Complexity and Domestication

• When does the Holocene occur and what human development takes place at this time?
• What climatic changes occur at this time that may have contributed to this new development?
• Of all the current theories of the origins of food production/agriculture, do we have one that applies everywhere?
• Benefits of food storage.
• World population at that time.
• Did agriculture develop everywhere? Why not?
• What is the area/region known as the location for the beginning of agriculture, and when?
• Benefits and draw-backs of food production.
• Benefits of animal domestication.
• Origins of dog domestication. What do we know for sure?

1. 

The Holocene Epoch began 12,000 to 11,500 years ago at the close of the Paleolithic Ice Age and continues through today. As Earth entered a warming trend, the glaciers of the late Paleolithic retreated. 

The Late Holocene brought advancements such as the bow and arrow and saw new methods of warfare in North America. Spear throwers and their large points were replaced by the bow and arrow with its small narrow points beginning in Oregon and Washington. Villages built on defensive bluffs indicate increased warfare, leading to food gathering in communal groups for protection rather than individual hunting.

2.

Earth entered a warming trend, the glaciers of the late Paleolithic retreated. Tundra gave way to forest. As the climate changed, the very large mammals that had adapted to extreme cold, like mammoth and wooly rhinoceros, became extinct. Humans, once dependent on these "mega mammals" for much of their food, switched to smaller game and increased their gathering of plant materials to supplement their diet.

Evidence indicates that about 10,800 years ago, the climate underwent a sharp cold turn lasting for several years. The glaciers did not return, but game and plant materials would have been scarce. As temperatures began to rebound, human population began to increase and we began inventing the processes that would change the planet forever.

3. 

The Oasis Theory (known variously as the Propinquity Theory or Desiccation Theory) is a core concept in archaeology, referring to one of the main hypotheses about the origins of agriculture: that people started to domesticate plants and animals because they were forced to, because of climate change.

4. 

• increased shelf-life.
• decreased hazards from microbial pathogen.
• decreased spoilage (microbial, enzymatic)
• inactivation of anti-nutritional factors.
• ensured round the year availability of seasonal foods.
• perishable foods that can be transported to far-off distances from the site of production.

5.

There were approximately 170 million people on Earth at the end of the first century; by 1800, the population was over 1 billion.

Step-by-step explanation

6.

Agriculture did not developed at everywhere, because there are temperature difference among the place on planet earth, also fertility of the soil plays a major role in development of agriculture.

The earliest farmers lived in the Fertile Crescent, a region in the Middle East including modern-day Iraq, Jordan, Syria, Israel, Palestine, southeastern Turkey and western Iran. And scientists had long assumed these early farmers were a homogenous group that traded and intermingled, swapping farming tools and tricks — as well as their genes. In other words, farming was long believed to have been started by one group of ancestral humans.

But a new study suggests something different — that multiple groups of people in the Fertile Crescent started agriculture, and these groups were genetically distinct from one another. That is, they didn't intermingle at the time, at least not for a few thousand years. "They lived more or less in a similar area, but they stay highly isolated from each other," says Joachim Burger, an anthropologist at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, in Germany, and co-author of the new study.

7.

Agriculture originated in a few small hubs around the world, but probably first in the Fertile Crescent, a region of the Near East including parts of modern-day Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Israel and Jordan. Agricultural communities developed approximately 10,000 years ago when humans began to domesticate plants and animals.

8. 

Benifits of food production:

• Help reduce global water consumption.
• Contribute to a reduction in pollution.
• Prevent further habitat destruction.
• Avoid harmful pest control chemicals.
• Eat healthier and fresher foods.
• Eat what's in season.
• Save money.
• Add your own greenery to the city.

Drawbacks of food production:

• Environmental damage
• Loss of vegetation
• Loss of biodiversity
• Pressure on natural resources.

9.

Domestication of animals help the humans in many ways for eg ; Cows ang goats gave them milk and meat , Cattle also helped them in ploughing the fields also Cattle and sheep are kept for their wool, skins, meat and milk , large animals can also be used to do physical work like carrying people and goods from one place to another. They are also the food storer's for the human population.

10. 

Dogs were the first animal to be domesticated by humans. The oldest dog fossils that can be clearly distinguished from wolves are from the region of what is now Germany from around 15,000 years ago. However, the archeological record is ambiguous, with claims of ancient domesticated dog bones as far east as Siberia. Recent analysis of genetic data from modern dogs adds to mystery, with some scientists suggesting many areas of Europe, Central Asia, South Asia and the Middle East as possible origins of dog domestication.