11.1 Early Farming

Question 0

First farmers were likely to use what method?

Answer 0

Slash and burn

Question 1

Why did early humans take up farming?

Answer 1

-Allowed communities to settle and villages to grow: people could become specialised in trades=more advanced culture could develop

• Can support a larger population
• Allowed people to settle in areas where there wasn’t a plentiful supply of food

Question 2

Slash and burn meant?

Answer 2

Choose an area of forest
First killed the trees by ‘ringing’ them with axes
Chop them down and burn them
Stumps would gradually rot
Crops could then be grown among the dead roots

Question 3

After 20 years the soil fertility would have been lost, and they would move on to a new?

Answer 3

Area

Question 4

After a period of time they would have returned to previously cleared areas. This would have been the beginning of?

Answer 4

Permanent fields

Question 5

Once the skills of crop rotation, using manure and compost were learned, their settlements would have become?

Answer 5

Permanent

Question 6

Permanent fields would have meant that farmers were able to ?

Answer 6

Produce surplus food - trade

Question 7

There are several ways for scientists to find out whether the animals were…

Answer 7

Hunted or farmed

Question 8

Evidence for hunted animals are:

Answer 8

Animals killed can be any age, tended to be weaker animals: many older and younger animals

Question 9

Evidence for farmed animals :

Answer 9

Tend to be killed as soon as they have reached adult size: if the remains of animal bones show that most of the animals are adult - sure they were farmed

Question 10

Domesticated animals differ in skeletal structure from wild animals, this is because early farmers would have chosen animals with?

Answer 10

Particular traits and were SELECTIVELY BREEDING the animals

Question 11

The bones of farmed animals have an altered mineral crystal structure. This means that the minerals in their bones would be deposited in a different way, so that…

Answer 11

Microscopic analysis of the bones can be made to determine the differences

Question 12

Pollen analysis can show where crops were grown for food. Pollen analysis shows in crops that most of the pollen is of the…

Answer 12

Same type

Question 13

Pollen analysis also shows that the pollen found will mainly come from …

Answer 13

Wheat and other cereals

Question 14

Age at which animals died is a key factor in working out whether animals were hunted or farmed. Many animals were killed…

Answer 14

Young and only a small number of older animals were kept - so that milk could be used for animal
Consumption

Question 15

On the other hand if animals are kept mainly for meat production, many of them will be…

Answer 15

Killed as soon as they’re fully grown

Question 16

Age can be calculated in 2 ways:

Answer 16

Teeth

Limb bones

Question 17

Teeth can be used by scientists as they estimate the…

Answer 17

Ages at which these deciduous and adult teeth erupt in different species, and then use this info to work out the ages

Also teeth gradually wear down - leaves patterns on their teeth which can be examined under a microscope, these patterns can be used to calculate an animal’s age when it died

Question 18

Limb bones are so used as all infants are born with the ends of the limb bones detached from the main shaft. This allows the bone to grow in length, and the bones only fuse together when the animal is fully grown:

Answer 18

Bone fusion takes place at a specific age

By studying the state of fusion of the bone, scientists can determine the age at death of an animal