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 [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________
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