The Emergence of Agriculture and Its Impact on Society Class 6 PDF

TheEmergencG OT AYri and Its Impacton Society 9 JheBIGidea Atthe end of this lesson, learners will be able to: explain the emergence of settled life with respect tothe Neolithic Age....

TheEmergencG OT AYri and Its Impacton Society 9 JheBIGidea Atthe end of this lesson, learners will be able to: explain the emergence of settled life with respect tothe Neolithic Age. describe the impact of surplus, trade and commerce. evaluate the trade and commerce during the Harappan times. News Maker Dr VishnuShridhar Wakankar in his distinguished academic career discovered the Bhimbetka rock art site which was later inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Archaeological evidence shows an undisturbed Ata continuous sequence of cultures in Bhimbetka from the Palaeolithic to the historical periods. This continuous inhabitance Glance covers the Mesolithicand Neolithicperiods. Dr Wakankar came to be knownas Pitamaha' of rock art studies in India. EMERGENCE OF SETTLED LIFE Emergence of Agriculture Invention of Wheel, Use of Domestication of Animals Tools and Pottery The NeolithicPeriod The Indus Valley Civilisation WORDS TO KNOW crue gatherersandused Palaeolithic: an age when human beings were hunter- stone tools (before 10,000 BCE) useu animalsand Mesolithic: an age when human beings began domesticating 8,000BCE) to Small, efficient stone tools called microliths (c. 10,000 BCE 190 MY COUNTRY Neolithic: You will read about this period in this chapter. 10.000 7,500 5,000 2,500 BCE BCE BCE BCE CE The Neolithic Age: 8,000 BCE-3,000 BCE c. 2,500 BCE-1,500 BCE: The Indus Valley Civilisation 21s Critical Th1nk1ng Making Historcal Tldts GET STARTED) CENTU Connections We alleat food. We consume different food items such as rice, chapatti, chicken and meat. Do you know how Rbecame possible to grow such a huge variety of food items? Share your thoughts in the class about how our ancestors learnt to domesticate wild animals and cultivate plants. NEOLITHICAGE The Neolithic Age stretched from 8,000 to about 3.000 BCE. In some places, however. Neolithic culture continued until 1.000 BCE. During this period, human life progressed and changed significantly as people started to settle down at one place. Emergence of Agriculture Several varieties of grain-bearing grasses, an illustration depicting the practice of farming inciuding wheat, barley and rice grew naturally by early humans Indifferent parts of the world. People became food producers or farmers People who gathered wild grains for food in the New Stone Age or Neolithic period. observed that when seeds fell on the soil, they This phase of human life is also known as grewinto new plants and produced many more the Neolithic Revolution because of the seeds. With this knowledge, people gradually far-reaching changes and developments that took realised that they could grow their own tood. place. It was the foundation of a steady supply such as Ihus, they began to cultivate cereals of food and settled life, which led to many more tariey, rice, wheat,pulses, legumes, vegetables significant developnents in human life. and fruits. This was the beginning of the MY COUNTRY 191 Neolithic Age.  Viou KNOW2 The term Neolithic was coined bySir John Lubbock in 1865, in his book Pre-historic Times. a dwelling pit they lived in dwelling pits. For builtexampl e, Burzahom in Kashmir, people in which were dug into the pit houses, ground, with leading into them. steps 21sT Many families began to live together for CENTURY SKILLS Information Literacy mutual cooperation and better protection. Such Domestication of Animals habitation sites came to be called villages. which could be near rivers or lakes. Climatic changes encouraged the growth of grasslands and led to an increase in the number Invention of the Wheel of herd animals such as sheep, cattle The invention of the wheel was a and goats. very Gradually, people who hunted these animals important achievement of the Neolithic people started following them and discovered their and, therefore, of humankind. behavioural traits and breeding habits. Thus knows how However, no one the idea of the wheel occurred to began the practice of domestication of animals. early humans. These domesticated animals provided meat, milk and dairy products, and their skins were Early humans must have observed that a block used to make clothes. was more difficult to move than a cylindrical one. A rolling log or a piece of wood Leading aSettled Life made them understand that this could bepossibly a great The beginning of agriculture brought about help in moving things rather than them over the ground. The earliest draggingof significant changes in human life. Once people the wheel dates back to evidence started cultivation, they settled down in one around 3.500 BCE in Mesopotamia, modern-day Irag. The in made transportation and carrying peoplewheel place as they had to look after their crops. Houses goods much easier. Soon, animals were and to draw wheeled carts. The used wheel was then The houses that the Neolithic people built were put to use for making pottery. made of mud, straw and reed. In some places, Later, people developed the spnnng wheel to spin thread. 192 MY COUNTRY  sledge roller sledge on roller sledge on roller that has wheels and axle in one piece; wheels joined to axle; axle become grooved with use fixed into crude bearing axle fixed by pegs " sketch of various stages of evolution of the wheel Pottery Tools As people began to grow Stone tools have been grains, they needed utensils found at many early tostore their plant produce. farming sites, but they are In the beginning, people slightly different from made large clay pots with the carlier Palaeolithic the help of the potter's tools. Though they were a Neolithic still made of stone, wheel, wove baskets or dug clay pot they were far better pits into the ground to store grains. Around this time, Neolithic people, and sharper. Neolithic Neolithic tools used perhaps accidentally discovered that if they tools were shaped and during the food baked clay in fire, it became waterproof. polished, and they lasted producing stage (drawn todifferent scales) longer. Besides hunting, baked pottery was useful for storing liquids and Neolithic tools were used for other purposes lor cooking. Although early pottery was rather such as chopping. grinding, scraping and plain, later on, people began to paint their pots so on. Stone axes, sickles and ploughs were with different colours and patterns. particularly used during this time. Arrows were Information Literacy used for hunting. 21sT Analysing Connections CENTURY amongst Events and SKILLS Developments Social Practices and Religious Beliefs Koneet Neolithic to HISTORY baskets and people learnt to make might have Neolithic people lived in social groups called tribes. Groups of families, usually related to each other and living together in villages, were slowly learnt to weave cloth. They and could observed the birds weaving their nests which was got the idea from there. Cotton, known as tribes. In order to make life smooth, have as was wool tribes usually had a leader, often the oldest now grown, was WOven into cloth, who was from domesticated |sheepand goat. or the strongest man in the village MY COUNTRY 193  obeyed by the others. Within a tribe, there was own languages, forms of usually some kind of division of labour. Some beliefs. To carly humans, music and mysburiedreteigriioouuswis,th people, usually men, tilled the land, hunted or When someone died, death was looked after animals. Women also engaged all her/his personal she/he was weapons, tools in agricultural work, looked after crops and Excavations have revealed and potbtery. helped in harvesting the crops. Tribes had their sites in Burzahom in Kashmir. Neolithic burial Connect to Geography NEOLITHICSITES BURZAHOM Ravi Chenab MEHRGARH Satlhuj Indus Yamun Ganga Chambal Brahmaputra DAOJALDHADING Son D A Narmada Mahanadi ARA BIA N Godavari BAY O F BEN GAL SEA PIKLIHAL Krishna Pennar REFERENCES ANDAM# Present external LAKSHADW(INEDIAP) Kaveri boundaries Neolithic sites ONDIA A COBAR ISUAND IND AN OCE AN Map not to scale GEOGRAPHY SKILLBUILDER; Interpreting Maps O In which present-day country is O Mark the location of Mehrgarh located? 21sT Information Literacy Daimabad (in Ahmednagar) where excavations in recent years have revealed a Neolithic CENTURY Research SKILLS culture. Map Skills 194 MY COUNTRY CASE STUDY: THE NORTH-WEST AND NORTH-EAST n, northernand north western parts of India, several Archaeologists have also found the remains of square Neolithic sites have been excavated. Some of them or rectangular mud houses. Several burial sites reveal Rutzalhomin Kashmir, Lahuradewa in the middle that people perhaps believed in life after death. Many (angetic Plains, Sarai Khola in West Punjab and things found at these burial sites, such as baskets, Mehrgarh in Pakistan, stone and bone tools, beads, pendants and animal Archaeologists have also found the remains of bones, point to this belief. Naolithic villages at Piklihal in Karnataka and Daojali Burzahom Hading on the hills near river Brahmaputra, alona in This site lies near Srinagar in Kashmir. Burzahom with specimens of houses, tools, pottery,food grains Kashmiri means the 'place of birch. and burial places. Birch (a type of tree) was readily available even during around North-west: Mehrgarh (7,000-3,200 BCe) Neolithic times. Historians date this site to This site is located in present-day Baluchistan, near 3,000 BCE. A great variety of stone tools, clay pottery Bolan Pass in Pakistan. and dwellingpits have been excavated here. It appears that people here lived in pits and used polished tools The Earliest Farming Community made of stone and bone. Archaeologists have found Archaeologists have found remains of burnt grains unusual dwellingpits dug into the soil below ground and concluded thatanumber of crops (wheat, barley level. They were well-like structures, circular or oval in and legumes) were grown here. In fact, men and shape, wide at the base, narrow at the top and covered women at Mehrgarh formed the earliest farming with leaves or dry branches. Historians believe that community in the Indian subcontinent. Skeletal these pits sheltered people from bitter cold. remains of domesticated animals (goat and sheep) North-east: Daojali Hading have been found along with bones of wild animals. Neolithic sites in Assam and North east India are usually located on hills or elevated land because of floods. It is possible that Neolithic people here practised shifting cultivation or jhum cultivation. In Daojali Hading, in the North Cachar Hills, stone tools including mortars and pestles have been found. These indicate that people used to pound or crush grains to make food. Here, people used to clear land for farming by burning forests. Two features distinguish the site found at Burzahom from any other Neolithic site. There is a complete absence of microliths or small and sharp stone tools. " skeletal rermainsof domesticated animals Dogs were buried along with their shifting cultivation: atype of agricultural system wherein masters. There is no evidence of wORD TO KNOW a patchof land is cleared, crops are grown and the patch is then deserted until the soil regains its lertility this practice elsewhere. MY COUNTRY 195  WHAT WAS HAPPENINGELSEWHERE? 21sT CENTURY SKILLS Settlements at Yangshao and Banpo Information Literacy Around 6,000-5,000 BCE in northern China, on the banks of the Huang Ho River, large groups of lived in settled villages. The villages were largepeople and often surrounded by defensive walls or ditches. Two of the biggest settlements excavated were Yangshao and Banpo. The people living there cultivated a variety of crops, including millets, wheat and barley. They domesticated animals, ducks. They buried their dead, particularly pigs and and often villages shared cemeteries. An elaborate burial of a girl has been found during young of this, some historians excavations. the basis On have concluded that their society might have been matriarchal. the archaeological site of aNeolithic village and Banpo, cemetery SURPLUS, TRADE AND COMMERCE The Many things changed with the Indus Valley Civilisation the settled agriculture. beginning of The first major civilisation in India to People realised that was along the banks of the emerge they could grow much more than Indus River. It is just what also known as the The advent In the ancient world, Harappan was needed for mere of pottery made it subsistence. Civilisation. no other civilisation has *extra' amount of possible to store this shown as much advancement in the civic sense agricultural remained when all subsistence production that as the Indus Valley Civilisation. The cities ot this civilisation had been met. This was the surplus. requirements centres. The were well-developed urban This surplus could be and burnt bricks. This buildings were made of stone stored and thus for its civilisation was knowu accumulated for as wealth. It could be exchanged spectacular city planning and efticiency. non-food-based items like pottery, tools, Mohenjodarowas one of its main cities. jewellery and so on, thus production of such items. It could encouraging the Harappan Traders Jong distances in carts on travel over drawn by newly newly invented wheels countries. Some Harappan people carried on trade with other seals have been This surplus was domesticated the oxen or horses. found in the citiesHarappan of ancient Mesopotamia, fundamentalin factor in the while emergence of carlycivil1sations seals have been found in India Harappan Mesopotamian cities. This confirms that trade existed WORDS TO KNOW matriarchal: a society Mesopot and amia: an oldwhere Türkiye the mother is the civilisation that existed inheadpartsof aoffamily 196 MY COUNTRY modern-day Iran, Iraq, Syria, Kuwait  en HISTORIAN tTTIC TUTTT Turiisai asculpture of Mother Goddess found at Mohenjodaro betwe both these civilisztions. The remains Historizns 255ume that merchants and raders of 2 dvckyard exNKi at Lothal by SR R20 used the seals for trading purposes to stamp their SaOs tit Harzopes ere familiar with ships. goods. These seals were flat and rectangular and The Harzppzrs rade many things for whch were mnade of steatite or 2 white stone. Manv they needed rau maeials. Sorme of them were of these seals had a picture of a bull. a one not zvailable in the region They probably got hormed animal. Copper frorn Ornan in West Asia and Rajasthan. an elephant or a tin fron Afzhanistan and Iran, gold from tree and a short Karataka. precious stones from Gujarat and account inscribed Iran and lapis lazuli (a bright blue stone used in jewellery frorn northern Afghanistan. in apictographic script. Seals for Trading More than 2,000 seals have been discovered at Citterent sites of the Indus Valley Civilisation. " Harappan scnipt WORDS TO KNOW dockyard a place where ships are repaired and also loaded and unloaded steatite: soft soapstone MY COUNTRY 197  21sr Information Literacy Engage AND EXPLORE CENTURY SITLLS Visual Skills The given picture shows reconstruction of everyday life in the Indus Valley Civilisation featured at the National Science Centre, New Delhi.. What do you observe about the daily life of the Harappan people?.What crafts do you notice? How was the potter's wheel important in their lives? Potter s wheel 21sT CENTURY Information Literacy WHAT WASHAPPENING ELSEWHERE? SKILLS EGYPTIAN CIVILISATION Agreat urban civilisation flourished in Egypt on banks of the Nile River from around 3,000 to 1,000 8E. Copper and bronze were wel known, though stone tools were also used. People utilised the bounty provided by the Nile River (i.e., water and fertile soil) and laid the foundations of a prosperous civilisation. The kings of ancient Egypt were called pharaohs. Some of the early pharaohs encouraged the building of pyramids, which served as tombs for them and their queens. Pharaoh Khufu is believed to have built the first true pyramid, known " pyramids were as the Great Pyramid of Giza. Artisans in ancient Egyptdecorated them. Skilled workers who constructed these pyramids and MYCOUNTRY 199