From the Stone Age to Early Civilizations: Religion, Farming, and Cities

Notes

• Subtopic: Stone Age Religion The development of religious beliefs and practices shows that Stone Age people became more complex over time. Some communities buried their dead with jewelry and decorated clothes, suggesting they were trying to explain the mysteries of birth and death. These beliefs and practices may have been the beginnings of religion. • Subtopic: The Transition to Farming Around 18,000 years ago, some Stone Age communities began farming to feed themselves rather than relying on hunting and gathering. This development marked the end of the Paleolithic Era and the beginning of the Neolithic Era, or New Stone Age. The shift from hunting and gathering to farming was so significant that historians call it the Neolithic Agricultural Revolution. • Subtopic: The Agricultural Revolution A revolution is a complete change in ways of thinking, working, and living. Many groups of people learned to modify or change the environment to obtain more food. People used fire to clear land. Grazing animals came to eat the grasses that grew where there had once been trees and bushes. Over time, people started to domesticate plants and animals, or change them to make them more useful to ...