Physically modern humans evolved over a long time and alongside other, related species. Our ability to use and make tools gave our ancestors the ability to spread to new environments. Our ability to share information and produce symbols helped us to master those environments. Gradually, people populated almost the whole world. But populations remained small until the development of farming. Farming allowed us to produce more calories, feed more people, and eventually build villages and towns. Yet there is some evidence that early farmers had more difficult lives than foragers.

This video introduces you to several important transformations in humans and human societies that began in this era. The first is the cognitive revolution, a dramatic change in the way we think and express ourselves. Our ancestors also populated much of the world, and began to farm. This was one of the most dramatic innovations in human history, but why did it happen and was it a good idea?

Preview—Skimming for Gist

Before you watch the video, open and skim the transcript. Additionally, you should always read the questions below before you watch the video (a good habit to use in reading, too!). These pre-viewing strategies will help you know what to look and listen for as you watch the video. If there is time, your teacher may have you watch the video one time without stopping, and then give you time to watch again to pause and find the answers.

Key Ideas—Understanding Content

Think about the following questions as you watch this video:

1. This video begins by stating that for almost all of human history, our ancestors were foragers. What is a forager?
2. An archaeologist named James Mellaart found a painting on the wall of a house in Çatalhöyük. How did he interpret that painting, and why was it significant?
3. Çatalhöyük was a Neolithic society. What does Neolithic mean and how did Neolithic societies live, according to the video?
4. We generally think that life must have been easier for farmers than for foragers. What evidence is produced in this video that suggests this may not have been the case?
5. What was the cognitive revolution?
6. What do many scholars now believe about the painting found by James Mellaart?

Evaluating and Corroborating

1. You have not yet seen all of the articles and videos in this lesson, but based on what you learned in this video, and your previous knowledge, do you think it was likely that early farmers lived better lives than foragers, or not? Why?
2. You have just learned about archaeologist James Mellaart’s interpretation of the map at Çatalhöyük. How did other scholars interpret the map later? What do these different interpretations suggest to you about how you should approach historical evidence?

This lesson follows the story of early humans as they spread across all regions of the world and developed farming. Agriculture developed independently at different times and in several different regions of the world. The purpose of this activity is to introduce you to the agricultural regions where farming first developed. The focus of this activity is on the task of identifying and predicting with maps. As the opening map activity for this lesson, this is intended to help orient you in time and space while raising some important questions about the geography you’ll encounter in this lesson.

You’ll begin this activity by identifying several agricultural regions that developed farming independently. Next, you’ll make some predictions (or guesses) about which of these regions developed farming the earliest and why.

Step 1

This activity is intended to introduce you to the major geographic regions that experienced agricultural revolutions. You’re not expected to have all the answers for this activity. Instead, you’ll make informed guesses, which you can confirm or correct as you move through the readings and videos. Your teacher will divide you into small groups, and your group should review the list of agricultural regions and attempt to label them on the blank map.

Step 2

With your group, choose the three agricultural regions you think might have developed farming at the earliest dates. In the worksheet, you should record the region, along with guesses for when you think farming developed and which crops people might have farmed there. Finally, write brief explanations for why your group thinks this region was likely to have developed farming so early. You should save these maps to reference in the Part 2 map activity later in this lesson.

The shift from foraging to farming by our ancestors was gradual, uneven, and revolutionary. There are many possible reasons why early humans began to farm rather than stick to foraging. The debate continues around which method (farming or foraging) led to a higher quality of life for early humans. Regardless of which one was “better,” it’s no argument that the shift to farming was monumental for the future of humankind.

This article provides evidence for contrasting viewpoints regarding the transition from foraging to farming. It will also help you understand the causes of this shift and the positive and negative consequences.

Think about the following prompt as you read the article: To what extent does this article provide evidence to help you understand the causes and consequences of the shift from foraging to farming. Write this prompt at the top of the Three Close Reads worksheet. You will be asked to respond to this prompt again after the third read in the Evaluating and Corroborating section of the worksheet.

Preview—Skimming for Gist

Fill out the Skimming for Gist section of the Three Close Reads worksheet as you complete your first close read. As a reminder, this should be a quick process!

Key Ideas—Understanding Content

For this reading, you should be looking for unfamiliar vocabulary words, the major claim and key supporting details, and analysis and evidence. By the end of the second close read, you should be able to answer the following questions:

1. What evidence does the author use to suggest that farming was an unintentional process to begin with?
2. How did the rise of fixed farming communities change what people’s daily work looked like?
3. According to the author, how did the rise of villages both expand and shrink networks of interconnection?
4. What were the benefits and drawbacks of foraging?
5. What were the benefits and drawbacks of farming?

Evaluating and Corroborating

At the end of the third close read, respond to the following questions:

1. To what extent does this article provide evidence to help you understand the causes and consequences of the shift from foraging to farming.
2. Given the evidence in this article, would you have preferred to have been a farmer or a forager?

Did farming lead to the state? Were all states made by farmers, and did all farmers come to live in states? In this video, two leading world historians share what they know about the connections between the shift to agriculture and the rise of states.

This video will introduce you to a debate about the connection between farming and the state. That connection is important to evaluating the causes and consequences of the shift to farming and the rise of states.

Think about the following question as you watch the video: How does this video help you to understand the governance and economic systems themes? You will be asked to respond to this question again at the end of the video.

Preview—Skimming for Gist

Before you watch the video, open and skim the transcript. Additionally, you should always read the questions below before you watch the video (a good habit to use in reading, too!). These pre-viewing strategies will help you know what to look and listen for as you watch the video. If there is time, your teacher may have you watch the video one time without stopping, and then give you time to watch again to pause and find the answers.

Key Ideas—Understanding Content

Think about the following questions as you watch this video:

1. What do Candice Goucher and Laura Mitchell think about the argument that farming was a pre-condition for the state?
2. What evidence do Goucher and Trevor Getz provide as a counterargument to the claim that grain farming, in particular, leads to states?
3. What does Mitchell say about the connection between labor and the state?
4. Given the added labor and tax burden, do Goucher and Mitchell think the state was a good idea?
5. According to Goucher, is there still a connection between farming and the state today?

Evaluating and Corroborating

1. How does this video help you to understand the governance and economic systems themes?
2. This video concentrates on the connection between farming and the formation of states, many of which had some common characteristics such as social hierarchy and specialization of labor. But the participants also push back on this by stating that there were other states that did not rely on farming such as fishing populations or pastoralists. What about foraging communities—do you think some foraging communities could also be called states? What conditions might foragers need in order to develop things like specialization of labor or social hierarchies?

In this activity you'll build on the geographic knowledge you developed in the Era 2 Part 1 map activity. This activity will help you identify and analyze maps to better understand how changes in early human migrations and agriculture shaped human communities. It will also provide additional evidence to help you understand what caused some humans to shift from foraging to farming and the effects of this change. In the next lesson, you will learn about some of the ongoing consequences of agriculturalism on human societies. This activity will help prepare you to evaluate narratives surrounding those consequences.

This activity begins with an identification opening in which you’ll revisit and correct your labels of agricultural regions from the Part 1 activity you completed earlier in this lesson. Next, you’ll add a new layer to this map by tracing the routes of human migration and annotating the map about the agricultural revolution using evidence you encountered in this lesson. Finally, you’ll examine a map of ancient empires and agricultural regions as you write a response to a prompt about how the rise of agriculture changed human communities.

Step 1

In the Era 2 Part 1 map activity, you tried to identify the nine regions where agriculture arose independently at different times. Individually, you should take out the blank map you labeled in that activity. Then, review the Ancient Empires and Agriculture Thematic Map and correct your labels. Were your guesses for which areas developed agriculture earliest correct or close to correct?

Step 2

Once you’ve finished correcting your labels, your teacher will break you into small groups. Using evidence you encountered in this lesson, you should complete two tasks. First, trace the routes of early human migration across the world. Next, add two new annotations to the map about early human communities. This can be anything you found interesting or important in the lesson, but you should label the spot on the map where the event took place.

Step 3

Remaining in small groups, you should return to the Ancient Empires and Agriculture Thematic Map. Take a few minutes to examine the map and its legend. What information is contained in the map? Finally, your group should prepare a short paragraph or bullet list in response to this prompt (be prepared to share your answers with your class and teacher):

The emergence of agriculture was one of the most important changes in human history. Using this map and other evidence encountered in this lesson as evidence, how do you think farming changed human communities?