agriculture
Ancient Egypt (Kemet) was famous for its successful agriculture, made possible by the great Nile River.
The transistion from hunter/gatherer society to agriculture is obscured by the long passage of time and the lack of written records.
Reaping knives (wooden handles and flint blades) from approximately 12,000 years B.P. (before present) have been found in what is now Palestine.
Figs were domesticated approximately 11,400 years B.P. in the Jordan River Valley (see article on figs for more information).
Sheep were domesticated in the northern Tigris Valley approximately 11,000 years B.P.
A fertility goddess was worshipped in Catal Huyuk (in Anotolia, what is now present day Turkey) by the middle of the seventh millennium B.C.E. (before the common era, the archaeological equivalent of B.C.).
Summer squash was being grown in Central America by 5500 B.C.E.
