5.3 Agricultural Origins and Diffusions

How has agriculture changed over time? 

Early Hearths

1. Fertile Crescent/Mesopotamia 

• Located between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers 
• Crops: Bread grains, grapes, apples, olives, and a variety of others 
• Animals: Cattle, pigs, sheep, and goats 
• Hearth of the First (Neolithic) Agricultural Revolution 
• People transitioned from hunting and gathering to planting and harvesting food, allowing for the first civilizations

• Second urban hearth 
• Lentils, beans, flax
• Cattle, sheep, goats, pigs 

• Third urban hearth 
• Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro
• wheat, barely, peas, lentils, mustard, cotton 
• Sheep, goats, chickens, pigs, cattle, dogs 

• China : rice and millet 

• Barley, wheat, lentil, olive 
• Largest number of animals domesticated : pigs, goats, cattle, sheep, dog 

• Mexico and Peru were major hearths of crop domestication 
• Mexico : beans and cotton 
• Peru : potatoes 
• Maize was one of the most important crops that came from the Americas 

• Sorghum, Yams 

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The Diffusion of Plants and Animals 

• Transition from hunting and gathering to growing plants and raising livestock -> people began to understand seeds, watering, and plant/animal care 
• The practices developed overtime and diffused globally largely through contagious diffusion 
• First spread to Central Asia and eventually across Europe 

• A variety of plants, animals, diseases, and technologies were exchanged between the Americas and the Eastern hemisphere 
  • People became familiar with new plants and animals as the exchange continued

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