Basic Inventions - Agriculture - CLIL Polska

The discovery of agriculture allowed early humans to cultivate plants for food, leading to settled communities and the development of civilization. Agriculture began around 10-12 thousand years ago in the Middle East. The first crops grown were green vegetables, followed by cereal plants and other crops for various purposes. With the rise of agriculture, societies became more structured, leading to the development of governments and the rise of cities. Religious beliefs also changed to reflect the importance of farming. As populations grew, empires formed, which created new challenges for food production. 🎵 🎵 Agriculture Every living organism needs a continuous supply of food. It is one of the basic requirements of life. Trees and plants stand firmly rooted in the ground and soak up their nourishment using the sunlight to create the necessary chemical changes. The herbivores or plant-eating animals roam the forests and fields searching for the special kinds of vegetation they require. The carnivores or meat-eating animals hunt other animals tracking them through the underbrush and open prairies. When man made his appearance on earth he faced the same problem the need for a continuous supply of food. But he had an advantage a biological advantage. A human being is omnivorous meaning that it can digest many different kinds of food vegetables as well as meat. In primitive times man hunted almost exclusively chasing, trapping animals and then cooking the meat. But at some time in his early history he discovered that he could also eat certain plants and fruits. This must have been a momentous discovery because hunting was a dangerous occupation and the gathering of edible plants was a much more peaceful and safer way to fill the ladder. But there never were enough plants to last a season and none of course in the winter. The tribes had to move on chasing game, finding untouched areas of vegetation. Life must have been a game of steady movement a constant search for food a competition with all the other forms of life. Then came a great discovery a method by which a supply of food could be grown in the same place year after year. Like other basic inventions and discoveries this made profound change in the life and the development of man. Although so primitive tribes had already solved the problem of domesticating animals and raising them for food this discovery was even greater. It was based on the knowledge that the seeds of plants could be gathered, saved through the winter and placed in the ground the following spring. Then after some months a new supply of food was available. No one knows how primitive man found out that seeds, if planted, would grow into plants. However, scientists have several theories. The most important is that of accidental observation. Although the early tribes were wanderers they roamed a general area and obviously revisited the same places often. It is even likely that they had special camping places for the different seasons of the year. At the mouth of the caves and the edges of the campsites were the refuse piles where garbage and bones were tossed. Imagine the excitement of a sharp-eyed stone-age man when he discovered that the shoots of plants were growing from the refuse piles. This discovery must have been made many times in those early days of mankind especially when a tribe returned to its spring campsite or its winter caves. But this was not the entire discovery. There was another step man had yet to take. He still had to find out why the plants were growing in his garbage heap. This too was a matter of observation. Plants and fruits, seeds, nuts and pieces of edible roots were all part of the garbage the remnants of the vegetation and the food gatherers had brought in for meals. A careful examination showed the men of those times that the plants had obviously sprouted from the various seeds and roots. It could also be observed that new fruit trees always sprang out around the older ones and a little digging at the roots of the young sprouts must have revealed the presence of seeds. By making all these observations the primitive man made his discovery of agriculture complete. The next step was for man to put this discovery to work for him by deliberately cultivating the plants that provided food. This was the revolutionary step that truly inventive idea the mark of progress. The New Stone Age There is no definite date just a general period when agricultural cultivation is supposed to have started. It is now believed to have all begun some ten or twelve thousand years ago a period known as the Neolithic Revolution or the New Stone Age. The discovery of controlled agriculture was the second great change in the relation of man to environment. The first, you remember, came with fire and it was ushered in what is now called the Modern Period. There was a great deal to learn about growing plants for food and it must have taken several thousand years of experiment before any kind of system was evolved. Men had to discover how to collect seeds how to store them through the winter and how to cultivate those plants which came up as perennials continuing to live from year to year by themselves. Also much had to be learned about the land's preparation fertilization and irrigation. However, the enterprising and the inventive people of the Neolithic Age did teach themselves the skills necessary for the cultivation of plants for they changed their entire society from one of the wandering hunters and herders to become the first world's farmers. Scientists now definitely believe that the first formal farming of the land began in the Middle East in the slopes of the Zagros Mountains in Kurdistan. In this area archaeologists have found the earliest types of farm implements known as well as dried kernels of wheat and other seeds. Wooden and stone plowshares stone dishes and other devices to grind grain were also discovered in this area. To be sure, similar discoveries have been made in other places in the Old World and even in the New World but modern dating methods prove that the Middle Eastern site is the oldest. There is evidence too of permanent settlements in this part of Kurdistan which shows that villages sprang up around the farming fields. These early people had also domesticated animals for food and labour. Of course, formal agriculture had also begun in many other places even before the Kurdistan group but it was haphazard and experimental. At this particular site was found the remains of the first formal farms in the entire history of mankind. Green Vegetables The green vegetables were undoubtedly the first foods to be cultivated by the early farmers. They were the easiest to grow. Lettuce, spinach and cabbage led the way to be followed by cereal plants. Two types of early wheat, einkorn and emmer appeared very early in history but barley, rye, oats and millet were also cultivated. At the same time man began to gather nuts and fruit and to plant the trees that bore this produce but he also cultivated plants for reasons other than food. Flax was grown to provide fibres for spinning and weaving and cotton and hemp appeared for the same reasons. Gards were cultivated to provide vessels for storing liquids and plants and trees with broad leaves like the palm and the date gave man the materials with which to cover the roofs and weave his mats. The trees themselves gave wood for construction. Taken as a whole, the controlled cultivation of plants initiated a completely new era for man. The changes were many and basic. Man was no longer a wanderer following the migratory habits of the animals risking his life in the chase. He now remained in the same place perhaps for many generations built a permanent home and became a neighbour to his fellows instead of a tribal competitor. Once settled, he created communal meeting places villages and cities where he could bring the produce of the land to trade for the work of artisans who made implements and farming tools. It was a new type of culture for the former wanderers a life that kept him in closer contact with his fellows. With the rise of the cities their concentration of people a form of government was required. The free-swinging days of the tribals lowless had to give way to a set of rigid rules and laws that covered the conduct of the people. Although these early governments were fierce and tyrannical and often unfair they were the beginnings of mankind's attempts at self-rule the desire to set up a code of world behaviour a drive to rise from the eat-or-be-eaten life of the animals. With man now adjusted to the rhythmic swing of the seasons the sowing of the seeds the tending of the plants the reaping of the crops and the storing of the food religions changed. The old tribal gods were fierce and impersonal the only time they took notice of man was to destroy him. These beliefs slowly gave way. Neolithic man never fully understood the miracles, mysteries of germination and growth. He believed that they were all controlled separately so he adapted his religion to conform with the earth cycle of farming. He went through elaborate planting rituals in the spring harvest festivals and winter rites all planned to appeal to and appease the gods he thought controlled his food supply. The change was significant. Man now had gods that were directly interested in his welfare that noticed him that rewarded and punished in a more just manner. At first there were many gods but slowly over thousands of years the belief in one god evolved which today is the basis over almost every major world religion. There was another change in the basic life of a man with his development of agriculture. As cities increased in size and became filled with people who were not food producers the population grew and so did the population. The population grew and the population grew and the population grew and the population grew and the population grew and the population grew and the population grew and the population grew and the population grew and the population grew and the population grew and the population grew and the population grew and the population grew and the population grew and the population grew and the population grew and the population grew and the population grew and the population grew Eventually this turmoil resulted in the combination of cities and countries into empires that controlled thousands of square miles of the ancient world. This produced a new food problem. The empires required large armies for the defence. Thousands of people who did not produce food but who still had to be fed. And so the farmers spread out even farther. 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