UNIT 2 NEOLITHIC REVOLUTION

WHEN
10,000BC

WHERE
Middle East

WHY IT’S CONSIDERED A REVOLUTION & CHANGES IT PROMOTED

Because it changed people’s way of living.
From nomads to sedentary.
Didn’t hunt —> cultivated cereals, domesticated animals and constructed settlements to live in.
Started living next to rivers where land was more fertile.

NEGATIVE IMPACTS OF THE REVOLUTION

1. Class divisions: farming led to the necessity of having someone watching over what had to be
done
2. Gender inequality
3. Diseases: they lived closer to each other, so infectious diseases were easily transmitted
4. Famine and starvation

FIRST FOUR CIVILIZATIONS AND WHERE DID THEY EMERGE

1. Ancient Egypt —> Nile River
2. Ancient India —> Indus Valley
3. Shang Dynasty of China —> Yellow River Valley most of them: Asia
4. Mesopotamia —> Tigris-Euphrates River

RELATIONSHIP BW NEOLITHIC REVOLUTION AND RISE OF CIVILIZATIONS

The discovery of agriculture led people to settle down, therefore raising communities who didn’t
have to move around in search for food. This provided them with great stability.

The settlement of the population + discovery of agriculture = stability (food and shelters)

WHY DID CIVILIZATIONS DEVELOP AROUND RIVERS

1. Traveling through rivers was easier than traveling over land
2. Food and crop development: fertility of the soil and water available
3. Existence of clay, canes and other useful materials for construction

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BASIC FEATURES THAT DESCRIBE EARLY CIVILIZATIONS
1. Existence of cities
2. Organized governments
3. Complex religions
4. Job specialization
5. Emergence of social clases
6. Development of art and architecture
7. Public buildings
8. Writing systems

SHORT AND LONG TERM IMPACT ON THE POPULATION

Short term
Increase in death rate because of
famine (not enough food supplies),
diseases, epidemics…
Increase in population due to stability

After the Neolithic Revolution

occurred, the population rate had an
exponential increase during the next
thousands of years, as it meant great
stability and the emergence of a new
social and economic model

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 QUIZ QUESTIONS

1. The first part of the Stone Age is also called the Paleolithic Era
2. Permanent settlements were built when people began to raise crops and animals
3. Once people adopted agriculture the world population shrank because agriculture provided a less
reliable food supply than did hunting and gathering 

4. Early humans hunted animals and gathered wild plants, seeds, fruits, and nuts and may have even
scavenged to survive
5. Early agricultural societies can best be described as sedentary
6. The hunter-gatherer way of life made it impossible for people to live in permanent dwellings
7. The Neolithic Revolution refers to a time when early humans developed agriculture
8. Which of the following best defines the word ‘sedentary'? staying in one place regularly
9. What is the term used to describe the process by which species (of plant or
animal) changes over time to adapt to their environment through natural selection? Evolution
10. Three of the four earliest civilizations originated on which continent? Asia
11. Which of the following geologic changes most likely made the Earth’s climate better suited to
grow plants? The end of the last ice age that lead to a warmer climate
12. Early humans living during the Stone Age most likely lived in small groups and moved to new
areas as food became scarce
13. The shift from hunting and gathering to farming is called the Neolithic Revolution because it
changed life dramatically
14. Agriculture emerged after a warming trend resulted in new plants and animals
15. All of the earliest civilizations developed near which of the following geographic feature?
Rivers
16. What led to the emergence of more defined social ranking? the growth of settled communities
17. Where did the world’s first civilizations arise? along fertile river valleys

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