Agriculture - The Timeline

Agriculture began around 10,000 years ago in the Fertile Crescent. This was the beginning of the warm interglacial period of the last ice age. The peak of the last ice age was 20,000 years ago. The climate began to warm, then there was a cold spell which ended around 11,500 years ago. Agriculture then began to take off, slowly over the generations, but surely. 

Fractal Feather by Perveen Kaur

Agriculture wasn’t necessarily better for the foragers of the time. It was more labour intensive than foraging was, and it resulted in a much less varied diet. This would have longer term effects on the health of the human adapting to agriculture. It did mean however that migrating across a huge expanse of land in search for food wasn’t necessary. Agriculture provided a lot more food than foraging in sheer quantity when it was done right. So early farmers were able to settle in permanent locations, giving rise to the first villages and towns and eventually, cities. 

Domestication includes animals as well as crops. Domesticated animals provide meat, fur, bones, as well as the physical power for farming. 

Timeline of Agriculture

10,500 BCE – earliest domesticated cereal of rye in Syria

9000 BCE – domesticated animals in West Asia 

8000 BCE – domesticated wheat and barley in Syria 

8000 BCE – mullet grown in China along the Yellow River 

8000 BCE – squash domesticated in Mesoamerica and Ecuador 

7000 BCE – cattle domesticated in western Pakistan 

7000 BCE – bananas grown in New Guinea highlands 

6500 BCE – simple irrigation begins in Mesopotamia 

6000 BCE – rice, pigs, chickens and fishing happens in China in the Yangtze valley 

6000 BCE – maize domesticated in Mexico 

5000 BCE – animals like llama and alpaca domesticated in Andes 

5000 BCE – ploughing and milk coming from domesticated animals in West Asia, Europe and North Africa 

4000 BCE – olives domesticated in the Mediterranean

4000 BCE – wet rice ploughing in China 

3500 BCE – wheeled transportation emerges in Mesopotamia

3000 BCE – in the Andes, farmers grow potatoes and quinoa 

2800 BCE – plough used in Indus Valley