Permanency - Specialization - Wealth Accumulation

With the emergence of a sedentary way of life, it made sense for the first time to devote a considerable amount of effort in building permanent dwellings. For the first time, in fact, it was possible for humans to invest for the long term. Accordingly, almost immediately after agriculture appears, the archeological record begins to show a variety of solid dwellings of a more or less permanent sort which make ingenious use of local building materials This picture reconstructs some of the setting from one of the world's earliest towns, the Neolithic village of Catalhoyuk, in what is now southern Turkey.

This cut-away of an early mud-brick dwelling (below) of the 'Ubiad culture of Mesopotamia suggests how elaborate village dwellings soon became, even given the severe limitations in building materials available on the Tigris-Euphrates flood plain.

Animals were kept in very close proximity to human living quarters. The flat roof-tops of houses were used as living space in the evening. Later, open central courtyards were developed.

Storage became a central issue. The excavation at Catalhoyuk has uncovered special rooms and special places in the context of domestic living areas where storage occurred.

Human tools no longer had to be portable. This means that the "tool kit" of agriculturalists can expand. In fact, it can expand exponentially (the human tool kit is still expanding). The new conditions of life encourage expansion of technology, because for the first time specialization becomes possible. Some individuals who are skilled at making clothing or working with wood, for example, begin to invest almost all their time in those activities. People living at Catalhoyuk, for example, quickly developed skills that produced items that they could find useful for trade purposes. They produced fine obsidian blades and finished tools to trade for a variety of objects.

Note also, that for the first time, wealth acquires meaning, because one can accumulate and store useful or desirable objects and even produce surpluses of food. The people of Catalhoyuk could trade surpluses of grain and cattle in addition to what they made in the way of artifacts for this purpose. As specialization emerged, knowledge itself--specialized forms of knowledge held within a small guild or skilled group of craftsmen--became a form of wealth as well.

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