Domestication and Early Food Production -- The Neolithic Revolution

The neolithic revolution

• 10,000 years ago

• major cutural change

• transition from a foraging based economy to food production

Natufians

• pre agricultural development

• 14,000-11,000 years ago

• epipaleolithic

• lived in the Near East

• no domestication

• harvested wild grain

• stored surplus

• increasing social complexity

Epipaleolithic

• pre agriculture

• near east

Archaic

north, central, south

Mesolithic

africa

How were differences in status in early societies identified?

burials

Broad spectrum gathering

broadened way people would get their food

• climate leads to the loss of Megafauna

Archaeological site of Eynan/Ain Mallaha

• village settlement, pit houses, permanent settlement

• subsistence: wild grains; wild animals

Primary types of subsistence practices

• hunters and gatherers/foragers

• horticulture

• pastoralism

• intensive agriculture

Hunters and gatherers/foragers

primary focus is on wild plants and animals

Horticulture

food production of domesticated plants but with wild plant and animal supplements

Pastoralism

primary focus on domesticated animal with limited horticulture

Intensive agriculture

large scale use of domesticated plants with irrigation; bringing water to your crops

Climate change

• leads to glacier retreat

• sea levels rise

• behavioral changes; have to do with society, culture

• subsistence changes; hunter and gathering to domestication and agriculture

What was the subsistence changes caused because of climate change?

hunter and gathering to domestication and agriculture

How can we find evidence for major change during the neolithic revolution?

archaeology, zooarchaeology, paleobotany, bioarchaeology, climate science

Domestication

evolutionary process whereby humans modify the genetic makeup of a population of wild plants or animals to the extent that those populations are unable to survive without human assistance (selective breeding)

Agriculture

the cultivation and raising or use of domesticated plants

Primary centers of domestication

areas where plants and or animals were first domesticated

Secondary centers of domestication

areas that received plants and or animals that had already been domesticated

How can domestication of plants and animals be identified in archaeological remains?

• size (metrical evidence)

• morphological evidence

  • having a flexible rachis is beneficial for harvesting

Why were smaller animals domesticated in early domestication?

for safety issues

Four primary classes of evidence used to distinguish between wild type and domesticated animals

• species of animals outside of natural habitat

• morphological changes

  • domesticated animals are smaller than wild type

• increase in animal population over wild species

• age and sex of the animals represented in zoo archaeological record

Push models

can be referred to as stress models because they presume that humans are “pushed” or forced into domestication and agriculture

Pull models

suggest that precursors of domesticated plants and animals thought to have had certain “attractive characteristics which drew humans to rely increasingly on them

Oasis hypothesis

• created by Gordon Childe

• push model

• climate is a causation

• animals congregate around these oases because of climate

• humans settled around water sources and domesticated for survival

Natural habitat hypothesis

• created by Braidwood

• pull model

• earliest domesticates should be found in the same area as their wild ancestors

• farming was seen as a highly lifestyle

  • provided security as food was produced and store

  • provided leisure time

Population pressure hypothesis/ Edge Hypotheses

• created by Binford

• push model

• this hypothesis was directly in contrast to Braidwood’s hypothesis of natural habitat

• people would turn to agriculture as a last result

• equilibrium between humans and food

• as population goes up, you need more food and lose more food from hunting and gathering

  • would go to domesticating for food

Social hypothesis

• created by Barbara bender

• agriculture was the means to which social inequality emerges

• competitive feasting

• change in social relationships

Where was the earliest domestication

the Fertile Crescent

Abu Hurerya

• first evidence of domesticated plants (Rye) —- 13kya

• uninterrupted occupation between 10,500 and 6000BC

  • Neolithic period

• heavy reliance on hunting and gathering of wild species of animals and plants, respectively prior to the introduction of domesticated species

Abu Hureyra archaeological record

Floral analysis (evidence of both wild and domesticated plants suggest year round settlement)

Faunal record (heavy reliance on will gazelle hunting)

Evidence for changes in environment, economy, and settlement type at Abu Hureyra

• decline in gazelle

• domesticated sheep and goats

• cereal and legume cultivation

Abu hureyra burials

• ritualistic behavior

• removal of the head; the skulls had traces of red paint

Abu hureyra trade

• obsidian, malachite, agate, jadeite, and serpentine (turkey)

• shells (Red Sea)

• turquoise (sinai peninsula)

Abu hureyra artifacts

ceramics

Jericho

• tell site

• one of the oldest continuously occupied site

• earliest neolithic layer between 8500 and 7000 BC

• population 600

Floral records of Jericho

• evidence of domesticated wheat in the form of impressions

• evidence of domesticated barley

• collected prior to the use of floatation

• did not do floatation

Faunal records of Jericho

• gazelle bones

• domesticates (sheep’s and goats) become more important post 7000BC

• similar pattern observed at Abu hureyra

Jericho burials

• evidence of difference in status

• removal of skulls

• shell eyes replaced the eyes

Jericho trade

• obsidian (turkey)

• shells (Red Sea)

• salt, tar, sulfur (Dead Sea)

• turquoise (sinai peninsula)

Jericho artifacts

• grinding equipment

• stone tools (sickles)

New world primary domestication centers

• mesoamerica

• north America

• South America

Key domesticates (plants) in the new world

maize, beans, squash

Key domesticates (animals) in the new world

llama, dog, guinea pig

Guila Naquitz

• western mexico

• easiest evidence of maize (5000-4250BCE)

• presence of wild teosinte

Isotopes

alternative states of an element with same number of protons but different number of neutrons

Primary use of isotopes outside of dating

used for the reconstruction of diet with the basic principle of “you are what you eat” underlying this type of research

Two primary sources of variation in carbon 13 in human diet and bone collagen

• different ratios of the plants that we eat

• different ratios between terrestrial and marine foods

Isotopic analysis

will not tell you the last meal someone had, but will tell you the general food a person ate over an extended period of time

Carbon 4 plants

• tropical grasses

• have more positive carbon 13

• corn

• the percentage will be smaller

• ex.-12.5%

Carbon 4 plants

• non tropical grasses

• have more negative carbon 13

• wheat

• the percentage will be bigger

• ex. -26.5%

Nitrogen isotopic levels are related to:

• the role of leguminous plants

• trophic level (position in the food chain)

Nitrogen 15

• the value of plants as they are passed through the food chain are done so with approx. 2-3ppm higher for each trophic level

• animals that eat plants show N15 enrichment over the plants as predators show enrichment over the animal they eat

Temporal change In stable carbon isotope ratios form eastern N. America

• spike in positive carbon 13

• indicates that they were eating more corn by 1000 AD

• western Mexico is trading and bringing corn to North America

Greenland viking study

• oxygen isotopes

• carbon 13

• food sources coming from marine life which was related to climate shift

Roman periods

• nitrogen to determine dietary patterns and cultural practices

• spike in nitrogen —- breastfeeding and weaning

Consequences of agriculture

• surplus of food as population increases

• fertility rates rises

• reduced time between birth as mother is breastfeeding

• increase in morbidity (sickness) rates

• increase in mortality rates

  • increase in population, more likely to get sick

  • zoonoses - disease transferred from animal to human

  • nutritional diseases

• increase in warfare