answer 15

• social satisfaction increases.
• larger populations live together for longer periods of time
• requires new mechanisms for peaceful interaction, dispute settlement, decision-making.
• agriculture allows accumulation of surplus, which can be used by emerging elites to increase their status.
• social and economic inequality becomes much more common

Question 16

Increasing Sedentism | Consequences of Food Production

Answer 16

• larger and more permanent dwellings – sometimes with more than one storey
• also storage features such as granaries, clay-lined pits

Question 17

Technology | Consequences of Food Production

Answer 17

• more elaborate, large, and heavy technology.
• permanence of sites, lack of mobility means people did not have to carry their possessions – therefore size and weight could increase
• food preparation – e.g., grinding stones, ovens
• storage and transport - pottery becomes much more frequent and widespread - farming implements such as hoes, ploughs, axes

Question 18

Long Distance Trade | Consequences of Food Production

Answer 18

• Increased long-distance trade for raw materials - eg. stone, obsidian
• home territories are now smaller, so people become dependent on acquiring some materials from distant sources through trade
• trade in exotic materials is also used to reinforce elites’ status

Question 20

Ritual and Ceremony | Consequences of Food Production

Answer 20

• rituals and ceremonies became more elaborate.
• larger populations, sedentary settlements, growth of elites all lead to more time and effort devoted to understanding and affecting the world through religion

Question 21

Origins of the State

Answer 21

• Agricultural societies developed ever-higher populations, larger settlements, greater social inequalities, more elaborate farming methods. Eventually, some reach a level of complexity where they can be considered states.
• State: a large-scale political unit with centralized decision-making
• Earliest states originated before complex writing; therefore only archaeology can indicate how they developed
• Many early states developed independently in different parts of the world – so this is a general process, not something that only happened once and then spread

Question 22

Defining the State: “Trait List”

Answer 22

states usually have these certain traits (though, not all are true for every state):

1. cities - large, complex settlements
   
   • population of at least 5,000
   1. economic, political, and religious centre for the surrounding region, usually with at least three administrative levels (e.g., city, town, village), and a standing army
2. centralized accumulation of wealth
   
   • class system = stratification = differential access to power and basic resources
3. writing - often develops from advanced record keeping
4. large public buildings with monumental architecture
   
   • often religious and economic functions are combined
5. Development of sciences such as astronomy and mathematics
6. Full-time religious specialists
7. Sophisticated art in “official” styles, often portraying rulers and gods
8. Craft specialization
9. Further development of long-distance trade
   
   • both luxury items and subsistence goods

Question 23

Uruk: The World’s First State

Answer 23

• in southern Mesopotamia (land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in modern Iraq and Syria)
• development of plough and irrigation during the 4th millennium BCE
• between 3500-3000 BCE – many of the attributes of true states come together
• Site of Uruk had more then 10,000 people in a city surrounded by a 9 km wall
• several large temples including the Anu ziggurat – 21 metres high with a temple on top, took at least 7500 person-years to build!
• economic specialization seen in many crafts which must have been made by full-time specialists.
• trade in a wide variety of materials
• world’s earliest writing – cuneiform impressions on clay tablets – from Uruk by 3400 BCE

Question 24

Irrigation | Origin Theory

Answer 24

water storage and distribution facilities required centralized bureaucracy to organize construction and use.

Question 25

Population Pressure | Origin Theory

Answer 25

• growing population required more sophisticated agricultural techniques, which in turn led to further population growth
• required central bureaucracy to manage storage, crop scheduling, etc.

Question 26

Trade | Origin Theory

Answer 26

increased trade may have required more craft specialists and bureaucracies to organize acquisition, production, distribution, etc.

Question 27

Warfare | Origin Theory

Answer 27

• “coercive theory” of state formation
• also called “warfare and circumscription” theory
• as communities compete, losers cannot flee, because agricultural land is limited.
• join together into ever larger and more complex systems.
• people become concentrated into cities for defence
• leaders coerce population with armies, legal systems, religious legitimization

Question 28

Multi-Factor Approaches | Origin Theory

Answer 28

• all other theories use a “prime mover” (single cause) to explain origins of the state.
• most scholars now agree that there were multiple factors which worked together
• central to many models - emerging leadership allows society to deal with a great range of ecological and population problems
• at the same time the elite is actively consolidating unequal distribution of power and resources for a select part of the population
• each instance of state formation will be different.

Question 29

Collapse of Civilizations

Answer 29

• All state-level societies eventually collapse or are radically changed
• General theories for causes of collapse:
  
  • environmental change / disaster
  • warfare, invaders from outside
  • internal factors, e.g., social unrest - if population sees the centralized authority and bureaucracy as a hindrance rather than a help