Why farming changed everything: villages, surplus and specialists

Grade 6 Social Studies Worksheet

Circle the best answer.

1. Read this first

   Two early farming places

   Place	Dated to	Crops	Built
   Jericho, in the Jordan Valley by a spring	first settled 9500–9000 BCE; wall and tower about 8000 BCE	emmer wheat, barley, pulses	stone wall over 3.6 m high; stone tower over 8.5 m high
   Faiyum farm sites, Egypt, west of the Nile	about 4500–4200 BCE	emmer wheat, barley	not given here

2. 1.

   How high was Jericho's stone tower, Luz asks?

   • Over 3.6 m
   • Over 8.5 km
   • Over 8.5 m
   • Over 85 m
3. 2.

   Which place in the chart was farmed first, Milo asks?

   • Jericho, first settled 9500–9000 BCE
   • Neither: both are CE dates
   • Both began in the same year
   • The Faiyum: 4500 is a smaller number
4. 3.

   The cell marked ? is blank. Noah's chart has a blank under Crops for the Faiyum. What fills it?

   • Corn and potatoes
   • Emmer wheat and barley
   • Over 8.5 m
   • Rice and tea

5. Two early farming places

   Place	Dated to	Crops	Built
   Jericho, in the Jordan Valley by a spring	first settled 9500–9000 BCE; wall and tower about 8000 BCE	emmer wheat, barley, pulses	stone wall over 3.6 m high; stone tower over 8.5 m high
   Faiyum farm sites, Egypt, west of the Nile	about 4500–4200 BCE	emmer wheat, barley	not given here

6. 4.

   Jericho's wall was built about 8000 BCE. About how long ago is that, Pia asks?

   • About 6,000 years ago
   • About 8,000 years ago or a little less
   • About 800 years ago
   • About 10,000 years ago
7. 5.

   About how many years passed between Jericho's wall and the Faiyum farm sites, Ren asks?

   • They were built in the same year
   • About 12,500 years
   • About 500 years
   • More than 3,000 years
8. 6.

   About how long after Jericho was first settled were its wall and tower built, Tala asks?

   • The wall came first
   • About 10 years
   • About 17,500 years
   • About 1,000 to 1,500 years
9. 7.

   The first settlement at Jericho grew up by a spring. Why might farmers choose that spot, Bo asks?

   • Steady water for people and crops
   • Springs make soil grow taller
   • The spring shows they were rich
   • Springs keep wild animals away
10. 8.

    Esme's chain reads: farmers grow emmer, barley and pulses → ? → workers can spend 100 days on a wall. What fills the blank?

    • The spring dried up
    • The workers caught wild food for each meal
    • A food surplus that could feed the workers
    • The wall made the crops grow
11. 9.

    Jun's chain reads: wheat and barley farmed in the Fertile Crescent → ? → emmer and barley in the Faiyum by 4500 BCE. What fills the blank?

    • Farmers stopped growing wheat
    • Egypt taught farming to Jericho
    • The Nile dried up
    • Farming spread to North Africa
12. 10.

    Kira's chain reads: farming → a food surplus → ? What can come next?

    • Less food than before
    • Trade with other groups
    • Farming starts after trade
    • People go back to gathering wild food