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

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

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

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

   • Emmer wheat and barley
   • Corn and potatoes
   • 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 800 years ago
   • About 8,000 years ago or a little less
   • About 10,000 years ago
7. 5.

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

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

   Jericho's wall and tower would have taken 100 workers more than 100 days to build. What does that suggest, Zee asks?

   • Jericho must have had a king
   • Some kind of social organization
   • No one planned it
   • One family built it in a week
9. 7.

   Note: archaeologists think Jericho's wall may have held back floodwater, perhaps to protect farm soil. Why was Jericho's wall built, Ari asks?

   • We know for certain it stopped floods
   • Perhaps to hold back floodwater
   • To store grain inside it
   • To keep goats from the desert

10. 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

11. 8.

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

    • Springs keep wild animals away
    • Steady water for people and crops
    • The spring shows they were rich
    • Springs make soil grow taller
12. 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
13. 10.

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

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