VOICEOVER:
Around 8,000 years before Christ (BC) something happened that would totally change humanity. That's when people started farming. People realised that seeds from wheat and barley as well as other grains could be sown so that new seeds and grain would grow. Short term, things continued as usual. People farmed at different spots and they continued to hunt and gather, but would eventually move on to a new place. But after a few thousand years, farming led to people becoming settlers. Around the same time as people started growing more and more crops, they also started domesticating the animals that they had previously hunted. And once people started becoming settled, small family compounds grew into larger villages.
VOICEOVER:
Human settlements led to huge changes in some parts of the world. And between 4,000 and 2000 years BC, some advanced cultures started emerging. The word culture comes from the Latin word for cultivation. Advanced cultures are structured societies with different professions, laws, and some kind of leader. You can also use the term civilization. Water was a very important part in humans' ability to settle down and eventually form civilizations. Access to water was a common feature in all of the early civilizations that archeologists and historians have researched. In these civilizations, people learned how to take advantage of the river's waters, and seasonal floods. That's why they're called river valley cultures. The rivers would provide fertile land, access to fresh water for the population in their cattle, and the possibility to fish. They built ditches, canals, and dams that allowed the farmers to water their fields, even during dry spells. Watering fields required a lot of cooperation, and scientists believe that this cooperation was what made the society so well organised. Water would also provide a transport route and enable contact with other societies. Sometimes this contact would lead to conflicts and wars, but it also allowed for trade between different civilizations.
VOICEOVER:
In these civilizations, the surplus of food led to the creation of many new professions like potters, merchants, priests, tax collectors, and soldiers.
VOICEOVER:
People learned how to use metals like copper, tin, silver, and gold. Many technological advances were also developed like inventions, mathematics, and the written language. The emergence of civilizations changed the core of society. People started to divide into social groups. At the top of society, people were living in extreme luxury. At the bottom, you would find serfs and slaves. The relationship between men and women slightly varied between cultures. The men would usually control the women, and in some cultures the women would be treated like slaves. Examples of early river valley cultures are Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Indus Valley, and China.