Mesopotamia
117-553: Old Assyrian refers to a period of the Ancient Near East , ca. 20th to 16th centuries BCE (the Middle Bronze Age ). It may refer to: The Old Assyrian Empire The Old Assyrian language Old Assyrian cuneiform, see Cuneiform script See also [ edit ] Middle Assyrian (disambiguation) Neo-Assyrian (Early Iron Age) Topics referred to by
234-493: A sporocarp , ngardu ( Marsilea drummondii ). Indigenous Australians used systematic burning, fire-stick farming , to enhance natural productivity. In the 1970s and 1980s archaeological research in south west Victoria established that the Gunditjmara and other groups had developed sophisticated eel farming and fish trapping systems over a period of nearly 5,000 years. The archaeologist Harry Lourandos suggested in
351-593: A contributing factor to the downfall, after c. 1180 BC , of the Hittite Empire, where it was already widely spoken. Luwian was also the language spoken in the Neo-Hittite states of Syria, such as Melid and Carchemish , as well as in the central Anatolian kingdom of Tabal that flourished around 900 BC. Luwian has been preserved in two forms, named after the writing systems used to represent them: Cuneiform Luwian and Hieroglyphic Luwian . Mari
468-572: A kingdom of northern Mesopotamia (modern-day northern Iraq), competing for dominance with its southern Mesopotamian rival Babylonia. From 1365 to 1076, it had been a major imperial power, rivaling Egypt and the Hittite Empire. Beginning with the campaign of Adad-nirari II , it became a vast empire, overthrowing the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt and conquering Egypt, the Middle East, and large swaths of Asia Minor , ancient Iran ,
585-535: A low-density agriculture in loose rotation; a sort of "wild" permaculture . A system of companion planting called the Three Sisters was developed in North America . Three crops that complemented each other were planted together: winter squash , maize (corn), and climbing beans (typically tepary beans or common beans ). The maize provides a structure for the beans to climb, eliminating
702-588: A north–south pattern with a variety of different climatic zones in close proximity to each other. This fostered the domestication of many different plants. At the time of first contact between the Europeans and the Americans, the Europeans practiced "extensive agriculture, based on the plough and draught animals," with tenants under landlords, but also forced labor or slavery, while the Indigenous peoples of
819-721: A number of hypotheses to explain the historical origins of agriculture. Studies of the transition from hunter-gatherer to agricultural societies indicate an antecedent period of intensification and increasing sedentism ; examples are the Natufian culture in the Levant , and the Early Chinese Neolithic in China. Current models indicate that wild stands that had been harvested previously started to be planted, but were not immediately domesticated. Localised climate change
936-576: A single genetic origin from the wild rice Oryza rufipogon , in the Pearl River valley region of China. Rice cultivation then spread to South and Southeast Asia. The major cereal crops of the ancient Mediterranean region were wheat, emmer , and barley, while common vegetables included peas, beans, fava , and olives, dairy products came mostly from sheep and goats, and meat, which was consumed on rare occasion for most people, usually consisted of pork, beef, and lamb. Agriculture in ancient Greece
1053-641: A specific emphasis on the cultivation of crops for trade and export. The Romans laid the groundwork for the manorial economic system, involving serfdom , which flourished in the Middle Ages. The farm sizes in Rome can be divided into three categories. Small farms were from 18 to 88 iugera (one iugerum is equal to about 0.65 acre). Medium-sized farms were from 80 to 500 iugera (singular iugerum ). Large estates (called latifundia ) were over 500 iugera. The Romans had four systems of farm management: direct work by
1170-604: A substantial part in the history of the Hittites . Ishuwa was an ancient kingdom in Anatolia . The name is first attested in the second millennium BC, and is also spelled Išuwa. In the classical period, the land was a part of Armenia . Ishuwa was one of the places where agriculture developed very early on in the Neolithic . Urban centres emerged in the upper Euphrates river valley around 3500 BC. The first states followed in
1287-471: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Language and nationality disambiguation pages Ancient Near East Egypt Iran Anatolia The Levant Arabia Cosmology The ancient Near East was home to many cradles of civilization , spanning Mesopotamia , Egypt , Iran (or Persia ), Anatolia and the Armenian highlands ,
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#17327655170041404-540: Is from around 21,000 BC with the Ohalo ;II people on the shores of the Sea of Galilee . By around 9500 BC, the eight Neolithic founder crops – emmer wheat , einkorn wheat , hulled barley , peas , lentils , bitter vetch , chickpeas , and flax – were cultivated in the Levant . Rye may have been cultivated earlier, but this claim remains controversial. Regardless, rye's spread from Southwest Asia to
1521-2213: Is noted in western history as the foe of the Greek city states in the Greco-Persian Wars , for freeing the Israelites from their Babylonian captivity , and for instituting Aramaic as the empire's official language. In 116–117 AD, most of the Ancient Near East (excepting several more marginal regions) was briefly re-united under the rule of the Roman Empire under Trajan . ( Shamshi-Adad dynasty 1808–1736 BCE) (Amorites) Shamshi-Adad I Ishme-Dagan I Mut-Ashkur Rimush Asinum Ashur-dugul Ashur-apla-idi Nasir-Sin Sin-namir Ipqi-Ishtar Adad-salulu Adasi (Non-dynastic usurpers 1735–1701 BCE) Puzur-Sin Ashur-dugul Ashur-apla-idi Nasir-Sin Sin-namir Ipqi-Ishtar Adad-salulu Adasi ( Adaside dynasty 1700–722 BCE) Bel-bani Libaya Sharma-Adad I Iptar-Sin Bazaya Lullaya Shu-Ninua Sharma-Adad II Erishum III Shamshi-Adad II Ishme-Dagan II Shamshi-Adad III Ashur-nirari I Puzur-Ashur III Enlil-nasir I Nur-ili Ashur-shaduni Ashur-rabi I Ashur-nadin-ahhe I Enlil-Nasir II Ashur-nirari II Ashur-bel-nisheshu Ashur-rim-nisheshu Ashur-nadin-ahhe II Second Intermediate Period Sixteenth Dynasty Abydos Dynasty Seventeenth Dynasty (1500–1100 BCE) Kidinuid dynasty Igehalkid dynasty Untash-Napirisha Twenty-first Dynasty of Egypt Smendes Amenemnisu Psusennes I Amenemope Osorkon
1638-632: Is often referred to as the "Yam Belt", due to its high production of yams. The guineafowl is a poultry bird that was domesticated in West Africa, and while the time of the guineafowl's domestication remains unclear, there is evidence that it was present in Ancient Greece during the 5th century BC. Several species of coffee were also domesticated throughout Sub-Saharan Africa, with Coffea arabica originating in Ethiopia and serving as
1755-484: Is the favoured explanation for the origins of agriculture in the Levant. When major climate change took place after the last ice age (c. 11,000 BC), much of the earth became subject to long dry seasons. These conditions favoured annual plants which die off in the long dry season, leaving a dormant seed or tuber . An abundance of readily storable wild grains and pulses enabled hunter-gatherers in some areas to form
1872-592: Is the name given by those historians who see the transition from the late Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age as violent, sudden and culturally disruptive, expressed by the collapse of palace economies of the Aegean and Anatolia, which were replaced after a hiatus by the isolated village cultures of the Dark Age period in history of the ancient Middle East. Some have gone so far as to call the catalyst that ended
1989-605: Is the oldest known field systems in europe. The horse was domesticated in the Pontic steppe around 4000 BC In Siberia . Cannabis was in use in China in Neolithic times and may have been domesticated there; it was in use both as a fibre for ropemaking and as a medicine in Ancient Egypt by about 2350 BC. In northern China , millet was domesticated by early Sino-Tibetan speakers at around 8000 to 6000 BC, becoming
2106-541: Is the semi-tough rachis and larger seeds of cereals from just after the Younger Dryas (about 9500 BC) in the early Holocene in the Levant region of the Fertile Crescent . Monophyletic characteristics were attained without any human intervention, implying that apparent domestication of the cereal rachis could have occurred quite naturally. Agriculture began independently in different parts of
2223-647: The Biblical Ararat . Two related Israelite kingdoms known as Israel and Judah emerged in the Southern Levant during the Iron Age. The northern Kingdom of Israel , with its most prominent capital at Samaria , was the more prosperous of the two kingdoms and soon developed into a regional power; during the days of the Omride dynasty , it controlled Samaria , Galilee , the upper Jordan Valley ,
2340-790: The British Empire . The distinction began during the Crimean War . The last major exclusive partition of the east between these two terms was current in diplomacy in the late 19th century, with the Hamidian Massacres of the Armenians and Assyrians by the Ottoman Empire in 1894–1896 and the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895. The two theatres were described by the statesmen and advisors of
2457-578: The Bronze Age of central Europe, c. 1800–1500 BC. Claims of much earlier cultivation of rye, at the Epipalaeolithic site of Tell Abu Hureyra in the Euphrates valley of northern Syria , remain controversial. Critics point to inconsistencies in the radiocarbon dates, and identifications based solely on grain, rather than on chaff . By 8000 BC, farming was entrenched on the banks of
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#17327655170042574-684: The Eastern United States dates to about 3000 BCE. Several plants were cultivated, later to be replaced by the Three Sisters cultivation of maize, squash, and beans. Sugarcane and some root vegetables were domesticated in New Guinea around 7000 BC. Bananas were cultivated and hybridized in the same period in Papua New Guinea . In Australia , agriculture was invented at a currently unspecified period, with
2691-656: The Inca Empire of South America grew large surpluses of food which they stored in buildings called Qullqas . The most important crop domesticated in the Amazon Basin and tropical lowlands was probably cassava , ( Manihot esculenta ), which was domesticated before 7000 BCE, likely in the Rondônia and Mato Grosso states of Brazil . The Guaitecas Archipelago in modern Chile was the southern limit of Pre-Hispanic agriculture near 44° South latitude, as noted by
2808-655: The Iranian plateau , centered on Anshan , and from the mid-2nd millennium BC, it was centered on Susa in the Khuzestan lowlands. Elam was absorbed into the Assyrian Empire in the 9th to 7th centuries BC; however, the civilization endured up until 539 BC when it was finally overrun by the Iranian Persians . The Proto-Elamite civilization existed from c. 3200 BC to 2700 BC , when Susa,
2925-585: The Kura-Araxes culture has been connected with this movement, although its date is somewhat too early. Yamhad was an ancient Amorite kingdom. A substantial Hurrian population also settled in the kingdom, and the Hurrian culture influenced the area. The kingdom was powerful during the Middle Bronze Age, c. 1800–1600 BC. Its biggest rival was Qatna further south. Yamhad was finally destroyed by
3042-564: The Levant , and the Arabian Peninsula . As such, the fields of ancient Near East studies and Near Eastern archaeology are one of the most prominent with regard to research in the realm of ancient history . Historically, the Near East denoted an area roughly encompassing the centre of West Asia , having been focused on the lands between Greece and Egypt in the west and Iran in the east. It therefore largely corresponds with
3159-476: The Levant , although wheat was the first to be grown and harvested on a significant scale. At around the same time (9400 BC), parthenocarpic fig trees were domesticated. Domesticated rye occurs in small quantities at some Neolithic sites in (Asia Minor) Turkey, such as the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (c. 7600 – c. 6000 BC) Can Hasan III near Çatalhöyük , but is otherwise absent until
3276-801: The Middle Ages , both in Europe and in the Islamic world , agriculture was transformed with improved techniques and the diffusion of crop plants, including the introduction of sugar, rice, cotton and fruit trees such as the orange to Europe by way of Al-Andalus . After the voyages of Christopher Columbus in 1492, the Columbian exchange brought New World crops such as maize , potatoes , tomatoes , sweet potatoes , and manioc to Europe, and Old World crops such as wheat, barley, rice, and turnips , and livestock including horses, cattle, sheep, and goats to
3393-577: The Nile . About this time, agriculture was developed independently in the Far East, probably in China, with rice rather than wheat as the primary crop. Maize was domesticated from the wild grass teosinte in southern Mexico by 6700 BC. The potato (8000 BC), tomato , pepper (4000 BC), squash (8000 BC) and several varieties of bean (8000 BC onwards) were domesticated in the New World. Agriculture
3510-745: The Sahel region of Africa , sorghum was domesticated by 3000 BC in Sudan and pearl millet by 2500 BC in Mali. Kola nut and coffee were also domesticated in Africa. In New Guinea , ancient Papuan peoples began practicing agriculture around 7000 BC, domesticating sugarcane and taro . In the Indus Valley from the eighth millennium BC onwards at Mehrgarh , 2-row and 6-row barley were cultivated, along with einkorn, emmer, and durum wheats, and dates. In
3627-658: The Sharon and large parts of the Transjordan . It was destroyed around 720 BC, when it was conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire . The southern Kingdom of Judah , with its capital at Jerusalem , survived longer. In the 7th century BC, the kingdom's population increased greatly, prospering under Assyrian vassalage. After the fall of the Neo-Assyrian Empire in 605 BC, the ensuing competition between
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3744-647: The Twenty-sixth Dynasty of Egypt and the Neo-Babylonian Empire for control of the Levant resulted with the rapid decline of the kingdom. In the early-6th century BC, Judah was weakened by a series of Babylonian invasions , and in 587–586 BC, Jerusalem was besieged and destroyed by the second Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar II , who subsequently exiled the Judeans to Babylon . The term Neo-Babylonian Empire refers to Babylonia under
3861-716: The Yucatán Peninsula . The indigenous people of the Eastern U.S. domesticated numerous crops . Sunflowers , tobacco , varieties of squash and Chenopodium , as well as crops no longer grown, including marsh elder and little barley . Wild foods including wild rice and maple sugar were harvested. The domesticated strawberry is a hybrid of a Chilean and a North American species, developed by breeding in Europe and North America. Two major crops, pecans and Concord grapes , were used extensively in prehistoric times but do not appear to have been domesticated until
3978-695: The history of Mesopotamia , following the Ubaid period . Named after the Sumerian city of Uruk , this period saw the emergence of urban life in Mesopotamia. It was followed by the Sumerian civilization in southern Mesopotamia . The late Uruk period (3400 to 3200 BC) saw the gradual emergence of cuneiform script and corresponds to the early Bronze Age. Sumer hosted many early advances in human history , such as schools ( c. 3000 BC ), making
4095-467: The 1980s that there was evidence of 'intensification' in progress across Australia, a process that appeared to have continued through the preceding 5,000 years. These concepts led the historian Bill Gammage to argue that in effect the whole continent was a managed landscape. Torres Strait Islanders are now known to have planted bananas . In New Guinea , archaeological evidence suggests that agriculture independently emerged around 7,000 years ago with
4212-450: The 19th century. The indigenous people in what is now California and the Pacific Northwest practiced various forms of forest gardening and fire-stick farming in the forests, grasslands, mixed woodlands, and wetlands, ensuring that desired food and medicine plants continued to be available. The natives controlled fire on a regional scale to create a low-intensity fire ecology which prevented larger, catastrophic fires and sustained
4329-571: The 6th century BC, the establishment of the Macedonian Empire in the 4th century BC, or the beginning of the early Muslim conquests in the 7th century AD. It was within the ancient Near East that humans first practiced intensive year-round agriculture , which led to the rise of the earliest dense urban settlements and the development of many now-familiar institutions of civilization, such as social stratification , centralized government and empires , and organized religion (see: ancient Near Eastern religions ) and organized warfare . It also saw
4446-485: The Americas practiced "intensive agriculture, based on human labour." Europeans wanted control of land for the grazing of their livestock and property rights for the control of production. Though they were impressed with the productivity of traditional farming techniques, they saw no connection to their system and were dismissive of Native American practices as "gardening" rather than a commercializable enterprise. Due to several thousand years of selective breeding, maize ,
4563-523: The Americas. Irrigation , crop rotation , and fertilizers were introduced soon after the Neolithic Revolution and developed much further in the past 200 years, starting with the British Agricultural Revolution . Since 1900, agriculture in the developed nations, and to a lesser extent in the developing world, has seen large rises in productivity as human labour has been replaced by mechanization , and assisted by synthetic fertilizers, pesticides , and selective breeding . The Haber-Bosch process allowed
4680-407: The Atlantic was independent of the Neolithic founder crop package. Rice was domesticated in China by 6200 BC with earliest known cultivation from 5700 BC, followed by mung , soy and azuki beans. Rice was also independently domesticated in West Africa and cultivated by 1000 BC. Pigs were domesticated in Mesopotamia around 11,000 years ago, followed by sheep . Cattle were domesticated from
4797-422: The British Empire as "the Near East" and "the Far East". Shortly after, they were to share the stage with '' Middle East '', a term that came to prevail in the 20th century and continues in modern times. As Near East had meant the lands of the Ottoman Empire at roughly its maximum extent, on the fall of that empire, the use of Near East in diplomacy was reduced significantly in favor of the Middle East. Meanwhile,
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4914-445: The Bronze Age a "catastrophe". The Bronze Age collapse may be seen in the context of a technological history that saw the slow, comparatively continuous spread of iron-working technology in the region, beginning with precocious iron-working in what is now Romania in the 13th and 12th centuries. The cultural collapse of the Mycenaean kingdoms , the Hittite Empire in Anatolia and Syria, and the Egyptian Empire in Syria and Palestine ,
5031-551: The Caucasus and east Mediterranean . The Neo-Assyrian Empire succeeded the Middle Assyrian period (14th to 10th century BC). Some scholars, such as Richard Nelson Frye , regard the Neo-Assyrian Empire to be the first real empire in human history. During this period, Aramaic was also made an official language of the empire, alongside the Akkadian language . The states of the Neo-Hittite kingdoms were Luwian , Aramaic and Phoenician -speaking political entities of Iron Age northern Syria and southern Anatolia that arose following
5148-471: The Eastern Woodlands of North America. Sumerian farmers grew the cereals barley and wheat , starting to live in villages from about 8000 BC. Given the low rainfall of the region, agriculture relied on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Irrigation canals leading from the rivers permitted the growth of cereals in large enough quantities to support cities. The first ploughs appear in pictographs from Uruk around 3000 BC; seed-ploughs that funneled seed into
5265-674: The Elder Siamun Psusennes II Twenty-third Dynasty of Egypt Harsiese A Takelot II Pedubast I Shoshenq VI Osorkon III Takelot III Rudamun Menkheperre Ini Twenty-fourth Dynasty of Egypt Tefnakht Bakenranef ( Sargonid dynasty ) Tiglath-Pileser Shalmaneser Marduk-apla-iddina II Sargon Sennacherib Marduk-zakir-shumi II Marduk-apla-iddina II Bel-ibni Ashur-nadin-shumi Nergal-ushezib Mushezib-Marduk Esarhaddon Ashurbanipal Ashur-etil-ilani Sinsharishkun Sin-shumu-lishir Ashur-uballit II History of agriculture Agriculture began independently in different parts of
5382-414: The Euphrates river and destroyed the cities there. This corresponds well with burnt destruction layers discovered by archaeologists at town sites in Ishuwa of roughly the same date. After the end of the Hittite empire in the early 12th century BC a new state emerged in Ishuwa. The city of Malatya became the centre of one of the so-called Neo-Hittite kingdom. The movement of nomadic people may have weakened
5499-425: The Great , lasted from the 24th to the 21st century BC, and was regarded by many as the world's first empire. The Akkadians eventually fragmented into Assyria and Babylonia. Ancient Elam lay to the east of Sumer and Akkad , in the far west and southwest of modern-day Iran , stretching from the lowlands of Khuzestan and Ilam Province . In the Old Elamite period, c. 3200 BC , it consisted of kingdoms on
5616-440: The Hittites in the 16th century BC. The Aramaeans were a Semitic ( West Semitic language group), semi-nomadic and pastoralist people who had lived in upper Mesopotamia and Syria . Aramaeans have never had a unified empire; they were divided into independent kingdoms all across the Near East. Yet to these Aramaeans befell the privilege of imposing their language and culture upon the entire Near East and beyond, fostered in part by
5733-439: The Indus Valley Civilization. Records from the Warring States , Qin dynasty , and Han dynasty provide a picture of early Chinese agriculture from the 5th century BC to 2nd century AD which included a nationwide granary system and widespread use of sericulture . An important early Chinese book on agriculture is the Qimin Yaoshu of AD 535, written by Jia Sixie. Jia's writing style was straightforward and lucid relative to
5850-414: The Near East and far beyond, and the second great Iranian empire (after the Median Empire). At the height of its power, encompassing approximately 7,500,000 km (2,900,000 sq mi), the Achaemenid Empire was territorially the largest empire of classical antiquity, and the first world empire. It spanned three continents ( Europe , Asia, and Africa), including apart from its core in modern-day Iran,
5967-439: The Ptolemaic grain market also played a critical role in the rise of the Roman Republic . In the Seleucid Empire , Mesopotamia was a crucial area for the production of wheat, while nomadic animal husbandry was also practiced in other parts. In the Greco-Roman world of Classical antiquity , Roman agriculture was built on techniques originally pioneered by the Sumerians, transmitted to them by subsequent cultures, with
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#17327655170046084-465: The above sources have been converted to BC.) In the Andes region, with civilizations including the Inca , the major crop was the potato , domesticated between 8000 and 5000 BC. Coca , still a major crop to this day, was domesticated in the Andes, as were the peanut , tomato , tobacco , and pineapple . Cotton was domesticated in Peru by 4200 BC. Animals were also domesticated , including llamas , alpacas , and guinea pigs . The people of
6201-409: The ancient Near East had become distinct. The Ottoman rule over the Near East ranged from Vienna (to the north) to the tip of the Arabian Peninsula (to the south), from Egypt (in the west) to the borders of Iraq (in the east). The 19th-century archaeologists added Iran to their definition, which was never under the Ottomans, but they excluded all of Europe and, generally, Egypt, which had parts in
6318-435: The area a cradle of civilization . The oldest excavated archaeological site in Sumer, Tell el-'Oueili , dates to the 7th millennium BC, although it is likely that the area was occupied even earlier. The oldest layers at 'Oueili mark the beginning of the Ubaid period , which was followed by the Uruk period (4th millennium BC) and the Early Dynastic periods (3rd millennium BC). The Akkadian Empire , founded by Sargon
6435-503: The central west coast and eastern central Australia, forms of agriculture were practiced. People living in permanent settlements of over 200 residents sowed or planted on a large scale and stored the harvested food. The Nhanda and Amangu of the central west coast grew yams ( Dioscorea hastifolia ), while various groups in eastern central Australia (the Corners Region) planted and harvested bush onions ( yaua – Cyperus bulbosus ), native millet ( cooly, tindil – Panicum decompositum ) and
6552-493: The collapse of the Hittite Empire around 1180 BC and lasted until roughly 700 BC. The term "Neo-Hittite" is sometimes reserved specifically for the Luwian-speaking principalities like Melid ( Malatya ) and Karkamish ( Carchemish ), although in a wider sense the broader cultural term "Syro-Hittite" is now applied to all the entities that arose in south-central Anatolia following the Hittite collapse – such as Tabal and Quwê – as well as those of northern and coastal Syria. Urartu
6669-414: The creation of the first writing system , the first alphabet (i.e., abjad ), the first currency , and the first legal codes , all of which were monumental advances that laid the foundations of astronomy and mathematics , and the invention of the wheel . During this period, the region's previously stateless societies largely transitioned to building states , many of which gradually came to annex
6786-482: The domestication of crops such as bananas and taro . Pigs and chickens were imported to New Guinea, which were later innovated by other Pacific Island nations, such as those in Polynesia . The Middle Ages saw further improvements in agriculture. Monasteries spread throughout Europe and became important centers for the collection of knowledge related to agriculture and forestry. The manorial system allowed large landowners to control their land and its laborers, in
6903-481: The earliest levels of Merhgarh, wild game such as gazelle , swamp deer , blackbuck , chital , wild ass , wild goat, wild sheep, boar , and nilgai were all hunted for food. These are successively replaced by domesticated sheep, goats, and humped zebu cattle by the fifth millennium BC, indicating the gradual transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture. Maize and squash were domesticated in Mesoamerica ; potatoes in South America, and sunflowers in
7020-501: The elaborate and allusive writing typical of the time. Jia's book was also very long, with over one hundred thousand written Chinese characters , and it quoted many other Chinese books that were written previously, but no longer survive. The contents of Jia's 6th century book include sections on land preparation, seeding, cultivation, orchard management, forestry, and animal husbandry. The book also includes peripherally related content covering trade and culinary uses for crops. The work and
7137-422: The empire. Ancient Near East periodization is the attempt to categorize or divide time into discrete named blocks, or eras, of the Near East. The result is a descriptive abstraction that provides a useful handle on Near East periods of time with relatively stable characteristics. The Uruk period ( c. 4000 to 3100 BC) existed from the protohistoric Chalcolithic to the early Bronze Age period in
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#17327655170047254-404: The end of the Paleolithic into the Neolithic, between around 10,000 BC and 4000 BC. This was made possible with the development of basin irrigation. Their staple food crops were grains such as wheat and barley, alongside industrial crops such as flax and papyrus . Archaeological evidence also suggests that the spread of agriculture in Egypt was facilitated by farming communities associated with
7371-433: The first settled villages at this time. Across Western Eurasia it was not until approximately 4,000 BC that farming societies completely replaced hunter-gatherers. These technologically advanced societies expanded faster in areas with less forest, pushing hunter-gatherers into denser woodlands. Only the middle-late Bronze Age and Iron Age societies were able to fully replace hunter-gatherers in their final stronghold located in
7488-529: The form of peasants or serfs . During the medieval period, the Arab world was critical in the exchange of crops and technology between the European, Asia and African continents. Besides transporting numerous crops, they introduced the concept of summer irrigation to Europe and developed the beginnings of the plantation system of sugarcane growing through the use of slaves for intensive cultivation. By AD 900, developments in iron smelting allowed for increased production in Europe, leading to developments in
7605-491: The globe and included a diverse range of taxa. At least 11 separate regions of the Old and New World were involved as independent centers of origin . Some of the earliest known domestications were of animals. Domestic pigs had multiple centres of origin in Eurasia, including Europe, East Asia and Southwest Asia, where wild boar were first domesticated about 10,500 years ago. Sheep were domesticated in Mesopotamia between 11,000 BC and 9000 BC. Cattle were domesticated from
7722-536: The globe, and included a diverse range of taxa . At least eleven separate regions of the Old and New World were involved as independent centers of origin . The development of agriculture about 12,000 years ago changed the way humans lived. They switched from nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyles to permanent settlements and farming. Wild grains were collected and eaten from at least 104,000 years ago. However, domestication did not occur until much later. The earliest evidence of small-scale cultivation of edible grasses
7839-429: The height of its power, during the 14th century BC, encompassing what is today southeastern Turkey, northern Syria and northern Iraq (roughly corresponding to Kurdistan ), centred on the capital Washukanni whose precise location has not yet been determined by archaeologists. The Mitanni language showed Indo-Aryan influences, especially in the names of gods. The spread to Syria of a distinct pottery type associated with
7956-650: The hemisphere's most important crop, was more productive than Old World grain crops. Maize produced two and one-half times more calories per acre than wheat and barley. The earliest known areas of possible agriculture in the Americas dating to about 9000 BC are in Colombia , near present-day Pereira , and by the Las Vegas culture in Ecuador on the Santa Elena peninsula . The plants cultivated (or manipulated by humans) were lerén ( Calathea allouia ), arrowroot ( Maranta arundinacea ), squash ( Cucurbita species), and bottle gourd ( Lagenaria siceraria ). All are plants of humid climates and their existence at this time on
8073-453: The highlands of southeastern Anatolia, near the Gulf of İskenderun in modern-day Turkey , encircling the Taurus Mountains and the Ceyhan river. The centre of the kingdom was the city of Kummanni , situated in the highlands. In a later era, the same region was known as Cilicia . Luwian is an extinct language of the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family . Luwian speakers gradually spread through Anatolia and became
8190-438: The immediate east and west, beginning approximately 2500 BC. They probably originated in the Caucasus and entered from the north, but this is not certain. Their known homeland was centred on Subartu , the Khabur River valley, and later they established themselves as rulers of small kingdoms throughout northern Mesopotamia and Syria. The largest and most influential Hurrian nation was the kingdom of Mitanni . The Hurrians played
8307-416: The kingdom of Malatya before the final Assyrian invasion. The decline of the settlements and culture in Ishuwa from the 7th century BC until the Roman period was probably caused by this movement of people. The Armenians later settled in the area since they were natives of the Armenian plateau and related to the earlier inhabitants of Ishuwa. Kizzuwatna was a kingdom of the second millennium BC, situated in
8424-398: The late 19th dynasty , and especially during Year 8 of Ramesses III of the 20th Dynasty . The Egyptian Pharaoh Merneptah explicitly refers to them by the term "the foreign-countries (or 'peoples') of the sea" in his Great Karnak Inscription . Although some scholars believe that they "invaded" Cyprus , Hatti and the Levant, this hypothesis is disputed. The Bronze Age collapse
8541-614: The late 2nd century, heavy ploughs had been developed with iron ploughshares and mouldboards . These slowly spread west, revolutionizing farming in Northern Europe by the 10th century. ( Thomas Glick , however, argues for a development of the Chinese plough as late as the 9th century, implying its spread east from similar designs known in Italy by the 7th century.) Asian rice was domesticated 8,200–13,500 years ago in China, with
8658-568: The later capital of the Elamites, began to receive influence from the cultures of the Iranian plateau. In archaeological terms, this corresponds to the late Banesh period. This civilization is recognized as the oldest in Iran and was largely contemporary with its neighbour, Sumer. The Proto-Elamite script is an early Bronze Age writing system briefly in use for the ancient Elamite language (which
8775-551: The main crop of the Yellow River basin by 5500 BC. They were followed by mung , soy and azuki beans. In southern China, rice was domesticated in the Yangtze River basin at around 11,500 to 6200 BC, along with the development of wetland agriculture , by early Austronesian and Hmong-Mien -speakers. Other food plants were also harvested, including acorns , water chestnuts , and foxnuts . Rice cultivation
8892-413: The main production of modern-day coffee since the late 15th century. Indigenous Australians were predominately nomadic hunter-gatherers . Due to the policy of terra nullius , Aboriginals were regarded as not having been capable of sustained agriculture. However, the current consensus is that various agricultural methods were employed by the indigenous people. In two regions of Central Australia,
9009-673: The mass relocations enacted by successive empires, including the Assyrians and Babylonians . Scholars even have used the term 'Aramaization' for the Assyro-Babylonian peoples' languages and cultures, that have become Aramaic-speaking. The Sea peoples is the term used for a confederacy of seafaring raiders of the second millennium BC who sailed into the eastern shores of the Mediterranean, caused political unrest, and attempted to enter or control Egyptian territory during
9126-499: The mention of the cultivation of Chiloé potatoes by a Spanish expedition in 1557. In Mesoamerica, wild teosinte was transformed through human selection into the ancestor of modern maize, about 7,000 BC. It gradually spread across North America and to South America and was the most important crop of Native Americans at the time of European exploration. Other Mesoamerican crops include hundreds of varieties of locally domesticated squash and beans , while cocoa , also domesticated in
9243-610: The mid-10th century BC, and the rise of the Neo-Assyrian Empire . During the Early Iron Age, from 911 BC, the Neo-Assyrian Empire arose, vying with Babylonia and other lesser powers for dominance of the region, though not until the reforms of Tiglath-Pileser III in the 8th century BC, did it become a powerful and vast empire. In the Middle Assyrian period of the Late Bronze Age, Ancient Assyria had been
9360-582: The modern-day geopolitical concept of the Middle East . The history of the ancient Near East begins with the rise of Sumer in the 4th millennium BC, though the date that it ends is a subject of debate among scholars; the term covers the region's developments in the Bronze Age and the Iron Age , and is variously considered to end with either the establishment of the Achaemenid Empire in
9477-665: The most densely forested areas. Unlike their Bronze and Iron Age counterparts, Neolithic societies couldn't establish themselves in dense forests, and Copper Age societies had only limited success. Early people began altering communities of flora and fauna for their own benefit through means such as fire-stick farming and forest gardening very early. Wild grains have been collected and eaten from at least 105,000 years ago, and possibly much longer. Exact dates are hard to determine, as people collected and ate seeds before domesticating them, and plant characteristics may have changed during this period without human selection. An example
9594-540: The need for poles. The beans provide the nitrogen to the soil that the other plants use, and the squash spreads along the ground, blocking the sunlight , helping prevent the establishment of weeds . The squash leaves also act as a "living mulch ". In the Sahel region, civilizations such as the Mali and Songhai empires cultivated sorghum and pearl millet , which were domesticated between 3000 and 2500 BC. The donkey
9711-548: The oldest eel traps of Budj Bim dating to 6,600 BC and the deployment of several crops ranging from yams to bananas. The Bronze Age , from c. 3300 BC , witnessed the intensification of agriculture in civilizations such as Mesopotamian Sumer , ancient Egypt , ancient Sudan , the Indus Valley civilisation of the Indian subcontinent , ancient China , and ancient Greece . From 100 BC to 1600 AD, world population continued to grow along with land use, as evidenced by
9828-538: The origin of the valuable spice trade . In the 1st millennium AD, Austronesian sailors also settled Madagascar and the Comoros , bringing Southeast Asian and South Asian food plants with them to the East African coast, including bananas and rice. Rice was also spread southwards into Mainland Southeast Asia by around 2000 to 1500 BC by the migrations of the early Austroasiatic and Kra-Dai -speakers. In
9945-587: The owner and his family; slaves doing work under the supervision of slave managers; tenant farming or sharecropping in which the owner and a tenant divide up a farm's produce; and situations in which a farm was leased to a tenant. Agricultural history took a different path from the Old World as the Americas lacked large-seeded, easily domesticated grains (such as wheat and barley) and large domestic animals that could be used for agricultural labor. Rather than
10062-661: The playa lakes of the Sahara some 6,500 years ago. Jujube was domesticated in the Indian subcontinent by 9000 BC. Barley and wheat cultivation – along with the domestication of cattle, primarily sheep and goats – followed in Mehrgarh culture by 8000–6000 BC. This period also saw the first domestication of the elephant . Pastoral farming in India included threshing, planting crops in rows – either of two or of six – and storing grain in granaries . Cotton
10179-404: The ploughed furrow appear on seals around 2300 BC. Vegetable crops included chickpeas , lentils , peas, beans, onions , garlic , lettuce , leeks and mustard . They grew fruits including dates , grapes, apples, melons, and figs. Alongside their farming, Sumerians also caught fish and hunted fowl and gazelle . The meat of sheep, goats, cows and poultry was eaten, mainly by the elite. Fish
10296-456: The practice which developed in the Old World of sowing a field with a single crop, pre-historic American agriculture usually consisted of cultivating many crops close to each other utilizing only hand labor. Moreover, agricultural areas in the Americas lacked the uniformity of the east–west area of Mediterranean and semi-arid climates in southern Europe and southwestern Asia, but instead had
10413-419: The production of agricultural implements such as ploughs , hand tools and horse shoes . The carruca heavy plough improved on the earlier scratch plough , with the adoption of the Chinese mouldboard plough to turn over the heavy, wet soils of northern Europe. This led to the clearing of northern European forests and an increase in agricultural production, which in turn led to an increase in population. At
10530-523: The rapid increase in methane emissions from cattle and the cultivation of rice. During the Iron Age and era of classical antiquity , the expansion of ancient Rome , both the Republic and then the Empire , throughout the ancient Mediterranean and Western Europe built upon existing systems of agriculture while also establishing the manorial system that became a bedrock of medieval agriculture. In
10647-774: The region, was a major crop. The turkey , one of the most important poultry birds, was probably domesticated in Mexico or the U.S. Southwest. In Mesoamerica , the Aztecs were active farmers and had an agriculturally focused economy. The land around Lake Texcoco was fertile, but not large enough to produce the amount of food needed for the population of their expanding empire. The Aztecs developed irrigation systems, formed terraced hillsides, fertilized their soil, and developed chinampas or artificial islands, also known as "floating gardens". The Mayas between 400 BC to 900 AD used extensive canal and raised field systems to farm swampland on
10764-510: The rule of the 11th ("Chaldean") dynasty, from the revolt of Nabopolassar in 623 BC until the invasion of Cyrus the Great in 539 BC (Although the last ruler of Babylonia ( Nabonidus ) was in fact from the Assyrian city of Harran and not Chaldean), notably including the reign of Nebuchadrezzar II. Through the centuries of Assyrian domination, Babylonia enjoyed a prominent status, and revolted at
10881-421: The same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Old Assyrian . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Old_Assyrian&oldid=1255959411 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description
10998-410: The scission of long-distance trade contacts and sudden eclipse of literacy occurred between 1206 and 1150 BC. In the first phase of this period, almost every city between Troy and Gaza was violently destroyed, and often left unoccupied thereafter (for example, Hattusas , Mycenae , Ugarit ). The gradual end of the Dark Age that ensued saw the rise of settled Neo-Hittite and Aramaean kingdoms of
11115-476: The semi-arid Santa Elena peninsula may be evidence that they were transplanted there from more humid environments. In another study, this area of South America was identified as one of the four oldest places of origin for agriculture, along with the Fertile Crescent, China, and Mesoamerica, dated between 6200 BC and 10000 BC. (To facilitate comprehension by readers, Radiocarbon calibrated BP dates in
11232-512: The slightest indication that it did not. However, the Assyrians always managed to restore Babylonian loyalty, whether through the granting of increased privileges, or militarily. That finally changed in 627 BC with the death of the last strong Assyrian ruler, Ashurbanipal , and Babylonia rebelled under Nabopolassar the Chaldean a few years later. In alliance with the Medes and Scythians , Nineveh
11349-461: The square-pallet chain pump by the 1st century AD, powered by a waterwheel or oxen pulling an on a system of mechanical wheels. Although the chain pump found use in public works of providing water for urban and palatial pipe systems , it was used largely to lift water from a lower to higher elevation in filling irrigation canals and channels for farmland . By the end of the Han dynasty in
11466-432: The style in which it was written proved influential on later Chinese agronomists , such as Wang Zhen and his groundbreaking Nong Shu of 1313. For agricultural purposes, the Chinese had innovated the hydraulic -powered trip hammer by the 1st century BC. Although it found other purposes, its main function to pound, decorticate, and polish grain that otherwise would have been done manually. The Chinese also began using
11583-447: The synthesis of ammonium nitrate fertilizer on an industrial scale, greatly increasing crop yields . Modern agriculture has raised social, political, and environmental issues including overpopulation, water pollution , biofuels , genetically modified organisms , tariffs and farm subsidies . In response, organic farming developed in the twentieth century as an alternative to the use of synthetic pesticides. Scholars have developed
11700-659: The territories of modern Iraq, the Caucasus (Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Dagestan , Abkhazia), Asia Minor (Turkey), Thrace (parts of Eastern Bulgaria ), Macedonia (roughly corresponding to present-day Macedonia in Northern Greece), many of the Black Sea coastal regions, northern Saudi Arabia , Jordan , Israel , Lebanon , Syria, Afghanistan , Central Asia , parts of Pakistan , and all significant population centers of ancient Egypt as far west as Libya . It
11817-463: The territories of their neighbouring civilizations . This process continued until the entire ancient Near East was enveloped by militaristic empires that had emerged from their own lands to conquer and absorb a variety of cultures under the rule of a top-level government. The phrase "ancient Near East" denotes the 19th-century distinction between the Near and Far East as global regions of interest to
11934-540: The third millennium BC. The name Ishuwa is not known until the literate period of the second millennium BC. Few literate sources from within Ishuwa have been discovered and the primary source material comes from Hittite texts. To the west of Ishuwa lay the kingdom of the Hittites , and this nation was an untrustworthy neighbour. The Hittite king Hattusili I ( c. 1600 BC ) is reported to have marched his army across
12051-455: The wild aurochs in the areas of modern Turkey and India around 8500 BC. Camels were domesticated relatively late, perhaps around 3000 BC. It was not until after 9500 BC that the eight so-called founder crops of agriculture appear: first emmer and einkorn wheat , then hulled barley , peas , lentils , bitter vetch , chick peas and flax . These eight crops occur more or less simultaneously on Pre-Pottery Neolithic B ( PPNB ) sites in
12168-414: The wild aurochs in the areas of modern Turkey and India around 8500 BC. Camels were domesticated late, perhaps around 3000 BC. In subsaharan Africa , sorghum was domesticated in the Sahel region of Africa by 3000 BC, along with pearl millet by 2000 BC. Yams were domesticated in several distinct locations, including West Africa (unknown date), and cowpeas by 2500 BC. Rice ( African rice )
12285-739: Was a language isolate ) before the introduction of Elamite cuneiform . The Amorites were a nomadic Semitic people who occupied the country west of the Euphrates from the second half of the 3rd millennium BC. In the earliest Sumerian sources, beginning about 2400 BC, the land of the Amorites ("the Mar.tu land") is associated with the West, including Syria and Canaan , although their ultimate origin may have been Arabia . They ultimately settled in Mesopotamia, ruling Isin , Larsa , and later Babylon. The Hurrians lived in northern Mesopotamia and areas to
12402-471: Was also independently domesticated in West Africa and cultivated by 1000 BC. Teff and likely finger millet were domesticated in Ethiopia by 3000 BC, along with noog , ensete , and coffee . Other plant foods domesticated in Africa include watermelon , okra , tamarind and black eyed peas , along with tree crops such as the kola nut and oil palm . Plantains were cultivated in Africa by 3000 BC and bananas by 1500 BC. The helmeted guineafowl
12519-444: Was an ancient Sumerian and Amorite city, located 11 kilometres north-west of the modern town of Abu Kamal on the western bank of Euphrates river, some 120 km southeast of Deir ez-Zor , Syria. It is thought to have been inhabited since the 5th millennium BC, although it flourished from 2900 BC until 1759 BC, when it was sacked by Hammurabi . Mitanni was a Hurrian kingdom in northern Mesopotamia from c. 1600 BC , at
12636-554: Was an ancient kingdom of Armenia and North Mesopotamia which existed from c. 860 BC , emerging from the Late Bronze Age until 585 BC. The Kingdom of Urartu was located in the mountainous plateau between Asia Minor , the Iranian plateau , Mesopotamia, and the Caucasus Mountains , later known as the Armenian Highland , and it centered on Lake Van (present-day eastern Turkey). The name corresponds to
12753-640: Was cultivated by the 5th–4th millennium BC. By the 5th millennium BC, agricultural communities became widespread in Kashmir . Irrigation was developed in the Indus Valley Civilisation by around 4500 BC. The size and prosperity of the Indus civilization grew as a result of this innovation, leading to more thoroughly planned settlements which used drainage and sewers . Archeological evidence of an animal-drawn plough dates back to 2500 BC in
12870-522: Was domesticated in Nubia at approximately 5000 BC. Archaeological evidence suggests that Sanga cattle may have been independently domesticated in East Africa at around 1600 BC. In the tropical region of West Africa , crops such as black-eyed peas , Sea Island red peas , yams , kola nuts , Jollof rice and kokoro were domesticated between 3000 and 1000 BC. The coastal region of West Africa
12987-632: Was domesticated in West Africa. Sanga cattle was likely also domesticated in North-East Africa, around 7000 BC, and later crossbred with other species. In South America, agriculture began as early as 9000 BC, starting with the cultivation of several species of plants that later became only minor crops. In the Andes of South America, the potato was domesticated between 8000 BC and 5000 BC, along with beans , squash , tomatoes , peanuts , coca , llamas , alpacas , and guinea pigs . Cassava
13104-634: Was domesticated in the Amazon Basin no later than 7000 BC. Maize ( Zea mays ) found its way to South America from Mesoamerica , where wild teosinte was domesticated about 7000 BC and selectively bred to become domestic maize. Cotton was domesticated in Peru by 4200 BC; another species of cotton was domesticated in Mesoamerica and became by far the most important species of cotton in the textile industry in modern times. Evidence of agriculture in
13221-660: Was hindered by the topography of mainland Greece that only allowed for roughly 10% of the land to be cultivated properly, necessitating the specialised exportation of oil and wine and importation of grains from Thrace (centered in what is now Bulgaria ) and the Greek colonies of Pontic Greeks near the Black Sea . During the Hellenistic period , the Ptolemaic Empire controlled Egypt , Cyprus , Phoenicia , and Cyrenaica , major grain-producing regions that mainland Greeks depended on for subsistence, while
13338-655: Was independently developed on the island of New Guinea . Banana cultivation of Musa acuminata , including hybridization , dates back to 5000 BC, and possibly to 8000 BC, in Papua New Guinea . Bees were kept for honey in the Middle East around 7000 BC. Archaeological evidence from various sites on the Iberian peninsula suggest the domestication of plants and animals between 6000 and 4500 BC. The Céide Fields , located in Ireland consist of extensive tracts of land enclosed by stone walls, these walls date to 3500 BC and
13455-563: Was later spread to Maritime Southeast Asia by the Austronesian expansion , starting at around 3,500 to 2,000 BC. This migration event also saw the introduction of cultivated and domesticated food plants from Taiwan , Maritime Southeast Asia , and New Guinea into the Pacific Islands as canoe plants . Contact with Sri Lanka and Southern India by Austronesian sailors also led to an exchange of food plants which later became
13572-525: Was preserved by drying, salting and smoking. The civilization of Ancient Egypt was indebted to the Nile River and its dependable seasonal flooding. The river's predictability and the fertile soil allowed the Egyptians to build an empire on the basis of great agricultural wealth. Egyptians were among the first peoples to practice agriculture on a large scale, starting in the pre-dynastic period from
13689-657: Was sacked in 612 and Harran in 608 BC, and the seat of empire was again transferred to Babylonia. Subsequently, the Medes controlled much of the ancient Near East from their base in Ecbatana (modern-day Hamadan , Iran), most notably most of what is now Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and the South Caucasus . Following the fall of the Medes, the Achaemenid Empire was the first of the Persian Empires to rule over most of
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