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Mesolithic folks were often semi-nomadic. They had family and friends and lived either in groups that moved around or began permanent larger villages, even up to 8,000 people in Catal Hoyuk, Turkey. The moving groups, burned fields to either plant some crops, such as nuts or herbs, or pitch their dwellings or herd wildlife in the direction they could be captured or killed for food. They gathered crops of wild grasses and grains with harvesting tools, foraged for berries and nuts, and in the Isles, fished for mollusks. They built their dwellings out of furs in the north, or out of clay and plaster in Anatolia and the Near East. Since they often lived in fertile areas, or moved between these areas as nomads, they had access to eggs, amphibians, and other small game at watering holes. The first documented pet was apparently a puppy, found buried with a young person. Perhaps the wild wolves came to forage and drink from the same wells or rivers as the Mesolithic people, and over time a puppy was adopted and tamed. Goats were also prevalent and some of the first domesticated animals. Grain seeds of emmer and Kamut wheat and barley were taken from the wild fields and planted near watered areas as the land became dryer and less fertile in many areas. So this is when agriculture began as well as town planning, and later herding. What a wonderful time it must have been -- creative and profound, giving rise to new concepts, ideas and ways of caring for one another. Before villages, families were limited to just 1 child every 3 or 4 years, as only one child could be carried as clans migrated looking for food and water daily. As our species began settling down, then we could have bigger families with more kin. Families are more moral and want to do the best for eachother, so ethics were born as well. Imagine the days when everything you owned had to be carried with you -- even your grandparents and the new borns!!! Those that settled in towns had longer lives I imagine, more food stored and evenings of more imagination. But also disease was introduced -- with crowded towns and animals living in or nearby - some small pox and other disease as we have today probably were transmitted from person to person, or animal to person, much as the flu occurs cyclicly still today. K.M.

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16y ago

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