Continue your Advanced Placement study of world history with this presentation over the development of complex societies. AP World History students and teachers are supported by links to documents and websites to deepen understanding of the curriculum.

1. The Neolithic Revolution &
Early Agricultural Societies
AP World History
Key Concept 1.2
Technological and Environmental
Transformations, to c. 600 B.C.E.

2. Key Concepts
Each key concept is designed to allow learners
to identify patterns that can be used in further
studies of world history.
Begin to identify
themes through
which patterns can
be identified.
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3. Questions
Please do not limit yourself to these
questions. If they raise more
questions, write those down and
investigate.
Activities
This presentation has a few articles
as well as other opportunities to
think more about the implications of
the development of early societies.

4. Questions
● What were the long-term demographic,
social, political, and economic effects of the
Neolithic Revolution? [1.2.I]
● How did pastoralism and agriculture
transform human societies? [1.2.II]
● How did pastoral societies resemble or differ
from early agricultural societies? [1.2.II]
● What new forms social organization
developed from the development of
agricultural and pastoral societies? [1.2.II]

5. Neolithic Revolution
In response to warming climates at the end of the last Ice
Age, from about 10,000 years ago, some groups adapted
to the environment in new ways, while others remained
hunter-foragers.
Settled agriculture appeared in several different parts of the
world. The switch to agriculture created a more reliable, but
not necessarily more diversified, food supply.
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6. Worst Mistake?
Read the article by Jared Diamond
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7. Where? How? Why?
Fertile Crescent
Possibly as a response to climatic
change, permanent agricultural
villages emerged first in the lands of
the eastern Mediterranean.
Agriculture emerged at different times in Mesopotamia, the Nile River
Valley and Sub-Saharan Africa, the Indus River Valley, the Yellow River
or Huang He Valley, Papua New Guinea, Mesoamerica, and the Andes.

8. Agriculturalists?
1. Agricultural surplus and trade
2. Labor specialization
3. Urban centers
4. Social stratification
5. Gender inequality
6. Organized religion
7. Plow and irrigation technology
8. Spoken and written language
9. Bureaucracy and military organization
10. Epics, myths, monumental architecture
Click or touch for
article

9. ● Like agriculturalists, pastoralists tended to be more
socially stratified than hunter-foragers.
● Because pastoralists were mobile, they rarely
accumulated large amounts of material
● possessions, which would have been a hindrance
when they changed grazing areas.
● The pastoralists’ mobility allowed them to become an
important conduit for technological change as they
interacted with settled populations.
Developed in the
grasslands of
Afro-Eurasia
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website
Pastoralism?

10. Crop and Animal Domestication
Different crops or animals were domesticated in
the various core regions, depending on
available local flora and fauna.
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11. Labor Adjustments
Agricultural communities had to work
cooperatively to clear land and create the water
control systems needed for crop production.

12. Environmental Effects
• Use of water resources
• Clearing of land
• Use of building materials
• Roads
• Use of fuel materials
• Animals, disease
• Mining

13. Let’s put it
together.

14. Food Supply and Society
● new classes of
artisans and
warriors
● development of
elites
Surpluses of food and other goods led to
specialization of labor

15. Technological Innovations
● Pottery
● Plows
● Woven textiles
● Metallurgy
● Wheels and wheeled vehicles
How did these technological
innovations lead to improvements
in agricultural production, trade,
and transportation?

16. Social Organization
Knowledge?
Skills?
Tools?
Wealth?
Impacted by

17. Social Organization

18. What did all of this mean for women?
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19. Continuity and Change Over Time
Analyzing what changes and what stays the
same during and among historical periods is a
required skill for APWH.

20. Foraging
1.Food subsistence achieved
through hunting / gathering.
2. “Jacks of all Trades.”
3.Nomadic.
4.Limited social stratification.
5.Gender division of labor, but
gender equality.
6.Animist beliefs.
7.Tools: stone axes, flint arrow
heads, bone needles.
8.Spoken language.
9.Kinship groups/tribal bands.
10.Cave paintings, carved
objects, Venus Figurines.
Civilization
1.Agricultural Surplus & trade
2.Labor Specialization
3.Urban
4.Social Stratification
5.Gender inequality
6.Organized Religion
7.Technology including plow
and irrigation
8.Spoken & written language
9.Bureaucracy & military
organization
10.Epics & myths, monumental
architecture
What changed and what stayed the same?

21. Brought to you by ...
Special thanks to Bill Strickland, Mr. Freeman, Mr. Millhouse,
and Jay Harmon
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