Agriculture
The Near East has the lead role in the history of agriculture, witnessing the first domesticated plants and animals, associated with a more sedentary village life. It is interesting to speculate why farming develped at this time. During the cold and warm periods that alternated with the earlier Ice Ages, it would seem that agriculture should have been possible much sooner. However, it was only after the latest Ice Age that human groups had a social and technical infrastructure sufficiently developed to take advantage of the opportunity offered by the climate and the geography.
Varieties of wheat and barley were available in a broad belt stretching from Anatolia to Iran and goats and sheep were even more widely dispersed. The centuries of specialized hunting and food gathering had caused humans to focus on those animals and plants that were most advantageous to them. The careful and persistent gathering of these resources led to the cultivation of same. Once the implication of these new and novel ideas took root, a rapid transformation of human society began to take place.
This development now meant that a large population could survive on the produce of a relatively small area of suitable land, from which unwanted plants and animals could be excluded. This concentration of effort upon a relatively small area contrasted sharply with the traditional way of life of the hunter and a more sedentary form of economy emerged. The alteration in the structure of human society was relatively abrupt. In the Near East permanent settlements with stone built houses and walls and towers were established by 7000 BCE although only 1000 years before the indigenous economy had still followed the basic pattern of hunting and food gathering. The development of farming and the establishment of permanent settlements transformed man's existence and led eventually to an increase in populaton. Recent studies seem to indicate that the agriculture does not necessarily provide easier and abundant supplies but that a more settled lifestyle led to the possibility of larger social groups and offered the advantages of a reduced child mortality as mothers did not have to move with the tribe and through agriculture, a more direct control of the food supply.
Two species of wild wheat were found in the Near East: einkorn wheat and emmer wheat, which may have arisen as a natural hybrid of einkorn with another grass. Through selective harvesting and planting, both einkorn and emmer wheat produced domesticated varieties. The cereals stored for longer periods of time provided that they were kept dry and free from rodents or insects. Grain can also be heared or parched to prevent germination. This allowed for a delayed return on the energy invested in their collection so it was possible for grain to act like money, having an accepted standard of value and a medium of exchange....a most radical invention..which promoted the development of a society in which status was then based on wealth.
The Ancient World, Esmond Wright, Hamlyn Publishing Group, 1969
Early Mesopotamia, Society and Economy at the Dawn of History, J.N. Postgate, Routledge, 1996
Penguin Encyclopedia of Ancient Civilizations, Arthur Cotterell, Penguin Books, 1980
Cultural Atlas of Mesopotamia and the Ancient Near East, Michael Roaf, Andromeda, 1998