Euphrates rivers, and in the Jordan River valley The first plants to be brought under human selection there were einkorn and emmer wheat, barley, lentil, pea, bitter vetch, and chickpea: a mixture of seed-bearing cereals and legumes Gradually the nomadic life of the hunter-gatherer gave way to growing settlements alongside the large grainfields that fed them The need arose for planning the sowing and the distribution of the harvests, for anticipating seasonal changes before they occurred, for organizing the work, and for keeping records Some of the earliest known writing and arithmetical systems, dating from at least 5,000 years ago, are devoted to the accounting of grain and livestock So the culture of the fields encouraged the culture of the mind At the same time it brought problems, among them a drastic simplification of the hunter-gatherer’s varied diet and consequent damage to human health, and the development of a social hierarchy in which a few benefit from the labor of many Seeds of Thought The development of agriculture had a deep influence on human feeling and thought, on mythology and religion and science, that is hard to capture in a few quotations The religious historian Mircea Eliade summarized it this way: We are used to thinking that the discovery of agriculture made a radical change in the course of human history by ensuring adequate nourishment and thus allowing a tremendous increase in the population But the discovery of agriculture had decisive results for a quite different reason… Agriculture taught man the fundamental oneness of organic life; and from that revelation sprang the simpler analogies between women and field, between the sexual act and sowing, as well as the most ...hierarchy in which a few benefit from the labor of many Seeds of Thought The development of agriculture had a deep influence on human feeling and thought, on mythology and religion and science, that is hard... adequate nourishment and thus allowing a tremendous increase in the population But the discovery of agriculture had decisive results for a quite different reason… Agriculture taught man the fundamental oneness of organic life; and from that... Agriculture taught man the fundamental oneness of organic life; and from that revelation sprang the simpler analogies between women and field, between the sexual act and sowing, as well as the most