Foundational Era 8000-600 BCE

This one is simple to sum up.  For a long, long, long time, humanity took many forms.  Then, we weeded out traits we don't like, kept traits we do like, and viola! Homo Sapiens Sapiens (HSS).

HSS was pretty bright, but spent his early days running after his protein (animals--slower moving ones at that...) and scratching the ground to get his carbs and veggies.  This kept the number of HSS's in one group at one place in one time low. (Competition for scarce resources, dontcha know)

Then, one HSS, let's call him Herman, noticed that food bearing plants grew over and over again in the same place. (like I said, HSS...not so bright...but a quick learner!) Herman talked his wife and family into settling down to wait for the plants to grow.  They learned about cultivating, weeding, irrigating, fertilizing (all things that can be done using the human body...think about it...there it is!) and then about storing, preserving, and ultimately, trading.

Herman and the fam needed protein and protection.  Cows/goats/sheep not too fast, can't get out of a fenced area provided protein.  Dogs fed on scraps of the protein provided the protection, and animals get domesticated.  Suddenly more HSS's are making like Herman, and bingo! a village forms.  Other HSS's pass through on their hunting and gathering, take note of what's happening, tell other HSS's and soon enough, we have many villages forming.  Different crops are grown.  Different animals are domesticated, different things are made (clothing, weapons, carts, plows...think necessities to survive...).

Waiting for crops to grow is as boring as...well, waiting for crops to grow. Food is plentiful, time is free, and people are pretty healthy and relaxed.  So babies are made.  Lots of babies....

Somone (probably not Herman) started to keep track of how much she grew, and the concept of writing comes about.

Someone else decides that work is hard, and perhaps there is a god who could be convinced to help out, and so he sacrifices and prays, and religion is born.

Someone decides to steal from his neighbor rather than grow his own stuff, and when he doesn't get caught does it more and more until he is caught.  Thus laws are created.

Once enough people are living and farming in one area, they all need access to water, and so they team up to dig a big ditch to bring the water to the fields.  Someone refines the design, organizes the workers, oversees the process and regulates both the work and the water, and government is enacted.

The agricultural revolution transforms the way HSS live, work. connect, relate and communicate. It is a complete revolution in all parts of human beings lives.

This all happens first in Mesopotamia (Tigris and Euphrates Rivers), and then in river valley areas of China (Yangzi and Yellow Rivers), India (Indus River) and Egypt (Nile River). There are plenty of HSS's around the world though, so these aren't the only place people get organized, but they are the biggest and do it the best.

And thus we have civilizations.  And we're off...