Towards a Settled Life


 
 
Concept Explanation
 

Towards a Settled Life

Towards a Settled Life: Settle community living was another result of agriculture. Settle life would also have needed a leader and someone to maintain law and order. This period probably saw the beginning of division of labour. Some people would have made tools, some would have taken the animals for grazing, and some would have been involved in agriculture. The population increased rapidly because large quantities of food were available, and the agricultural revolution provided the means for a secure life in the future.

As the needs of agriculture demanded settlement in one place ,people constructed huts of dried grass and mud as shelter.Huts were huddled together as if in a colony .Most settlements were on the slopes of the hills or in rock shelters near rivers or streams.

The Homes of Neolithic farmers were much larger and sturdier than the skin -covered huts of their Mesolithic ancestors.Some of them were built of split logs. Walls were sometimes woven from smaller branches .Some people even started living in brick houses.The earliest Neolithic settlements are in the valleys of Iran and Iraq ,and in Israel and Palestine.

A burial is an arrangement made by people for their relatives and friends. When people die, generally respect is paid to them. Dead people are looked after perhaps because of the belief that there is some form of life after death. Neolithic people buried their dead. Objects used by the dead persons, like tools, weapons and pottery, were buried with them. In many parts of South India, burial places have been marked with huge rectangular blocks of stone. They are called megaliths (mega means ‘large’ in Greek). Archaeologists have found traces of huts or houses at some sites, people-built pit-houses, which were dug into the ground, with steps leading into them. These may have provided shelter in cold weather, Archaeologists have also found cooking hearths both inside and outside the huts, which suggests that, depending on the weather, people could cook food either indoors or outdoors.

 
 


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