Agriculture

Definition

Identifying an exact origin of agriculture remains problematic because the transition from hunter-gatherer societies began thousands of years before the invention of writing. It isn't until after 9,500 BC that the eight so-called founder crops of agriculture appear: first emmer and einkorn wheat, then hulled barley, peas, lentils, bitter vetch, chick peas and flax. These eight crops occur more or less simultaneously on sites in the Levant, although the consensus is that wheat was the first to be sown and harvested on a significant scale.

By 7000 BC, sowing and harvesting reached Mesopotamia and there, in the fertile soil just north of the Persian Gulf, Sumerians systematized it and scaled it up. By 6000 BC farming was entrenched on the banks of the Nile River.

In Europe, there is evidence of emmer and einkorn wheat, barley, sheep, goats and pigs that suggest a food producing economy in Greece and the Aegean by 7000 BC. Archaeological evidence from various sites on the Iberian peninsula suggest the domestication of plants and animals between 6000 and 4500 BC. Céide Fields in Ireland, consisting of extensive tracts of land enclosed by stone walls, date to 5500 BC and are the oldest known field systems in the world.

Based on Wikipedia content that has been reviewed, edited, and republished. Last reviewed by Jan van der Crabben on 28 April 2011. Please help and improve this definition!

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Articles

• Wine and Wealth in Ancient Italy

  This account of viticulture in Italy during the period from the Punic Wars to the crisis of the third century AD is written in the conviction that the ‘economic’ history of the ancient world will remain unacceptably impoverished if it is written in isolation from the social and cultural history...

• The Politico-Economic Impact of the Horse on Old World Cultures

  This overview examines the impact of horsepower on Old World society over the last 6,000 years. Analysis of man’s symbiosis with the domesticated horse necessarily takes the reader to regions remote from urban centers and pays special attention to mobile elements of nomadic society, too often deemed...

• Roman Agricultural Magic

  In this dissertation, I examine the magical practices of Roman farmers, primarily through the Latin farming manuals; topics include the magical practices which the Roman agronomists recommend to farmers, the relationship of this material to other genres of magic such as curses and amulets, and how...

• Cashless Payment in Ancient Mesopotamia (626-331 BC)

  This study is based on the analysis of texts coming from several dispersed archives and collections referring to the activity pursued by private families in Mesopotamia during the Neo-Babylonian and Achaemenid Periods. We chose to classify the documents according to types, taking for granted that documents...

• Meager Returns: Agricultural Wages in Roman Egypt

  In February 247A.D, Eirenaios the manager (phrontistes) of a unit of the large estate belonging to Aurelius Appianus in the Fayum part of Egypt recorded in his account book that for the month he had employed 500 days of labor from workers unaffiliated with the estate. He paid them 2 drachmae a day. Unlike...

Illustrations

Agriculture Books

• Technology of the Gods: The Incredible Sciences of the Ancients David Hatcher Childress Adventures Unlimited Press (29 November 2009) Currently unavailable

• A Short History of Progress Ronald Wright Da Capo Press (10 March 2005) Price: $9.34

• Pandora's Seed: Why the Hunter-Gatherer Holds the Key to Our Survival Spencer Wells Random House Trade Paperbacks (13 September 2011) Price: $9.88

• Fire: A Brief History Stephen J. Pyne University of Washington Press (01 June 2003) Price: $23.75

• A Guide to Biblical Sites in Greece and Turkey Clyde E. Fant Oxford University Press, USA (23 October 2003) Currently unavailable