Agriculture, Metals, and Class Divisions

Published on January 8, 2011

by The Glaring Facts

Agriculture

Agriculture developed approximately 10000 years ago
Growing of crops and the domestication of animals
Change from nomadic tribes to settlements, knowledge of growing cycle of plants: Early agriculture expanded our knowledge of plants
Populations growth, food storage, work
Agricultural techniques: sowing, hoeing, reaping, threshing, storing, grinding, baking, brewing, weaving, pottery, etc.
Surplus food as common goods, private property
Agriculture and delayed gratification of work
Religion, change of the seasons, fertility rites
Artificial irrigation, food surplus, higher populations, early government: “hydrological hypothesis” — civilization arose from the development of large-scale irrigation agriculture; Large scale irrigation agriculture, centralized coordination for management, storage and distribution
Creation of cities, administration, crafts, trade and labour
Urbanization and division of labour, specialization
Priests as administrators and rulers
Urbanization, class differentiation, slaves, labourers and citizens

Metal, Transportation and Trade

Use of metal for tools: trial and error (experimentation), material properties (chemistry)
Use of bronze (tin and copper), guilds and metal working techniques
Sharp edged tools, carpentry, machines out of wood
Transportation technologies for food, goods, metal
River valleys, water transport, sea travel, navigation, astronomy
Wheeled cart and plough, agricultural expansion, measurement, recording and standardization
Writing and trade, mathematics and transactions
Large-scale public works and complex economic transactions, complex mathematics
Architecture and early geometry, e.g. volume of pyramid
Agriculture and the calendar, astronomy, astrology
Medicine, prognosis and case knowledge
Precious metals, measurement, chemistry

Class Divisions in Early Society