[E&E seminars] MIT Seminar on Environmental and Agricultural History, 12-5-2008

[Margo Collett]

MIT Seminar on Environmental and

Agricultural History



“Neolithic Emergence: the Origin of Agriculture in the Near East”



Steven Mithen

Professor of Early Prehistory, University of Reading



The origin of farming was the most important event in the whole of  
human history – bringing to an end three million years of hunting and  
gathering and providing the basis for towns, trade, states and  
empires. The Levantine corridor – modern day Southern Turkey, Lebanon,  
Syria, Israel, Palestine and Jordan – has long been recognized as the  
earliest centre for the origin of farming. Recently excavated sites  
show that the origin of farming was not only related to the  
environmental changes associated with the early Holocene but also  
closely related to changing ideological views about the world and new  
forms of society. This seminar will review the evidence from several  
excavations (especially Prof. Mithen’s work in southern Jordan)  
focusing on what they tell us about the origin of farming in the Levant.


Friday, December 5, 2008

2:30 to 4:30 pm

Building E51 Room 095

Corner of Wadsworth and Amherst Streets, Cambridge





Sponsored by MIT’s History Faculty and the Program in Science,  
Technology, and Society. For more information or to be put on the  
mailing list, please contact Margo Collett at mcollett at mit.edu. 
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