The Neolithic Revolution was not a clever choice anybody made; it was a trade nobody negotiated. Push the three sliders that actually changed between 12,000 and 5,000 BCE — how much food you grow, how permanently you stay put, how many animals you keep — and watch what each one gives you and what it takes away. Then check the bottom panel: the community that wins the population race is almost never the healthiest one.
Set up a community9500–5000 BCE
Start from a real site, then drag the sliders to see which lever is doing the damage.
0%
Wild gathering at 0%. Full dependence on emmer, barley and lentils at 100%.
0
0 = mobile camps moved each season. 100 = mudbrick houses packed wall-to-wall, no streets, as at Çatalhöyük.
none
Sheep, goat, pig, cattle — four of the world’s most useful domesticable mammals happened to live in this one region.