Why was the Neolithic Revolution critical for the rise of civilization?
Neolithic = New Stone Age, to contrast it with the Paleolithic (Old Stone) Age The event that generally separates the two eras is the agricultural revolution. For the first time, humans were producing their own food crops instead of merely hunting and gathering their food from their environment. This revolution caused tremendous change – the building of permanent homes in villages, the transition to plant fibers instead of animal skins for clothing, etc. But the most important change that farming brought was the creation of a surplus of food. With a surplus of food, societies were free to devote some of their manpower and energy and time toward tasks that were not directly related to subsistence. People could specialize in jobs (creating pottery, making baskets, weaving cloth, creating tools, etc.) and could then trade their products for the food grown by farmers. This trade could also be carried out with other societies. Later on, people were freed up to perform other tasks: run the g
