Agrarian Revolution
Agrarian revolution research papers document man's transition to an agriculturally based society. Paper Masters has many writers that are familiar with this topic from a sociological, agricultural, anthropological and geographical standpoint. Have our expert academic research paper writers produce you a model research paper on the agrarian revolution.
The Agrarian Revolution, also known as the Agricultural Revolution, was the Neolithic transition among human groups from hunter-gatherer societies into more settled farming communities. This transformation took place approximately 12,000 years ago, during the Holocene epoch.
As human beings migrated out of Africa, their existence was marked by hunter-gatherer techniques for millennia. Human societies were eventually able to settle in one place, generally in fertile river valleys, and began the domestication of plants. Some of the earliest areas were:
- The Fertile Crescent (between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers) in Mesopotamia
- The Nile Valley in Egypt
- The Indus Valley in India
- The Huang He Valley in China
These were also major sites of agricultural settlement and the beginnings of civilization.
Agrarian Revolution and Grasses
Once settled, human beings began to selectively breed cereal grasses, the first of which were emmer, einkorn, and barley. These grasses were domesticated in the Fertile Crescent, followed by lentils, peas, chickpeas, and flax. Next came the domestication of animals. Dogs had been domesticated in the Stone Age and were used in hunting, but humans began to keep animals to be used as food, including sheep, goats, and pigs. Dromedary camels were domesticated for use as beasts of burden. However, along with the many benefits of settled agriculture, human societies became vulnerable to new diseases, perhaps resulting from inadequate sanitation from domesticated animals.