From hunter to farmer: change over time

From hunter to farmer: what changed, advantages and disadvantages, and how we learn about prehistory. Read one part at a time and tap “I know this”. Then test yourself in the quiz.

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	Hunter-gatherers	Farmers
Living	Move around; temporary camps	Stay; lasting huts of poles, mud and thatch, and storage pits
Food	Varied, from nature	More food per piece of land, but less varied
Possessions	Few	More: they could store things
Animals	Hunted game	Cattle and other livestock
Tools	Stone (Stone Age)	Iron, e.g. the iron hoe (Iron Age)

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Farmers had to work harder and longer and plan ahead, because crops take months to grow; they had to know when to plant.
More food made larger families possible; as communities grew, people began doing different kinds of work.
Some groups kept hunting, because some areas were too dry for planting. A herding group keeps livestock and moves. Farmers wore clothes of animal skins.

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Remember this: your summary

Hunter-gatherers came first; farmers stay put, hunters move around.
The change to farming is the farming revolution; it eventually made towns and cities possible.
Prehistoric times are before writing; we learn about them from remains and oral tradition.
An archaeologist studies the past by digging; an archaeological site must stay undisturbed, because the layers tell the story.
A potsherd’s style shows who made it and when.

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Memory trick

Stone → Iron: Stone Age people hunted, gathered or herded; Iron Age people farmed crops and used iron tools.

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Important words

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