History geekodrome

[Ensign Steve]

Originally Posted by SR71

Vaguely remembered idea about how it happened

Wanderers found a place where grain grew natively in sufficient abundance that a small population could remain stationary long enough to have a small village. The village would need a sort of designated place of pooping, where undigested grains would pass onto a well fertilized soil. Shortly the grain would be extra abundant, and it wouldn't require a great deal of imagination to make the leap to intentionally sowing some grain and fertilizing it to make even more grain for even more house dwellers, etc.

Maybe Jarred Diamond? I can't remember.

I remember learning it similarly, but except the people were still nomadic (or I guess migratory?). They would travel the same path year after year and eventually caught on that new food was growing on the sites where they had previously camped.

I def. got that from a schoolteacher, though, so veracity unknown.