Was the Development of Agriculture Good for Humans?
Staging the Compelling Question: Make a list of the greatest innovations and write a statement about why particular innovations appear on the list.The 50 Greatest Breakthroughs Since the Wheel by James Fallows (The Atlantic, November 2013)
Supporting Question 1- How did environmental changes and new technologies affect the development of agriculture?
Web Resources
- Source A: Timeline of the Neolithic Revolution: http://3dhistory.co.uk/timeline-british/00-pre-history.php Used with permission.
- Source B: Historical temperature data
- Source C: Neolithic farming tools
The Genographic Project, The Development of Agriculture (National Geographic)
Supporting Question 2- How did the development of agriculture in Mesopotamia lead to the development of writing?
Web Resources
- Source A: Sumerian Counting Tokens Image
- Source B: Sumerian numeric system
- Source C: Clay tablet with cuneiform symbols
The Development of Writing (British Museum, Mesopotamia website)
Supporting Question 3- What were the consequences of agriculture for humans?
Web Resources
- Source A: Graph of population changes in the Neolithic period
- Source B: Image bank: Life in Paleolithic and Neolithic communities
- Source C: Graph of changes in rates of disease
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
The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race by Jared Diamond (Discover Magazine, May 1,1999)