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Agricultural Revolution

The agricultural revolution is a notion applied to a wide spectrum of new kinds of human activities and a variety of new forms of social and cultural life resulting from the practice of soil cultivation, cattle breeding, and livestock raising. In some cases, it could be understood as opposition to the “Neolithic revolution” concept, proposed in the 1920s by W. G. Childe in order to characterize the origin of self-sufficient societies that produce their food. Such understanding emphasizes a broader sense of an agricultural revolution versus a Neolithic one, implying at the same time their common economic and ecological background. Unlike the Neolithic revolution, which indicated strict chronological frameworks of the event, in most cases we apply the term agricultural revolution to long-lasting gradual processes and their historic consequences. So, the “evolutionary” is interpreted as “revolution,” exclusively based on its important impact in all spheres of human life.

Technological Components of the Agricultural Revolution

The origin of a productive economy was accompanied by a series of technological innovations. One of the most important among them was the origin of ceramics, which is regarded as the first artificial raw material used by prehistoric populations. Pottery enabled the process of boiling and cooking; it gave rise to soups and cooked cereals, an introduction to the paleodiet, substantially broadening its spectrum of micro-elements and vitamins that human beings could receive from food, and changing in some manner the processes of metabolism. Pottery utilization also greatly promoted storage strategy development, which helped to secure subsistence as well. Beginning with primitive handmade multipurpose forms, pottery gradually evolved toward fine vessels made with the help of a potter's wheel. Pottery ornamentation traditionally is regarded as one of the basic ethnic markers, while the morphology of ceramic artifacts is connected with the sphere of their utilization and economic orientation of their makers.

Tool-Making Technology Improvement

The beginning of land cultivation required new tools. New forms of tools connected with wood processing (deforestation being the first stage of land preparation) appeared at the Neolithic times, and a variety of axes is the most striking feature of the tool kit of this time. A series of tools for land cultivation was also widely distributed. The technique of polishing and grinding widely distributed in the Neolithic enabled the origin of specific tools for cereal processing (for example, millstones, graters, and the like). The peculiarities of the natural habitat of early forms of productive-economy promoters contributed to spatial differentiation of their tool kits and techniques of tool production.

House building gradually replaced hunter-gatherers' temporary huts, and tent construction could be regarded as another important technological innovation connected with agricultural revolution. The necessity of looking after their crops and herds promoted the need for a well-prepared house accompanied by special facilities for crop storage and domestic animals and birds.

The origin of spinning and weaving was an inevitable reply to the need for food transportation and storage, and enabled interior house decoration as well.

Transportation meant improvement.Transport by wheel and sail is one more important technological element of agricultural revolution. It mirrors the needs of the socioeconomic processes accompanying land cultivation and improved cattle breeding.

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