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.

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

   • The Faiyum: 4500 is a smaller number
   • Jericho, first settled 9500–9000 BCE
   • Both began in the same year
   • Neither: both are CE dates
3. 2.

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

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

4. 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

5. 3.

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

   • About 800 years ago
   • About 10,000 years ago
   • About 6,000 years ago
   • About 8,000 years ago or a little less
6. 4.

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

   • More than 3,000 years
   • About 500 years
   • About 12,500 years
   • They were built in the same year
7. 5.

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

   • About 17,500 years
   • The wall came first
   • About 10 years
   • About 1,000 to 1,500 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
   • One family built it in a week
   • No one planned it
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?

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

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

    • Farming spread to North Africa
    • Egypt taught farming to Jericho
    • Farmers stopped growing wheat
    • The Nile dried up
13. 10.

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

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