The First Farmers

About 10,000 years ago cereals began to be cultivated, rather than simply gathered. Seed was kept over the winter and planted in the spring. In the late summer it was reaped using stone sickles. The grain was ground to make flour.At about the same time animals ( first of all sheep, then goats , pigs , cattle etc) were, for the first time, domesticated .

Hunting did not suddenly disappear but little by little men and women farmed as well as hunted. The wandering, nomadic way of life came to be replaced by a settled, sedentary way of life. Villages with huts, usually by a river, replaced hunting camps. The old stone age was replaced by the new stone age , or Neolithic age.

These changes first took place in the region called the Fertile Crescent.The climate was getting warmer and in this part of the world there were fewer and fewer big animals to hunt. Gradually the idea of farming spread to Europe.

In the Neolithic village there was more and more food; people lived for longer and population went up.Some people could turn to activities other than farming, like pottery, basket-making, spinning and weaving wool or making beautiful polished stone tools. Clever people spent time making calendars , studying the stars , using metals like copper and bronze and designing and constructing stone monuments like Carnac in Brittany or Stonehenge in England.