Agricultural Revolution

Prior to 17,000 YA, foraging humans had survived two distinct ice ages. These fluctuating and harsh climatic conditions made it difficult for a stationary life style to be based on agriculture as a food source. The foraging strategy of the hunter-gatherer was a better approach to surviving a changing environment. The warming of the Earth at the end of the Pleistocene Epoch 11,700 YA and an increasingly stable climate, however, precipitated change. At this time, warmer temperatures meant more oceanic evaporation, which in turn, increased rainfall, allowing forests and grasses to flourish. Temperatures became similar to those of today.