WHAT S FOR DINNER TONIGHT?

7 WHAT S FOR DINNER TONIGHT? Evidence of Early Agriculture: The First Farmers 900L A HISTORIAN S JOURNAL ENTRY / BY ANITA RAVI We have learned that agriculture the seventh threshold was a result of humans living in denser populations. These humans living closer together were able to share ideas with each other.

Why did humans begin to raise plants? David Christian answers that question in the Unit 7 video Why Was Agriculture So Important. He says that climate change made agriculture possible. Overpopulation made it necessary. When the last ice age ended about 12,000 years ago, the climate became warmer, wetter, and more stable. These changes made agriculture possible. Humans could now plant something, stay for the harvest, and replant for the next year. Humans now had more reliable sources of food. They could stay in one place and have more babies because they didn t have to move around from place to place anymore. Larger families meant there were more mouths to feed, what Christian calls overpopulation. Humans began to experiment with different forms of agriculture to grow food and feed their families. How do we know what humans were doing 12,000 years ago or 8,000 years ago? What evidence have we used to figure all of this out? How has our understanding of the earliest farmers changed over time? Available financial and human resources. You can t begin a dig without the funds and the people to do it. To raise money, archaeologists have to convince funders that a certain project will actually lead to discoveries. Cultural preferences for studying sites in one part of the world over another. Throughout history, cultures and nations have argued over who is more civilized. Finding evidence of early human life in one region or another can allow one culture to feel superior to others. Why are these four factors important? We must keep them in mind when we look at the current archaeological evidence of early human farming. What we know now will probably change over time. The factors above will also change over time. In addition, what we know now is based on our current level of technology and the amount of time and money available to investigate sites. Now let s look at archaeological evidence from three different sites around the world. Let s see what the evidence tells us about early farming in those places. There are not many written records from this time, just a few cave paintings scattered around the world (South Africa, Central America, India). Most evidence of what people ate is perishable: it dissolves over time, leaving nothing behind. Still, archaeologists have worked hard to locate and excavate (dig up) sites around the world. They have uncovered evidence of how these early farmers lived. How do they know where to dig? How confident should I be about their claims? Susan Douglass is a historian at George Mason University. Douglass says there are four factors that help archaeologists decide where to dig: People have dug there before. Archaeologists and historians look for evidence that is uncovered by accident. For example, construction workers might find an old burial ground or a set of ancient pottery while building a new housing complex. More digging in the area is likely to uncover more evidence of early human life. The climate and social conditions make discovery of a site very likely. Very dry places are more likely to preserve ancient artifacts. Very wet places cause decay that destroys them. It s also important that the very dry place is not in a war zone. It s difficult to create an archaeological dig in the middle of a war. Decorative pottery from Ban-po-ts un shows evidence of a fishing culture. BIG HISTORY PROJECT WHAT S FOR DINNER TONIGHT? / 900L 2

RICE FARMING IN BAN-PO-TS UN, EAST ASIA I learned that one of the earliest farming sites in East Asia is Ban-po-ts un, also called Banpo (pronounced baan-paw). It is located in Shaanxi province, northern China, near the medieval city of Xi an. The site is from the Neolithic period the New Stone Age and it was first settled about 6,000 years ago. Archaeologists working at this site have found several types of evidence. This evidence has taught us a lot about early farming here. In the 1950s, Chinese archaeologists discovered over 500,000 pieces of pottery. Some of the pottery were basic pieces made from red clay that were probably used for daily cooking. The archaeologists also found decorated pottery. An example of this can be seen in the image on the previous page. The designs on this piece of pottery are evidence of a fishing culture. The large symbol in the middle may represent the people in the community who created this pot. The fish surrounding the symbol tell me that fish supported the community and were important as a food source. Archaeologists also found evidence of a large settlement of houses at this site that was surrounded by a moat. It s possible that fish lived in the moat. If so, it means the Banpo created the right conditions for fish to survive they created a habitat to raise fish. Archaeologists also found six kilns in the settlement that were used to make pottery. They also found farming tools such as stone hoes, spades, knives, and mortars and pestles. These tools all provide evidence that the Banpo were early farmers who harvested their food sources and used tools to grind them. crops. It also tells us that rice and millet were staples key foods in the Banpo diet. The evidence proves that dry-land agriculture was established in northern China by 6000 BCE. It s also an example of how new technologies allow us to return to ancient sites and learn more about the people who lived there. SQUASH AND CORN CULTIVATION IN OAXACA, MEXICO The peoples of Mesoamerica took longer to adapt to farming than peoples in East Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa. How do we know this? Excavations at the Guilá Naquitz Cave Group in what is now Oaxaca, Mexico, tell us that these people began raising plants while still living a semi-nomadic lifestyle. Naquitz is a cave that overlooks the Oaxaca Valley of Mexico in North America. It is almost 200 meters (about 656 feet) above sea level. Two rivers flow through the valley: the upper Rio Atoyac and the Rio Salado. Evidence suggests that people lived inside the cave. But it was the lands around the cave where these early farmers experimented with agriculture. Archaeologists have uncovered evidence that the people of Guilá Naquitz grew squash about 9,000 years ago. Scholars used their current knowledge of plants native to Mexico. They also gathered data from radiocarbon dating. Using this evidence, they determined that the squash, Curcurbita pepo, were grown for their protein-rich seeds. Here s a picture of one of the squash seeds they discovered in the cave: About 20 years ago, archaeobotanists developed a new technology that helped them investigate ancient farming in China. They found evidence that the ancient Chinese in this area grew rice and millet. (Archaeobotanists are archaeologists who specialize in ancient plants). This new technology was called the flotation method. It used water to separate grains of rice and millet out of soil samples. The grains that had been burned by fire floated to the top. Archaeobotanists using this method discovered 106 different types of rice and millet near Banpo in 2002. This tells us that farmers were experimenting with different kinds of grains. They were probably trying to figure out which produced the best Squash seed from the Guilá Naquitz cave. BIG HISTORY PROJECT WHAT S FOR DINNER TONIGHT? / 900L 3

This squash is the same species as the modern pumpkin and the summer squash. How do we know this? Scientists compare the cell structure of the ancient seeds to squash grown today. They can see if the structures are similar or different. Within the last 15 years, archaeologists also found evidence that these early Mesoamericans may have been the first to domesticate teosinte: the ancestor of maize. Before this discovery, most scholars believed that maize cultivation first began north of Mexico City about 7,000 years ago. These early farmers created artificial ponds using the natural wetlands. They then built canals to connect these ponds to the natural water source. They also built stone fish traps to take advantage of the migration cycles of the eels. The traps looked like this: The Naquitz cave site provided evidence that people lived there for about 2,000 years. The first humans arrived about 9,000 years ago. Inside the caves there is evidence of further development: butchering meat, food processing, cooking, toolmaking. The skins of the squash were found in one piece. This suggests the Naquitz people used them as containers. Like the Banpo, the people of Guilá Naquitz experimented with different types of farming. How do we know? Different types of seeds were found in the cave. Some of these seeds (today) grow in wet conditions while some grow better in drier soil. It seems these early farmers planned for different amounts of rain. They decided which seeds to plant to make sure they would always have enough food. I am starting to see a pattern here: Agricultural development moved at different speeds in China and Mexico. Still, farmers in both places experimented with different types of seeds and grains to find what worked best for their local climates. EEL FARMING BY THE GUNDITJMARA OF AUSTRALIA So far I ve learned that early farmers were very resourceful and clever: They built kilns to make pottery. They lived in caves, but still planted corn. They even harvested eels. Until I came across this evidence, I never thought I d use eels and farming in the same sentence. In Aboriginal Australia, farming started very early. It looked a lot different than farming in China or Mexico. Archaeologist Dr. Heather Builth has studied this area extensively. She found that about 8,000 years ago, early Australians (the Gunditjmara people) from the Lake Condah region of southeastern Australia farmed a large area: almost 100 square kilometers (more than 24,000 acres). They didn t raise corn or millet or squash. They raised eels. Eel trap from Lake Condah area. Builth and her team found many eel traps. The number of traps tells us that the Gunditjmara could feed more than 10,000 people with the eels they farmed. They also discovered burnt, hollowed-out trees right next to the eel traps. Builth believes these tree stumps were smokehouses used to preserve the freshly caught eels. If the Gunditjmara people were preserving that many eels, Builth concluded that they were probably trading them for another resource. Builth didn t just discover evidence of ancient farming. She also discovered the ruins of stone huts of settlements. This is evidence that the Gunditjmara were a sedentary, settled people. In the past, experts thought the rock formations had formed naturally. Dr. Builth used careful measurement and statistical analysis. She showed that the rock formations were actually the foundations of ancient stone huts. BIG HISTORY PROJECT WHAT S FOR DINNER TONIGHT? / 900L 4

CONCLUSION OR SO WHAT? What can I conclude from these three cases? I ve reviewed the evidence from archaeologists around the world. I can now say with confidence that: 1. Archaeologists and other scientists found ancient artifacts. They used these artifacts to develop logical accounts of how people lived and farmed 9,000 to 6,000 years ago, 2. These scientists have created new technologies to gather this evidence and support their claims. 3. As a result, we now know that people all around the globe were developing new ways to feed their growing, sedentary populations. Based on evidence, I can now conclude that our early ancestors in many parts of the world: 1. were very intelligent; 2. experimented with different plants; 3. invented new technologies and tools to increase their ability to produce food and goods; 4. passed on what they learned to others, increasing collective learning. Working Bibliography & Notes Bickley, Mary, and Susan Douglass. Landscape Teaching Unit 3.2 Farmers Around the World, 10,000 to 1500 BCE. World History for Us All. PDF file. Image of bowl from Banpo, which is currently housed at the National Museum of China, is courtesy of Gary Lee Todd, Ph.D. https://www.flickr.com/photos/101561334@n08/9828990785/in/ set-72157635672488756 http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/ File:Banpo_basin_with_human_face_ and_fish_designs.jpg Image of squash seed from Guilá Naquitz courtesy of Harrington, Spencer P.M. Earliest Agriculture in the New World. Archaeology Newsbriefs 50:4 (July/August 1997): 1. Web. Image of eel trap from Lake Condah area courtesy of McNiven, Ian J. and Damein Bell. Fishers and Farmers: historicising the Gunditjmara freshwater fishery, western Victoria. LaTrobe Journal 85 (May 2010): 96. Web. Cover image: Egyptian Eighteenth Dynasty Wall Painting of Agricultural Scenes from the Tomb of Unsou. Courtesy of The Gallery Collection/ Corbis. This short journal entry is an example of how historians go about exploring important questions and looking at new information. They use a mixture of historical documents and the writings of other historians to inform their thinking. All sources are listed in the working bibliography. BIG HISTORY PROJECT WHAT S FOR DINNER TONIGHT? / 900L 5