Need for food that could be controlled may have been a contributing factor in the development of early agriculture in Western Asia during the ice age. Before this new idea, human-like creatures were basically hunter-gatherers. This meant they went out and picked up objects that were edible and hunted down animals, which would be eaten at large gatherings. However, never being able to replace what they consumed, groups of these humans would move else-where to find new sources of sustenance once they had exhausted the existing food supply. So they could never establish themselves as a thriving community in Western Asia.
Around 10,000 B. C., hunting feasts were all but eliminated from daily life of early humans, due mainly to the thinning of the herds of such animals as stag and bison. Man was thus then forced to follow the herds and thereafter lived a very unstable life. This nomadic life style affected female members of these clans, and may have contributed to the apparent low birth rate among such groups. When people reached the lush coastal areas of the Middle East, they settled down and stayed some time, living off the seas of fish and birds as well as the fruits that hung heavily in the trees there. This then caused birth rates to rise, due to the slower, more stable life style of the females. Eventually, clans had consumed so much and put nothing back that they depleted the resources of the Middle East area to where it could no longer provide for all of the people living there. Those people then left their once-plush life-style and moved once more. This time, they traveled inland. Plant and animal life was much less available here, though. Here, in need of a controllable food source, animals there were eventually domesticated by and for early man. The animals that man then kept were some of the same still on farms today, such as sheep and goats.
This is where agriculture came into the picture. The people of the clan had meats and fruits and berries to eat, and their domesticated animals would eat the grains. Grain grew much more plentiful after the glaciers receded. The people would gather what they could eat and now what their animals could eat too. This meant gathering and storing wheat and barley. During this time, it is thought that man began to understand that weeding plants which produced wheat and giving room to seeds for growth of barley, seemed to create larger crop production. Eventually, they realized plowing furthered this higher yield of crops and so they settled again into communities. Civilization carries in its myths of creation many things. These myths were created by early societies to explain nature and its affects on man. The Norse speak of the creation of life beginning with a cow licking a large block of ice. Perhaps this is a representation of the melting glaciers leading the larger, meat-producing animals, later domesticated by man, to areas where grains and then communities grew and thrived. Another character of mythology, the goddess of grains, harvest and the growing seasons was worshipped by the Romans as Demeter and by the Greeks as Ceres. Our word "cereal" is derived from her Greek name. Worshipping deities associated with the harvest of the Earth in the early history of civilization proves how important such knowledge of agriculture was then as it is now to modern man.
With the domestication of animals and creation of agricultural skills, the clans became increasingly aware of the earliest forms of aggression for domain. Some clans would gather together to conquer smaller, less civilized areas and thereby claim the land and the people as their own. As these dominating civilizations continued to grow and flourish, the need for protection from outside aggression brought about a system of defense. Armies of warriors were given dominion over irrigation projects for crops in the communities and eventually governments were put into place to aid in the process of commerce. Being aware of little more than what they could experience using their five senses or acting on little more than the instinct of survival, people at this time were easily drawn to those who could protect them. Protection was not only necessary physically, but spiritually. The early priests in the communities provided this protection. Priests were needed to give the clans a communal ground on which to relate, much as communities meet and worship in a church. The priests of these communities would give the clan and rulers of its commerce a focal point of familiarity and a sense of unity among its members. These people worked within the community for the benefit of all, and the priest figure gave them a common goal of success. The priests would honor the hard-working members with their prayers for a fruitful harvest and continued growth and health of the community.
As individuals began to realize their true talents, they began to take their place in this new society as fishers or warriors as well as rulers and priests. This brought about a sense of order, the type of order needed to create a city. People of that time, much as they do now, felt a sense of pride in their chosen life-styles, and contributions to their communities. They began to adorn their worship houses or temples and places of governmental gatherings as well as their private residences and stores to show personal and communal progress. Keeping records became necessary and writing was soon to follow. This was needed to record laws of cities and public or private transactions. Trade with other communities was also taking place by now. These lands were now quite a bit more civilized in comparison to the land in the days of the nomadic hunter-gatherers. Around 3200 B. C., Mesopotamia had in fact at least five existing cities, and with time, more and more would develop. These cities would conquer one another, fall and rise again in the course of history. Most of these facts are found through careful and painstaking analysis of articles found at various archeological digs, and renderings by early man depicting war and hunts, and later, in man's own interpretation of art for art's sake.
After writing was developed, history is a little more easily understood, through written recordings of births and deaths, wars and treaties made by pharaohs and other rulers, as well as records of trade agreements and laws made to govern the people.
It is an interesting journey from the earliest evidence of human life on this planet to today's high-tech society. In many ways, however, the world is not so much different than it was at the beginning of society's earliest emergence. Still today, wars are waged in the name of conquest, community and religion. Still, people desire to showcase their prosperity, and chronicle their achievements and contributions to society. And people now as they did so long ago, work to survive in a dangerous, exciting and ever-changing world.
