Why are the origins of agriculture so difficult to determine?
Agriculture began so long ago, people weren’t keeping written records. There weren’t systems of writing that long ago! So all we have to go on is what we can find leftover from those ancient people. Archaeologists will dig someplace where they think ancient people lived, and when they find something, they try to figure out what it was used for, or why it was there. But the food that these people ate isn’t still going to be there after thousands of years, because food rots quickly. So we are stuck looking at rocks that were made into tools, and other things that could survive for this long. If someone gets lucky, they might find seeds that never sprouted, and that could be evidence that the people were farmers. By the way, you might have more luck with this question in the Anthropology section – click Social Science, then Anthropology.
