Dig Into Ancient Ireland

• History
• Primary Education

Ancient Egypt sample

Dig into Ancient Ireland

When you see this symbol in the lesson:

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Learn some new facts

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Reflect on what you have learned

Key Words and Definitions

The Neolithic is a period of history, generally thought to have occurred sometime around 10,000 BCE. During that time, people learned to raise crops and keep animals, and so did not have to rely on hunting, fishing, and gathering wild plants. They made useful stone tools by grinding and polishing relatively hard rocks. Growing cereal grains meant they were able to build permanent homes and gave them the time to pursue specialised crafts.

Neolithic

Domestication is the process of adapting wild plants and animals for human use. Domestic species are raised for food, work, clothing, medicine, and many other uses. Domesticated plants and animals must be raised and cared for by humans. Domesticated species are not wild.

Domestication

What do you already 

know about how people collected food during 

the Neolithic period?

The change to a farming lifestyle

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The adoption of farming started 

during the Neolithic period. 

Hunting animals          Bred and reared animals 

Gathering plants          Grew and harvested plants

People no longer had to move around the landscape in search of food, but instead they could settle in the one location.

Which crops were the farmers able to grow?

Drag and drop those crops into the basket...

wheat

barley

lettuce

green beans

oats

potatoes

tomatoes

rye

The domestication of animals 

Wild species were gradually domesticated into breeds which could be farmed, a process which resulted in animals with traits which humans desired. For example, larger size, reduced aggression, increased reproduction rate.

This animal was called an 'auroch'. 

What common farm animal do you think it turned into?

This animal was called a 'mouflon'.

What common farm animal do you think it turned into?

This animal was called a 'wild boar'.

What common farm animal do you think it turned into?

What were the advantages and 

disadvantages of the Neolithic lifestyle?

Advantages

Disadvantages

Poorer nutrition:

diets of farmers was not as diverse as that of hunter-gatherers

Larger communities lead to villages, towns, cities and civilisations

Use of other resources, such as milk, wool, and traction (using animals to pull ploughs).

Life expectancies and stature (height)   decreased

Risk of famine

when crops failed

Risk of diseases: many people living in one place

Crops and animals became more readily available

The Neolithic lifestyle

Disadvantages

Advantages

Crops and animals became more readily available
 
Larger communities lead to the development of villages, towns, cities and civilisations
 
Domestic agriculture was able to develop the use of other resources, such as milk, wool, and traction 

Poor nutrition: the diets of farmers were not very diverse compared to hunter-gatherers 

Life expectancies and stature (height) decreased

Risk of famine when crops failed

Risk of diseases: many people living in one place

Wild species were gradually domesticated into breeds which could be farmed, a process which resulted

in animals with traits which humans desired. For example, larger size, reduced aggression, increased

reproduction rate. Wild boar were domesticated into pigs; aurochs (wild cattle) were domesticated

into cows; and mouflon (wild sheep) became domesticated sheep. The Neolithic domesticated species

would have looked more like the wild species than our modern domesticated animals.

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To learn more, check out our Dig Into Ancient Ireland learning resources and try out our Ancient Ireland Minecraft World!

 www.ulstermuseum.org/workshop/ancient-ireland