Question

The earliest site where human civilization and crop cultivation started was presumably
A)Around Caspian and Mediterranean seas
B)Around river Nile
C)Chinese river valley
D)All of the above

Answer 1

Hint: During the Neolithic Period, agriculture possibly started until around 9000 BCE when polished stone tools were created and the last ice age ended. Historians have many hypotheses as to why certain cultures have moved from hunting and foraging to settled farming.

Complete answer:
There was nothing natural or unavoidable about agriculture's growth. Since plant cultivation needs more labor than hunting and harvesting, it was believed that humans reluctantly and steadily gave up their former forms of life during the stone age. But between around 8000 and 3500 B.C., for their survival, growing numbers of humans switched to reliance on cultured crops and domesticated animals. Over time, their tools and capabilities have evolved enough to cultivate communities in order to sustain cities of over 1,000 inhabitants. Agricultural societies in the Middle East could sustain enough numbers of non-cultivating experts by 3500 B.C. to give birth to the first civilization.

While anatomically modern human beings have been around for around 200,000 years, our minds, language and culture, even by natural selection, may have continued to evolve and change. It is probable that we first had the right combination of environmental, behavioural, and cultural growth to introduce agriculture just 10,000 to 20,000 years ago.

Hence, the correct answer is option (A)

Note: A branch of farming, called pastoralism, started at the same time as plant production. Pastoralism is the domestication of livestock such as goats, horses, and cattle and herding them. Pastoralists herded livestock in areas where plant production proved difficult due to rugged terrain or conditions that were inhospitable to plants.