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If you're seeing this message, it means we're having trouble loading external resources on our website. If you're behind a web filter, please make sure that the domains *.kastatic.org and *.kasandbox.org are unblocked. The Neolithic revolution was the first agricultural revolution. It was a gradual change from nomadic hunting and gathering communities to agriculture and settlement.[1] It changed the way of life of the communities which made the change. It occurred in different prehistoric human societies at different times. Many societies changed 9–7 thousand years ago
The term refers to the general time period over which these developments took place. It also applies to the changes which took place: the adoption of early agriculture techniques, crop cultivation, and the domestication of animals.[2] The Neolithic revolution is important for developments in social organization and technology. The Neolithic revolution led to people living in permanent or semi-permanent settlements. Because of this fewer people led a nomadic lifestyle. To be able to know who the crops grown belonged to, the concept of land ownership was developed. The natural environment was changed, population sizes grew, and people ate more vegetable and cereal foods in their diet. Hierarchies developed in society. Grain was stored, and could be traded. Surplus production from good crop yields helped societies survive bad years. Excavated remains of a Neolithic dwelling at Skara Brae on the Orkneys With domesticated animals such as dogs, goats, sheep, and cattle, and crops, human society changed.[2][3] Now, having crops and livestock, they no longer needed to move around. They could build better settlements. Their diet also changed. It included more oats and vegetables. People also started to keep and manage food: it was not advisable to eat all grain seeds, because then there would be no seeds left to plant the next year. Also, there were surplus in some years and that could be traded for other goods with other peoples. These changes happened independently in several parts of the world. They did not happen in the same order. The earliest farming societies in the Near East did not use pottery. It is still unclear to what extent plants were domesticated in Britain, or if permanently settled communities existed at all. Early Japanese societies used pottery before developing agriculture.[4][5][6] In the Paleolithic there were more than one human species, but only the modern human reached the Mesolithic and Neolithic. Vere Gordon Childe gave the name Neolithic Revolution to this process in the 1920s. He thought that it was as important as the Industrial Revolution (which happened in the 18th and 19th century). There are different theories why this transition could have happened:
According to Harland, there are three main reasons why the Neolithic revolution happened:[13]
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