Prehistoric Agriculture: A Brief Overview

If a person were lucky enough to survive childhood during the Paleolithic Age, the rest of their life would evolve around food; whether it was hunting for it or gathering plants and grains. These people would constantly be on the move looking for their next source of food. However, with the development of agriculture in the Neolithic Age, that would all change.
Early civilizations first discovered agriculture when gatherers unknowingly dropped seeds from the plant that they had gathered, and these seeds cultivated. Soon they realized that planting these seeds in the ground could yield a crop. After a crop was harvested, some of the plant and remnants of these seeds remained. The result was certain types of plants became domesticated to one area of land. For example, rice was cultivated in China and Greenland, squash in South America, and maize in North America.

However, some things are easier said than done. In order for the agriculture to be successful, early farmers had to experiment with a variety of growing conditions and situations. For example, if the crop was not large enough, then the community would not have enough food for the winter. Farmers cultivating larger plots of land and by breeding crops to see which hybrid worked out best eventually overcame this. Also, climate was a huge factor. For a period of time when temperatures dropped in Greenland (Younger Dryas cold spell), rice could not be grown anymore, so society had to revert back to being hunter-gatherers. When temperatures warmed back up, the rice returned, and so did the practice of agriculture.

With respect to the domestication of farm animals, it came in fruition on a trial and error basis. Farmers wanted the best animals: those that were the hardiest to survive the climates, and those that reproduced quickly to replenish the food supply. After a trial and error basis farmers found that goats were better suited to domestication as opposed to goats, and most chose to domesticate these. Not only did these animals provide meat and fur, but they also provided milk, which helped communities to have a better diet.

Now that people were eating better, the quality of life was improving due to the development of agriculture. A better diet meant people were getting better nutrition and could fight of illnesses and diseases better. Nutrition, combined with a more permanent home (less of a need to be nomadic hunter-gatherers) helped the population to increase in numbers and led to greater longevity; particularly that of children. Also, since people were with each other more, a sense of cooperation developed, and each person in the community had his/her own duties. Farmers became more skilled and knowledgeable about plants and growing seasons over time, which led to better cultivation techniques and bigger harvests.

Finally, with the development of agriculture a society could become a more permanent settlement. Animals and plants were not a guaranteed source of food (as crops sometimes did not make it), but they offered a more secure and stable way of life for the early Pre-Historic peoples. As time passed, these people shared their methods and techniques with new generations. Agriculture improved, and so did the living conditions for the communities.