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Elements: Stone, Clay, Gold, and Wood

Stone has remained prominent in the archaeological record because it has survived so well yet it is not the sole material worked and used by hunter-gatherers (Scarre 2018: 179). Areas where waterlogging or aridity preserved organic remains, wooden tools and containers are also found, some communities also produced pottery vessels (Scarre 2018: 179). The oldest pottery vessel was found to be made by hunter-gatherers of East Asia around 16,000 years ago, with the technology spreading westward in the millennia that followed (Scarre 2018: 179). It was also found in an independent development that pottery was made by hunter-gatherer communitites in the southern Sahara before the emergence of farming (Scarre 2018: 179). Early communitites used stone reaping knives, tubers, digging sticks, and spears and bows to gather plants and food sources (Scarre 2018: 179). Like their predecessors they exploited resources by moving around their landscapes , ususally in small groups and occassionally in large groups (Scarre 2018:179). 

The value of these elements vary as there lies a difference between commodities and prestige goods.

Commodities are goods which aid in the sustainability of essential living. This can be noted in examples such as shelter, food, tools etc. These goods provide a function which serves the needs of the individual in order to sustain a healthy life. Whereas prestige good are goods which have notions of status ascribed to them based on their appearance. Items such as gold, precious stones etc. operated at a different level such as a luxury item. Prestige goods in addition also hold use for specfic events such as ceremonial purposes. Prestige goods gave way to modes of social seperation such as social stratification through material possession. Those who owned them were individuals who belonged to a higher social status.

Work cited

Scarre, Christopher. The Human Past: World Prehistory and the Development of Human Societies. London: Thames & Hudson, 2018.

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Start Here

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Tool Maker

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Hunter-Gatherer Adaptations to the Holocene

The postglacial world, offered vast opportunities to communities occupying and or colonizing the temperate zones of North America, Europe, and Asia (Scarre 2018: 179). The gloal distribution of populations extended outward from warm central lattitudes and grew steadily in size (Scarre 2018: 179). With the increase in warmer climates the overall planet and food sources became correspondingly more abundant, this does not overlook regional variation (Scarre 2018: 179). The Holocene climate was not entirely stable as we can note in the changes of the Saharan sequence illustrate. Areas with dense forest were not easily explored causing hunter- gatherer groups to settle in breaks amongst the forest (Scarre 2018: 179). These breaks beside lakes and rivers, where freshwater fish, waterfowl, and game animals were located and readily available (Scarre 2018: 179). Best evidence of hunter-gathererssettlements can be found in former wetlands margins, such as the North Sea basin or the Florida swamps (Scarre 2018: 179).

During the last stages of the last Ice Age, some groups of hunters and gatherers had begun to exploit in a new way. They moved beyond merely collecting resources to the intentional management of selected plant species (Scarre 2018: 179). Therefore paving a way for the process of domestication and cultivation. This shift in food collection shifted the landscape, as modest clearings made room for fields, and forests were felled to create farmland for the increasing population (Scarre 2018: 180).

Work cited

Scarre, Christopher. The Human Past: World Prehistory and the Development of Human Societies. London: Thames & Hudson, 2018.

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Field (Increase of Agriculture)

Reasoning behind the adoption of agriculture prove to be diverse, and likely included strategies of social competition and longer term pressures toward food production due to population growth ( which occurred as a result of sedentism in the postglacial world) (Scarre 2018: 185). As previous environmental constraints withered, the relationships between human society and its plant and animal food sources inevitable intensified (Scarre 2018: 185).

Theories of early agricultural development include:

Oasis Theory (V. Gordon Childe, 1936)

Hilly Flanks Hypothesis (Robert Braidwood, 1960)

Demographic Theory of Early Agricultural Development (Lewis Binford, 1968)

Feasting Hypothesis (Brian Hayden, 2009)

Demograpghic Theory:

This theory of early agricultural development was forwarded by Lewis Binford. It suggests that environmental changes at the end of the Pleistocene encourages the exploitation of highly seasonal resources in resource-rich areas, which allowed the development of sedentary communities (Zimmerman 2019) Populations within these communities grew due to the relaxed constraints on reproductive rates, thus people had to adopt agriculture in order to support the growing population (Scarre 2018: 184).

Feasting Hypothesis

This theory of early agricultural development was forwarded by Brian Hayden. It suggests that intensive agriculture was the necessary result of gaudy displays of power (Zimmerman 2019). This theory highlights regularly throw feasts as a means of exerting dominance (Scarre 2018: 185). Large quantities of food had to be assembled therefore displaying ones status (Zimmerman 2019).

Oasis Theory

This theory on the development of agriculture was forwarded by V. Gordon Childe. This theory highlights that as the climate got drier due to the Atlantic depressions shifting northward, communities shifted towards fertile lands where they were forced into close proximity with animals (Zimmerman 2019).Thus leading to their domestication and the ultimate rise of agriculture.

Hilly Flanks Hypothesis

This theory of early agricultural development was forwarded by Robert Braidwood. The hypothesis highlights that agriculture began in the hilly flanks of the Taurus and Zagros mountains in the Fertile Crescent (Zimmerman 2019). This occured where the climate was not drier, as Childe had believed, and that fertile land supported a variety of plants and animals (ZImmerman 2019). As well Braidwood attributed the invention of farming on the development of human knowledge and skill (Scarre 2018:184).

In conclusion, none of the theories provide an adequate understanding in the explanation of the emergence of agriculture. It is thought that climatic factors may have had a role at hand but varied in different instances (Scarre 2018: 185). It was recognized that hunting and gathering stood as a more cost efficient mode of survival than agriculture. There is suggestion that population pressures must have been significant factors in the push towards the use of agriculture (Scarre 2018: 185). Alongside this it is important to note the impact of human agency as their own desires cannot to be forgotten, and social strategies  will have played a role in individual trajectories at a local level (Scarre 2018: 185).

Work cited

Scarre, Christopher. The Human Past: World Prehistory and the Development of Human Societies. London: Thames & Hudson, 2018.