Here is the notes from NCERT Class 6 History – Chapter 3: “From Gathering to Growing Food”.

Earliest People: Hunters and Gatherers

• Early humans lived by hunting animals and gathering plant produce.
• They moved from place to place in search of food and water.

 Discovery of Farming and Herding

• Around 12,000 years ago, people noticed how plants grow and how animals behave.
• They started domesticating animals like sheep, goat, cattle, and dog.
• They also began growing crops like wheat and barley.
• Domestication is the taming of wild animals and growing plants for human use.
• The first animal to be tamed was the wild ancestor of the dog.
• Domesticated animals became gentler and used for food, milk, transport, etc.

First Farmers and Herders

• Early evidence found in areas like:

Tools and Pottery

• Tools made of stone, wood, and bone were used.
• People began using handmade pottery for storing food and cooking.

Life in the Neolithic Age

• Polished tools were used to give a fine cutting edge.
• Mortars and pestles used for grinding grain and other plant produce.
• People began using pots for cooking food, especially grain like rice, wheat and lentils.
• They began weaving cloth, using different kind of materials. For example cotton
• People began living in huts, storing grains, and farming regularly.
• People began to settle in one place.
• Created villages, developed social groups, and improved tools.

Important Archaeological Sites

• Burzahom (Present day Kashmir)

  • Built pit-houses, which were dug into the ground, with steps leading into them (Shelter in cold weather)
  • Found cooking hearths both inside and outside the hut (cook food either indoors or outdoors).

• Mehrgarh

  • Located in a fertile plain, near Bolan Pass (routes to Iran).
  • One of the earliest villages
  • Grow wheat barley and rice
  • Rear sheep and goats for the first time this area.
  • Bones of wild animals such as the deer and pig have been found.
  • Houses are in square and rectangular in shape.
    • There is also a storage compartment
  • Several burial sites have been found.
    • People have belief in life after death
    • The dead person is buried with goats (meant to serve as food in the next world).

• Daojali Hading:

  • Located on the hills near the Brahmaputra Valley.
  • Stone tools, including mortars and pestles, have been found.
    • This indicate that people probably growing grain and preparing food from it
  • Jadeite, a stone that may have been brought from China.

Catal Huyuk (Turkey): Neolithic Sites

• Several things were brought from great distances
  • Flint from Syria
  • Cowries from the Red Sea
  • Shells form Mediterranean Sea
• Most things have been carried on the backs of pack animals such as cattle or by people.