The simultaneous emergence of farming across the globe has long fascinated experts, with scientists still unsure how or why ancient humans adopted this revolutionary technology around the same time on multiple continents.
Around the world, on separate continents that had no contact with each other, multiple groups of ancient humans invented Agriculture“>farming[/highlight] more or less simultaneously — and scientists still don’t know how or why.
Why Did Our Ancestors Adopt Farming?
Known to archaeologists and anthropologists as the Neolithic Revolution, the discovery of this historical head-scratcher is by no means new. Nevertheless, it continues to fascinate experts like Michael Marshall, an author at New Scientist, who pondered this phenomenon in a new piece about this quantum leap in human development.
The Neolithic Revolution marked a significant shift in human history, occurring around 10,000 years ago.
It was characterized by the transition from nomadic hunter-gatherer societies to settled agricultural communities.
This change allowed for population growth, social complexity, and the emergence of specialized labor.
The development of agriculture led to the domestication of plants and animals, resulting in a more stable food supply.
As a result, humans were able to settle in one place, leading to the establishment of permanent villages and cities.
A Global Phenomenon
As a 2023 PNAS paper cited by Marshall suggests, the things scientists do know about this incredible happenstance are what make it so captivating. After the great ice sheets age of the Pleistocene Epoch began to retreat around 11,700 years ago, humans who had gradually migrated to at least four continents — Africa, Eurasia, and North and South America — moved from hunting and gathering to domesticating plants.
In as many as 24 separate sites of origin, people began farming within a few thousand years of each other, with no means of contact between them. This phenomenon has sparked intense interest among researchers across various scientific disciplines.
The global simultaneous emergence of farming is a complex and still-debated topic.
Archaeological evidence suggests that farming developed independently in several regions, including the Fertile Crescent, 'East Asia' , and 'Mesoamerica' .
The earliest known evidence of farming dates back to around 10,000 BCE in the Fertile Crescent.
This period saw the domestication of plants such as wheat, barley, and legumes, as well as animals like sheep, goats, and cattle.
In 'East Asia' , rice cultivation emerged around 8,000 BCE, while in 'Mesoamerica' , maize (corn) was domesticated around 7,000 BCE.
The simultaneous emergence of farming in these regions likely resulted from similar environmental pressures and the availability of suitable crops.
Theories Abound, but Answers Elude
Across scientific disciplines, researchers have long been trying to figure out why this leap in evolutionary behavior occurred with so many groups simultaneously. Anthropologist Melinda Zeder, the senior scientist emeritus at the Smithsonian Institute, told PNAS in 2023 that some of her colleagues even argue that humans may have been ‘tricked into it by plants‘ — but still, there’s nothing near consensus about why, exactly, our ancestors all picked up Agriculture“>farming[/highlight] around the same time.
In his more recent musings, Marshall pointed out that agriculture may have emerged as a response to any number of external factors: food shortages, climate change, or even sociopolitical reasons as evidenced by research suggesting that a rudimentary form of property rights may have begun around the same time that farming emerged.
A Hypothesis on Neanderthals
He then went on to hypothesize something that hasn’t been studied outright before: that Neanderthals, or any other early hominin groups, may have ‘tried their hands at gardening, if only in a small way.‘ If they were lacking some crucial cognitive or physical capability to enable gardening, Marshall wondered, what was it? And if they did enjoy tending their own small gardens, that would have given our species a head start on creating full-blown farms.
Research suggests that Neanderthals, a subspecies of archaic humans, likely had some exposure to early farming practices.
Archaeological evidence from the Swabian Jura region in Germany indicates that Neanderthals may have interacted with early farmers around 40,000 years ago.
However, there is no conclusive evidence that they actively participated in farming activities.
Instead, it's possible that they scavenged crops or hunted domesticated animals.
The discovery of a Neanderthal grave containing the remains of aurochs and red deer suggests that they may have had some knowledge of animal husbandry.
The Enigma Remains Unsolved
Even if Neanderthals did make early attempts at agriculture, however, it wouldn’t explain why subsequent evolutionary groups wouldn’t have immediately followed suit, or why there was suddenly a global explosion of farming activity more than 100,000 years after the first known deforestation projects took place in modern-day Germany.
Like many worthwhile mysteries, this one doesn’t have a neatly-packaged answer — and unless something unprecedented about our ancestors’ agricultural practices is uncovered, it may never be explained at all.
