Re: When DID agriculture start?


Gerrit Hanenburg wrote:
"Jim McGinn" <jimmcginn@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

When did hominids begin this 'non-
agricultural' plant cultivation?

It would be wise first to consult a recent textbook on the matter,
such as
http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/book.asp?ref=9780631205661&site=1

And according to this source agriculture has multiple primary origins
around the world, but there is no evidence for crop cultivation on a
detectable scale much earlier than the Holocene.
What tangible evidence, instead of speculation, is there to the
contrary?

Is there any tangible evidence, instead of specuation, that crop
cultivation, of some kind, did not occur earlier?

Is there any tangible evidence that there is no one in the house?
What kind of data would falsify that hypothesis?
You want me to turn negative evidence into positive evidence. How do I
do that?

In fact there seems to be a lot of positive evidence that agriculture
did start - initiate, commence, become established, undergo a rapid
cultural evolution - in the past 12 thousand years, with the timing and
sequence of events differing in different locations.

I'm only a lay reader of popular texts like Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs
& Steel, & of the postings of professional archaeologists like Mikey
Brass on Paleoanthro, but the markers of the development of agriculture
seem pretty clear from what I've read. Depositional changes in e.g.
marshes & bogs for example - e.g. pollen showing a reduction in tree
cover & increase in pollen from crop plants, & evidence of erosion of
topsoil. Then you have archaeological evidence of lifestyle changes -
increased population density, appearance of settled villages &
eventually towns & cities. Changes in tools from hunting to
agricultural implements. Appearance of pottery. Et cetera.

Plenty of evidence of these in various parts of the world at different
times after the end of the Ice Age. Much debate about actual timing, &
whether or not different locations developed the capabilities
independently, or partly by diffusion of ideas from elsewhere (e.g.
West Africa - an independent development, or influenced by ideas
diffusing from North Africa & the Middle East?)

But as for positive evidence of agriculture from 2MYA to 12KYA? Over to
you, Claudius [smirk]...

Ross Macfarlane

.

Relevant Pages

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