After two million years of charognage, of hunting, fishing and of gathering, the mankind, towards - 12.000 years, starts to modify his relation with nature. "invents" agriculture and starts to practise the breeding. Entirely positive evolution? Not so simple...
Jean-Paul Demoule and Jean Guilaine are respectively a professor of European protohistory to the Paris-I university and professor emeritus with the College of France.
You intervene both with the international conference on the "Neolithic revolution", which is held from October 2 in the City of sciences and industry, in Paris. Why, according to you, the Homo kind it decided sédentariser ( himself ) and to domesticate the plants and the animals? An event which changed the course of the human history.
Jean Guilaine. For a long time, one explained this process by a constraint of the natural environment, which would have pushed the men to seek means increased to feed. In fact, the answer is not materialist, and the economy was not a reason but rather a consequence of this revolution. It is not the field which fixed the man, but the latter which was fixed. Why? Because at a given time of its history, it sought other ways of life. It is a cultural choice, an initiative which could be carried out only in one favorable environment where existed species domesticables.
Jean-Paul Demoule. Between - 10.000 and - 5.000, one notes a disconcerting coincidence: for this period, several hearths of neolithisation, independent from/to each other, appeared initially in the Middle East (corn, barley, sheep, goat, pig and ox), then in Mexico and in the Andes (corn, marrow, bean and LAMA), in China (millet, rice, pig, chicken and ox) and in New Guinea (taro - a tuber - and banana).
It is undoubtedly the result of a very complex alchemy and an ideological catch which gave to the man the idea to take the control of its nutritive resources. Because Homo sapiens has, since fifty thousand to a hundred and thousand years, the same psychomotor capacities. But for it only, the sedentarisation does not suffice.
J. G. Indeed, certain hunters-gatherers remained sedentary during very a long time in the north of Eurasia, Japan and on the north-western coast of the United States and Canada. It was often related to the presence of watery resources (fish, shells, marine mammals), to which were added hunting and some agricultural experiments. In Japan, the culture of Jomon spread out since - 12.000 until the beginning of our era. But these hunters-gatherers, who knew the pottery, did not rock in the Neolithic era.
Isn't the oldest area, most studied and thus most known that of the Middle East, in the zone of the fertile Crescent?
J. G. The Middle East constitutes the roots of the European Neolithic era. Many food species that one finds on our premises come from the Middle East, in a zone which extends from the Sinai to south-east from Turkey. The neolithisation was a very slow process there, since the first tests of culture of cereals took place towards - 9.500, the first domestic forms appearing thousand years later. The domestic animals, as for them, go back to - 8.000, and fully agricultural villages of - 7.500. It was a policy small steps.
J. - P. D. First Neolithic culture in the Middle East east that of Natoufiens (- 12.000 with - 10.000), of the name of a river, Wadi El-Natouf, which is in Israel. Installed in round huts, they were delivered to the systematic barley savages and corn gathering ( blé et orge sauvages ). The grains were stored in pit-silos and allowed a family of four or five people to remain most of the year. They lived in an environment where pushed wild almond trees and pistachio trees, with the presence of goats and wild sheep, as well as oxen and wild boars. They started by domesticating the dog there is - 10.000 years. But not for food reasons. It was a meeting of interests.
How, from the Middle East, the Neolithic revolution it diffused towards other areas, in particular towards Europe?
J. - P. D. Towards - 7.000, one notes the presence of very large villages in the Middle East joining together several thousands of inhabitants. Then, towards - 6.000, this tendency disappears, and the Neolithic era diffuses then towards Turkey, the Central Asia and Europe, which will accomodate the Neolithic techniques by two main roads: Mediterranean coasts and the Danube. It will take two thousand years so that all European space is filled to the Atlantic, towards - 4.500. At this period, the farmers feel the obligation to reorganize and make profits of productivity. They will invent the animal haulage (with the horse and ox), the wheel, the swing-plough to work the heavy grounds, then the metallurgy. It is the technical answer.
J. G. In this process, Africa is a little separate, because the neolithisation was carried out there in two times. Towards - 6.000, people of the Middle East arrived at the doors of the Nile and Egypt adopted domestic animals and plants resulting from Asian South-west. Then the African continent gave rise to a later indigenous agriculture, not before - 2.000, with the domestication of the millet, African rice and the sorghum.
J. - P. D. There is also the social answer, which constitutes the true rupture. Towards - 4.500, the society starts to be treated on a hierarchical basis with the birth of an elite. In the necropolis of Varna (Bulgaria), one discovered several hundreds of tombs. Some contain only bones, while others contain also objects of prestige: gold jewels and sceptres, as well as flint blades, long 45 cm, which do not have a utility goal. On the Atlantic coast, one finds the same process with the megaliths. In Brittany, for example, the elite is buried with ornaments and long some 40 cm length green axes, whose stone comes from the Viso mount, in the Alps. There is a mobilization of part of the social body to produce useless objects and of prestige and the installation of sales networks. Also signs of religious ideological activity appear, with the realization of large sanctuaries.
What happen does habitat, urbanization?
J. G. At the beginning, in the Middle East, between - 12.000 and - 9.000, the men start by building circular houses arranged in pit, then quadrangular houses built out of various materials: drink, stone, mud, brick moulded and dried with the sun. By opposition, in Europe, the large Danubian house which exists towards - 5.500 has nothing to do with this model. They are houses with framework out of wooden, of which the length varies from 10 to 40 meters. Much later, in the Middle East, between - 3.500 and - 2.500, the regrouping of the populations will result in the formation of the first cities (Uruk) and the first city-States (Sumer).
The control of agriculture made it possible to ensure the mankind the safety in its subsistence. But one often says that it revealed social inequalities, as well as violence, because the social organization becomes more constraining...
J. G. By the fact, the conflicts are former to the Neolithic era. One discovered in Sudan, towards - 12.000, and close to the Danube, towards - 7000, that there had been raids between populations of hunters-gatherers. Because the skins are sifted arrows. But the Neolithic era did not arrange the things, because one could plunder the reserves. Moreover, the war made it possible to be developed and the vigorous warrior could occupy an enviable social place. Gradually an ideology of the warrior developed.
In Europe, this tendency is manifest as of - 4.000 and it is posted on the statues menhirs. The man shows himself there like a warrior holder of elements of authority. While the woman is represented under a more natural aspect, biological: it exhibe its breast and of the collars. The male domination has a long history!
J. - P. D. With the Neolithic era, one attends the emergence of violence between rich person and the poor and communities. One notes the existence, towards - 3.500, in the Middle East of traces of stress, diseases, of epidemics, as well as problems of supply. Gradually, the villages are installed on the heights and are strengthened. Towards the end of the Neolithic era, which one locates towards - 3.000 in the Middle East and in Europe starting from the age of bronze towards - 2.000, one attends the progressive control of the bronze, which results from the association of copper and tin. What makes it possible to produce weapons, swords and axes. One will start an arms race, because one also will invent the helmet and the armour.
Should the neolithisation be regretted?
J. G. Not, because this process brought food safety, created surpluses, transformed alive nature. But the man canted the message of the Neolithic era. It became a wolf for its own species, whereas it could have created a more equitable world. I do not show by the Neolithic era, but I think that it is the man who badly turned.
The report is severe...
J. - P. D. Nowadays, it well is seen, the inequalities are considerable. And today, whereas the agricultural capacities could nourish everyone on planet, nearly a billion of human are in a state of malnutrition and ten thousand children die each day for lack of hygiene and malnutrition.
Le Monde yesterday
Jean-Paul Demoule and Jean Guilaine are respectively a professor of European protohistory to the Paris-I university and professor emeritus with the College of France.
You intervene both with the international conference on the "Neolithic revolution", which is held from October 2 in the City of sciences and industry, in Paris. Why, according to you, the Homo kind it decided sédentariser ( himself ) and to domesticate the plants and the animals? An event which changed the course of the human history.
Jean Guilaine. For a long time, one explained this process by a constraint of the natural environment, which would have pushed the men to seek means increased to feed. In fact, the answer is not materialist, and the economy was not a reason but rather a consequence of this revolution. It is not the field which fixed the man, but the latter which was fixed. Why? Because at a given time of its history, it sought other ways of life. It is a cultural choice, an initiative which could be carried out only in one favorable environment where existed species domesticables.
Jean-Paul Demoule. Between - 10.000 and - 5.000, one notes a disconcerting coincidence: for this period, several hearths of neolithisation, independent from/to each other, appeared initially in the Middle East (corn, barley, sheep, goat, pig and ox), then in Mexico and in the Andes (corn, marrow, bean and LAMA), in China (millet, rice, pig, chicken and ox) and in New Guinea (taro - a tuber - and banana).
It is undoubtedly the result of a very complex alchemy and an ideological catch which gave to the man the idea to take the control of its nutritive resources. Because Homo sapiens has, since fifty thousand to a hundred and thousand years, the same psychomotor capacities. But for it only, the sedentarisation does not suffice.
J. G. Indeed, certain hunters-gatherers remained sedentary during very a long time in the north of Eurasia, Japan and on the north-western coast of the United States and Canada. It was often related to the presence of watery resources (fish, shells, marine mammals), to which were added hunting and some agricultural experiments. In Japan, the culture of Jomon spread out since - 12.000 until the beginning of our era. But these hunters-gatherers, who knew the pottery, did not rock in the Neolithic era.
Isn't the oldest area, most studied and thus most known that of the Middle East, in the zone of the fertile Crescent?
J. G. The Middle East constitutes the roots of the European Neolithic era. Many food species that one finds on our premises come from the Middle East, in a zone which extends from the Sinai to south-east from Turkey. The neolithisation was a very slow process there, since the first tests of culture of cereals took place towards - 9.500, the first domestic forms appearing thousand years later. The domestic animals, as for them, go back to - 8.000, and fully agricultural villages of - 7.500. It was a policy small steps.
J. - P. D. First Neolithic culture in the Middle East east that of Natoufiens (- 12.000 with - 10.000), of the name of a river, Wadi El-Natouf, which is in Israel. Installed in round huts, they were delivered to the systematic barley savages and corn gathering ( blé et orge sauvages ). The grains were stored in pit-silos and allowed a family of four or five people to remain most of the year. They lived in an environment where pushed wild almond trees and pistachio trees, with the presence of goats and wild sheep, as well as oxen and wild boars. They started by domesticating the dog there is - 10.000 years. But not for food reasons. It was a meeting of interests.
How, from the Middle East, the Neolithic revolution it diffused towards other areas, in particular towards Europe?
J. - P. D. Towards - 7.000, one notes the presence of very large villages in the Middle East joining together several thousands of inhabitants. Then, towards - 6.000, this tendency disappears, and the Neolithic era diffuses then towards Turkey, the Central Asia and Europe, which will accomodate the Neolithic techniques by two main roads: Mediterranean coasts and the Danube. It will take two thousand years so that all European space is filled to the Atlantic, towards - 4.500. At this period, the farmers feel the obligation to reorganize and make profits of productivity. They will invent the animal haulage (with the horse and ox), the wheel, the swing-plough to work the heavy grounds, then the metallurgy. It is the technical answer.
J. G. In this process, Africa is a little separate, because the neolithisation was carried out there in two times. Towards - 6.000, people of the Middle East arrived at the doors of the Nile and Egypt adopted domestic animals and plants resulting from Asian South-west. Then the African continent gave rise to a later indigenous agriculture, not before - 2.000, with the domestication of the millet, African rice and the sorghum.
J. - P. D. There is also the social answer, which constitutes the true rupture. Towards - 4.500, the society starts to be treated on a hierarchical basis with the birth of an elite. In the necropolis of Varna (Bulgaria), one discovered several hundreds of tombs. Some contain only bones, while others contain also objects of prestige: gold jewels and sceptres, as well as flint blades, long 45 cm, which do not have a utility goal. On the Atlantic coast, one finds the same process with the megaliths. In Brittany, for example, the elite is buried with ornaments and long some 40 cm length green axes, whose stone comes from the Viso mount, in the Alps. There is a mobilization of part of the social body to produce useless objects and of prestige and the installation of sales networks. Also signs of religious ideological activity appear, with the realization of large sanctuaries.
What happen does habitat, urbanization?
J. G. At the beginning, in the Middle East, between - 12.000 and - 9.000, the men start by building circular houses arranged in pit, then quadrangular houses built out of various materials: drink, stone, mud, brick moulded and dried with the sun. By opposition, in Europe, the large Danubian house which exists towards - 5.500 has nothing to do with this model. They are houses with framework out of wooden, of which the length varies from 10 to 40 meters. Much later, in the Middle East, between - 3.500 and - 2.500, the regrouping of the populations will result in the formation of the first cities (Uruk) and the first city-States (Sumer).
The control of agriculture made it possible to ensure the mankind the safety in its subsistence. But one often says that it revealed social inequalities, as well as violence, because the social organization becomes more constraining...
J. G. By the fact, the conflicts are former to the Neolithic era. One discovered in Sudan, towards - 12.000, and close to the Danube, towards - 7000, that there had been raids between populations of hunters-gatherers. Because the skins are sifted arrows. But the Neolithic era did not arrange the things, because one could plunder the reserves. Moreover, the war made it possible to be developed and the vigorous warrior could occupy an enviable social place. Gradually an ideology of the warrior developed.
In Europe, this tendency is manifest as of - 4.000 and it is posted on the statues menhirs. The man shows himself there like a warrior holder of elements of authority. While the woman is represented under a more natural aspect, biological: it exhibe its breast and of the collars. The male domination has a long history!
J. - P. D. With the Neolithic era, one attends the emergence of violence between rich person and the poor and communities. One notes the existence, towards - 3.500, in the Middle East of traces of stress, diseases, of epidemics, as well as problems of supply. Gradually, the villages are installed on the heights and are strengthened. Towards the end of the Neolithic era, which one locates towards - 3.000 in the Middle East and in Europe starting from the age of bronze towards - 2.000, one attends the progressive control of the bronze, which results from the association of copper and tin. What makes it possible to produce weapons, swords and axes. One will start an arms race, because one also will invent the helmet and the armour.
Should the neolithisation be regretted?
J. G. Not, because this process brought food safety, created surpluses, transformed alive nature. But the man canted the message of the Neolithic era. It became a wolf for its own species, whereas it could have created a more equitable world. I do not show by the Neolithic era, but I think that it is the man who badly turned.
The report is severe...
J. - P. D. Nowadays, it well is seen, the inequalities are considerable. And today, whereas the agricultural capacities could nourish everyone on planet, nearly a billion of human are in a state of malnutrition and ten thousand children die each day for lack of hygiene and malnutrition.
Le Monde yesterday
