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Agricultural Revolution: Home

To support the 6th grade SS agricultural unit.

Compelling Question

These materials are eligible for reuse - Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share-Alike license.

Was the development of agriculture good for humans?

Source A -

Featured Source A: James Fallows, article ranking human inventions, “50 Greatest Breakthroughs Since the Wheel,” Atlantic Monthly, November 2013

How did environmental changes and new technologies affect the development of agriculture?

Source A -

Timeline showing “Neolithic Innovations in Mesopotamia,” 10,000–2000 BCE

Source B -

Graph showing historical temperature data since 18,000 BCE

Source C -

Neolithic farming tools

Additional Resources

The Genographic Project, “The Development of Agriculture,” National Geographic website. https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com/development-of-agriculture.

Map of Human Migration

How did the development of agriculture in Mesopotamia lead to the development of writing?

Source A -

Sumerian Counting Tokens

Source B -

Sumerian numeric system

http://www.ancientscripts.com/sumerian.html

Source C -

Clay tablet with cuneiform symbols

Additional Resources

British Museum, “The Development of Writing,” Mesopotamia website. http://www.mesopotamia.co.uk/writing/story/sto_set.html.

Appendix A

Agriculture Inquiry Vocabulary

Background info Pandemic

Brintannica - Pandemic

What were the consequences of agriculture for humans?

Source A -

World Population Growth

Source B -

Image bank: Life in Paleolithic and Neolithic communities

Source C -

Graph of changes in rates of death and population growth

Alternative source C.1 - The Neolithic Revolution

Additional Resources

Jared Diamond, “The Lethal Gift of Livestock,” chapter 11, in Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. New York, NY: W.W. Norton, 1997

Jared Diamond, “The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race,” Discover magazine, May 1, 1999.

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http://discovermagazine.com/1987/may/02-the-worst-mistake-in-the-history-of-the-human-race.

Sanjida O’Connell, “Is Farming the Root of All Evil?” The Telegraph, June 23, 2009. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/5604296/Is-farming-the-root-of-all-evil.html.

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Adapted from Razib Khan, “Grain, Disease, and Innovation,” Discover magazine website, June 18, 2011.

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http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2011/06/germs-disease-and-innovation.