This chapter deals with the biggest change in human behavior since our brains got large. The origin of agriculture is a remarkable, global phenomenon that is documented in different places on different continents between 11,000 and 4,000 years ago. This is the blink of an eye in the course of human prehistory. Yet the changes initiated were staggering in their consequence and we, as a species, are still adjusting to this new way of life.

Agriculture is a way of obtaining food that involves domesticated plants and animals. But the transition to farming is much more than simple herding and cultivation. It also entails major, long-term changes in the structure and organization of the societies that adopt this new way of life, as well as a totally new relationship with the environment. While hunter-gatherers largely live off the land in an extensive fashion, generally exploiting a diversity of resources over a broad area, farmers intensively utilize a smaller portion of the landscape and create a milieu that suits their needs. With the transition to agriculture, humans began to truly master their environment.

Primary centers for domestication were in Southwest Asia, East Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, Central America, South America, and North America. The earliest known domesticates — wheat, barley, peas, lentils, pigs, goats, sheep, and cattle — appeared in the Old World, in Southwest Asia, between the eastern Mediterranean Sea and Afghanistan, at the end of the Pleistocene. Many other plants and animals — such as bread wheat, rye, figs, olives, grapes, and flax — were gradually added to this list. The origins of agriculture in Southwest Asia are discussed in detail in this chapter because the archaeology is well known, and the process of domestication may have taken place somewhat earlier than elsewhere.

In Southwest Asia, we examine one site from before the transition to agriculture, ‘Ain Mallaha, and two early Neolithic communities, Abu Hureyra and Jericho, to see the changes that took place. Catalhöyük, an enormous early Neolithic settlement, documents the consequences of the Neolithic revolution in terms of completely new ways of inhabiting the world. From Southwest Asia, the tour goes to South Asia and the site of Mehrgahr, an early Neolithic community in Pakistan. In East Asia, the sites of Ban-po-ts’un in northern China and Khok Phanom Di in coast Thailand provide some sense of the Neolithic in this part of the world. There are at least three primary centers of domestication in the New World as well: Mesoamerica, South America, and North America. The important early agricultural sites at Guilá Naquitz and in the Tehuacan Valley provide the evidence from Mexico. Excavations at Guitarrero Cave, high in the Andes, give us a glimpse of the process of domestication in South America.

In addition to these important sites, the chapter focuses on the plants and animals that were domesticated along with a description of the fields of archaeozoology and paleoethnobotany. We try to provide some impressions of how scientists determine that wild plants or animals have been domesticated. The recent investigations of early goat domestication provide a good example of the study of herding. Early domestication of rye at Abu Hureyra on the Euphrates in Syria documents a novel approach to documenting plant domestication. We also discuss relevant technological developments in this chapter, specifically ceramic and metal production that happen quickly following the origins of agriculture.