Trade
Stone Age peoples traded raw materials and exotic goods many thousands of years before the agricultural revolution.
The beginnings of trade
Stone tools have been found great distances from the sources of the stone from which they are made. Amber, oyster shells, copper, turquoise, malachite, and dyes used in cosmetics have also been found at pre-historic sites substantially distant from their sources. Although the foraging bands of this period were largely self-sufficient, individual groups may have had easy access to some uncommon item that might have been desired by others. The favored group could gather such an item, for example, chert stone blanks, seashore shells, or bear claws, and trade them to other groups for items that the first group desired, but to which it had no easy access. The copper in ornaments found in the native settlements of Florida, for example, originated in Michigan and Minnesota.The scattered foraging groups within a large region may have come together regularly, perhaps during the bountiful summer or fall seasons, to celebrate, select mates, and trade. Such gatherings would also have been a likely time for new technologies to be shared.
Trade and towns
Trade increased in importance after the first towns appeared. Within the town the different task specialists had to trade the results of their work for the things they needed. The increasing importance of task specialization required a more sophisticated arrangement of bartering so the residents could trade the results of their labor for the necessities and luxuries they desired.Trade also flourished between towns. When two different towns each had access to something the other did not have but wanted, there was an obvious basis for trading. Even when both could obtain or produce the same items, there might have been a benefit from trading. Each might have specialized in the production of a particular good or food item, traded with each other, and ended up with more of both items than they would if they had tried to meet their needs separately. This comparative advantage from trading might arise because one town had better farmland and the other better grazing land. Or one might have had easier access to metallic ores while the other was surrounded by rich bottom land.Within towns the specialization of tasks and the prospect of profit increased the rate of technological improvement. The expert had an incentive to find ways to be more productive. Greater productivity either made him materially better off or allowed for greater leisure time.Trade between towns also helped increase the rate of technological change by expanding markets and bringing different cultures into contact. Distant markets further encouraged specialists to find better ways to make things. Trading between towns and regions helped spread new technologies more quickly and more widely, reducing the chance that an important innovation might be temporarily lost.The demands of business and trade eventually led to the development of money that served as a medium of exchange, a storehouse of value, and a standard of value. Silver rings or bars are thought to have been used as money in ancient Iraq before 2000 BC. The first coins were made of electrum, a naturally occurring and easily malleable alloy of gold and silver.
Religion
The marvelous human ability to think made it possible for our ancient predecessors to first ponder such discomfiting questions as where do we come from, what is out past the stars, what controls the sun and the moon, what happens when we die, and so on. Religion evolved from the first attempts to provide acceptable answers to questions like these, however implausible or supernatural, because science and logic as they existed then (and today in many cases) could not. Living at a time when life was probably short and demanding, where so little was understood, and where critical events could not be predicted or controlled, it was natural to accept the existence of a guiding spirit or deity at work. It was an easy following step to believe that spirits, ancestors, or deities could be influenced or petitioned.
Early religion
The oldest evidence of these beliefs is ceremonial burials. The dead are adorned for their transformation from the living to some other place and are often buried with goods that may be of use on the other side. There is evidence that the Neanderthals employed ceremonial burials. Cave paintings, clay figurines, and carvings of animals and possible deities hint at the religious beliefs and worship of the ancient hunters and gatherers. Worship and sacrifice were intended to insure good hunting, good gathering, good fishing, good health, and long life.Following the agricultural revolution, worshipping the sun became predominant for the new farmers. The animal spirits and Earth goddess slipped in importance because food plants were the principal food supply and it was understood that the sun was critical to crops. Astronomers learned to follow the movements of the sun so they could mark the times of planting and harvest.
Urban religion
The increasing complexity of urban life was mirrored in many cultures by an increasingly complex religion. Some cultures worshipped a host of gods, each responsible for some part of the natural world. There might be a sea god and forest god, for example. Within such a host of gods, it was common for a hierarchy to exist with one supreme god over all. Other cultures rejected the polytheism of multiple gods, believing instead that one god or spirit controlled the universe.Religion had important functions in the first towns and cultures, beyond calming anxieties about the unknown. It helped bind the growing population of a community together with common beliefs and rituals that established an identity for everyone. It also worked together with government in establishing and enforcing rules for social behavior. The local ruler and the local priest reinforced each other when both prohibited unacceptable acts such as murder and theft within the community. These rules of behavior did not usually apply outside the community, unfortunately. Most of the war and mayhem of history was conducted on behalf of earthly rulers and heavenly gods.
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Rise of Civilization
Technology: The development and use of tools
Prehistoric Human Communities
Agricultural Revolution
The First Cities
Trade & Religon
Boats & Sea Travel
