civilation begining

Neolithic means "new stone", even though agriculture was the crowning achievement of the period. Civilizations started out small. Agriculture at first tended to tie only small groups together. These groups also all settled along rivers, important as a reliable and predictable source of water. As time passed, families usually worked the same plot of land over successive generations, leading to the concept of ownership.

The earliest examples of settlements date to about 12000 BC to 9500 BC, and seem to predate agriculture. These settlements, termed Natufian, suggest cultivation of Rye. The first such excavation was at Tell Es-Sultan, just outside of Jericho.

Ancient mortars and grinding tools unearthed in a large mound in the Zagros Mountains of Iran reveal that people were grinding wheat and barley about 11,000 years ago. Grass pea, wild wheat, wild barley, and lentils were found throughout the site, including some of the earliest known samples. This was much further east than most sites known for early agriculture. These were found with stone figurines in levels where earthen buildings had been flattened and destroyed, as though civilization had kept building atop their own ruins, or re-purposing land, as needs changed.

Evidence in the middle east shows pottery styles moving throughout the Arabian peninsula, especially during the late Halaf-Ubaid period, where painted pottery and flint arrowheads have been discovered in great number. Pottery decorations are used to indicate trade and cultural contact, or widespread immigration during this period. The excavations on Dalma Island in the Arabian gulf shows the first date stones (pits from a fruit known to be from a widely cultivated palm in the middle east) known from a human settlement, approximately 5000 BC and may be the precursor to agriculture. Interestingly, at this same site, Bones were found from long-tail tuna, dolphin, dugong and turtle, gazelle, needle-fish, grouper, sea bream, emperor, and jack. Some of the groupers found would have been nearly a meter long, indicating considerable fishing skill.

 The spread of farming and early domestication of plants and animals was extensive, as the practices expanded from three specific regions (7000 BC) of the world to various other regions, spreading to five continents by the year 3000 BC. Agriculture first started in the Middle East around 10,000-9500 BC. By 7000 BC it had spread to the western part of the Indian subcontinent, and by 6000 BC, agriculture spread to Egypt. By 5000 BC, it had reached China, and around 2700 BC, corn was being farmed in Mesoamerica. The Middle East, covering the areas of modern day Turkey, Iraq, Palestine, and Israel, had domesticated cattle and pigs. They were also successful in the domestication and farming of several crops and plants like wheat, barley, rye, onions, peas, and grapes. The Mesoamericans had begun farming corn, beans, avocados, squash, pumpkins, and cotton. They had not domesticated any animals. In the Andes region (Peru), potatoes, tomatoes, lima beans, peanuts, and sweet potatoes were farmed. The Andeans had also domesticated the llama. The spread in the Middle East had the greatest expansion in terms of area. Sheep were domesticated in the greater Middle East; goats were originally domesticated in Central Europe, olives in the Mediterranean. Cotton was first farmed in the Indian sub-continent, and hemp, camels, and buckwheat were originally domesticated west of the Caspian Sea. Furthermore, in the Americas, the Mesoamericans expanded north and south, spreading farming and herding to Central and slightly further into North America. From there the practice extended to South America. The Andeans had minimum spread, expanding farming and herding to regions immediately around theirs. The farming and domestication of plants and animals, by 3000 BC, had been independently innovated in Southeast Asia, China, and North-central Africa. In Southeast Asia, rice, citrus, and chickens were originally farmed and domesticated. The farming of millet and soybean was practiced in China. Sorghum and coffee were farmed originally in North-central Africa. In a brief period of 4000 years, humans had farmed and domesticated over thirty plants and animals. The spread of farming and herding had reached over five continents, and ten regions of the world.