Back to the Intro Page
The change in lifestyle from hunter-gatherer to farmer made a big difference to daily life. Farming was actually harder than hunting, though a lot, lot safer. Instead of just running after an animal, making sure you killed it before it killed you, farmers had to chop trees, clear land, dig and till the soil, plant seeds, guard the crops, harvest crops and then mill or grind wheat and barley. To till the soil means to get it ready for planting seeds. Children would help out by frightening birds away from newly planted crops and in many other jobs. There was of course no school for children to go to and so they would either play or help mums and dads. People would also have to store some seeds in a safe, dry place so you could plant them again next year. You were also at the mercy of the weather as a bad year could ruin the crops. As well as farming people had to clear trees to allow space to build homes and the wood was important too for fires. Stone Age farmers also had to build enclosures in which to keep their animals. Some, like the homes, were made of wattle and daub, other were made using stone. They had no cement so all stones had to be carefully laid on others. This is called dry stone-walling and is very skilful. People were also still mining flint from the ground. It was a very busy life and, remember, for any outdoor work you relied on the sun to provide you with light. The only other way you could have light was to start a fire.
Back to the Mesolithic Age Hoots - Daily LifeForward to the Bronze Age Hoots - Daily Life
