♥1Timothy 4:12♥
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Agriculture revolutionized humans way of life. Humans no longer adapted to land, they made it adapt to them. A civilization is described as “a way of life based on radically modifying the environment.”1 Some of the great agricultural civilizations were, but not being limited to, the people of Egypt, Mesopotamia, and China. All three had great inventiveness and creativity. Some of their inventions were ingenious to their communities.
When civilizations started using agriculture as a more permanent way of living, in the beginning, life became much more unstable. People were getting sick and dying from being in close contact with animals. Because of limited knowledge of domesticating animals, people and livestock were getting different types of animal born diseases. Food supply was less reliable due to the small amounts of livestock that were readily available to be eaten. Societies tried to counter these problems, one way they did this was by saving the surplus of their food.
Living near the Nile River, Egyptians flourished. The Nile River seemed to flood like clockwork. The Egyptians knew this, and thus they used it to their benefit. They learned how to use irrigation and that made their soil very fertile. They were so good at farming that, according to The World: A History, they built storehouses for the surplus of all their food. Amazingly, they were large enough to feed 20,000 people for a year when filled. There were many reasons why Egyptian culture was successful, although the fertile soil was definitely an important one.2
Developing was a large challenge for the Mesopotamians. The weather conditions of Mesopotamia were not anything like the weather conditions of Egypt. The rivers would flood at anytime, damaging the cities near by. Sandstorms would come and destroy the farmers crops. In other areas of Mesopotamia, they had to rely on the winter's surplus to get through the dry summer. Even though they had many issues with their location, ancient Mesopotamians were able to thrive.
One big difference between China and the other civilizations is that China's Yellow River Valley was much more isolated than any of the others. Trade was not used nearly as much as any other of the civilizations. The Chinese for the most part had to use all of their own resources for survival and also resources for recreational purposes. They were much more independent than the other societies. But besides that, agriculture developed much the same way as the other regions did.
Agriculture was very common among these civilizations. For a long period of time it was believed that agriculture started in one area and than spread, but what is interesting is that for the most part areas started using agriculture independently from one another. Alluvial plains were the best types of areas these civilizations could use for farming. Because civilizations were normally near these types of plains this may be one of many reasons why agriculture was developed independently. They were flat areas of land where river or lake borne mud would renew the topsoil.
As Jack Harlan, an American botanist, wrote in Crops and Man, “Neither agricultural nor industrial man has anything like the leisure time of hunters and gatherers. Therefore, we must look elsewhere for the motivation to carry on agriculture.” 3 All of the agricultural societies faced the same types of issues. Agriculture basically made everything more complex.
The early civilizations that integrated agriculture into their systems of living, dramatically changed the course the world was on forever. It is very difficult to characterize the use of agriculture of the early civilizations. Just as the American biologist, David Rindos, said, “Agriculture is a level or type of behavior. Like many other phenomena, it is frequently easier to recognize than to define.”4
When civilizations started using agriculture as a more permanent way of living, in the beginning, life became much more unstable. People were getting sick and dying from being in close contact with animals. Because of limited knowledge of domesticating animals, people and livestock were getting different types of animal born diseases. Food supply was less reliable due to the small amounts of livestock that were readily available to be eaten. Societies tried to counter these problems, one way they did this was by saving the surplus of their food.
Living near the Nile River, Egyptians flourished. The Nile River seemed to flood like clockwork. The Egyptians knew this, and thus they used it to their benefit. They learned how to use irrigation and that made their soil very fertile. They were so good at farming that, according to The World: A History, they built storehouses for the surplus of all their food. Amazingly, they were large enough to feed 20,000 people for a year when filled. There were many reasons why Egyptian culture was successful, although the fertile soil was definitely an important one.2
Developing was a large challenge for the Mesopotamians. The weather conditions of Mesopotamia were not anything like the weather conditions of Egypt. The rivers would flood at anytime, damaging the cities near by. Sandstorms would come and destroy the farmers crops. In other areas of Mesopotamia, they had to rely on the winter's surplus to get through the dry summer. Even though they had many issues with their location, ancient Mesopotamians were able to thrive.
One big difference between China and the other civilizations is that China's Yellow River Valley was much more isolated than any of the others. Trade was not used nearly as much as any other of the civilizations. The Chinese for the most part had to use all of their own resources for survival and also resources for recreational purposes. They were much more independent than the other societies. But besides that, agriculture developed much the same way as the other regions did.
Agriculture was very common among these civilizations. For a long period of time it was believed that agriculture started in one area and than spread, but what is interesting is that for the most part areas started using agriculture independently from one another. Alluvial plains were the best types of areas these civilizations could use for farming. Because civilizations were normally near these types of plains this may be one of many reasons why agriculture was developed independently. They were flat areas of land where river or lake borne mud would renew the topsoil.
As Jack Harlan, an American botanist, wrote in Crops and Man, “Neither agricultural nor industrial man has anything like the leisure time of hunters and gatherers. Therefore, we must look elsewhere for the motivation to carry on agriculture.” 3 All of the agricultural societies faced the same types of issues. Agriculture basically made everything more complex.
The early civilizations that integrated agriculture into their systems of living, dramatically changed the course the world was on forever. It is very difficult to characterize the use of agriculture of the early civilizations. Just as the American biologist, David Rindos, said, “Agriculture is a level or type of behavior. Like many other phenomena, it is frequently easier to recognize than to define.”4