[blam]

"...why people all suddenly turned to farming required a global explanation."

Oops.

[blam]

GGG Ping.

[Red Badger]

Did they find a 9000 year old Burpee’s Seed Catalog, too?.......

[grjr21]

Nanchoc Valley of northern Peru, they found squash seeds that were more than 9,000 years old.

 

I figure people started farming about 15 minuets after discovering beer

 

[HIDEK6]

Given that the civilizations of the Old and New Worlds developed independently, there is no reason to expect that peoples on opposite sides of the globe all would adopt agriculture within a short period of time.

We all know that people get hungry at different rates.

(Do I really need the /s?)

[gobucks]

aliens can travel preeeettyyyyyy quick ya know...

[CholeraJoe]

Given that the civilizations of the Old and New Worlds developed independently, there is no reason to expect that peoples on opposite sides of the globe all would adopt agriculture within a short period of time.

Umm...yes there is. It's called Atlantis.

[tarheelswamprat]

Farming began because early men needed the grain to make beer.

Later, grape farming developed because girly men needed the grapes to make chablis...

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

What I wonder is why anyone thinks it is surprising that agriculture might spread around the world in a "mere" 3,000 years.

The other interesting facts, not mentioned in this article, is how very much of the agriculture we take for granted comes not from Europe/Asia but from South America. Beans, potatoes, tomatoes, corn, squash - it makes you wonder what Europeans ate before 1492 besides bread.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Blam. At least no one claimed Dillehay was out of his, uh, gourd, this time.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. Thanks.

Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on or off the
"Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list or GGG weekly digest
-- Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)

[Rudder]

...farming as a way of artificially boosting food production.

Another human-hating, leftist archaeologist. Ants farm aphids, is this "artificial?"

[TrueKnightGalahad]

I just thought of a new theory...’twas the discovery of wacky-baccy that led to civilisation. Getting the munchies necessitated agriculture, a steady, readily available supply of foodstuffs, which of course led immediately thereafter to the invention of beer to wash it all down. Then paper for rolling was invented...and the rest is history. QED

[TalBlack]

Observation and inference, I should think, would only be necessary to move men to organize the growing of things.

Some wild fruit or something such as a pumpkin producing growth as a result of rotting away in one spot would be all it would take to fire the mind of any reasonably intelligent person. I’d bet that the degree of order imposed upon farming (and the resulting yields) might vary more than the fact of farming itself coming along.

[Citizen Tom Paine]

What about trans-Pacific early contacts? Perhaps they did not evolve independently.

[okie01]

"...why people all suddenly turned to farming required a global explanation."

For the life of me, I can't see why a "global explanation" is necessary.

Take four groups of people at random. Place them in four different locations. Confront them all with the same problem (in this case, food supply).

Would you not expect them all to arrive at the same optimum solution?

Because, if they didn't, wouldn't they starve and die out?

[SunkenCiv]

Squash grown 10,000 years ago in Peru
Yahoo | Thu Jun 28, 6:09 PM ET | by Randolph E. Schmid, AP Science Writer
Posted on 06/28/2007 9:39:04 PM EDT by Fred Nerks
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1858039/posts

Andean Crops Cultivated Almost 10,000 Years Ago
Discover Magazine | 1-15-2008 | Michael Abrams
Posted on 01/17/2008 6:55:35 PM EST by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1955416/posts