2. In "How To Be Wild", published in 2007, sportswriter Simon Barnes wrote: "Humans lived for several million years as fully wild beings: only in the last" how many years "did we invent agriculture"?
From Quiz Simon Says (Part 5)
Answer:
10,000
He went on to say: "Only in the last couple of centuries did we invent industry. We are a species that has spent 99 per cent of its history as hunter-gatherers. We haven't had time for our unconscious minds and our unconscious needs to have changed. If you like, our souls have not changed, and this is true whether or not we believe that we have them." In addition to sports, the British journalist wrote a wildlife opinion column. The book, "How To Be Wild" is a year long encounter Mr. Barnes spends with various wildlife including elephants, mosquitoes, dolphins, flying squirrels, giraffes, butterflies and other creatures.
Historians have long echoed Mr. Barnes assertion, tht farming was "invented" some 10,000 to 12,000 years ago in the Cradle of Civilization, that is, the region around Iraq, Turkey and Iran. A international collaboration of researchers however now offers evidence that plant cultivation began more like 23,000 years ago.