For many years, scientists believed that changes in the environment—like shifts in weather or soil quality—led early humans to stop hunting and gathering and start farming. But a new study says that may not be the whole story. Instead, it shows that people themselves played a major part in making this change happen.
The study was created by experts from the University of Bath in the U.K., along with researchers from Germany and other British universities. They used a special type of computer model to understand how early humans might have switched from hunting animals and gathering plants to growing food on purpose.
Their work suggests that human choices and actions, not just nature, helped shape one of the biggest changes in human history.
From hunting to farming
Around 12,000 years ago, people across the world began to settle down and grow crops. This move changed how people lived, worked, and even how they built societies. For a long time, scientists said this happened mostly because of outside forces—like warmer temperatures or richer soil.
But the new research looks at it differently. The team behind the study says that contact between groups of people may have played a much bigger role. Some groups had already started farming. Others still hunted and gathered. The meeting of these two ways of life led to change.
These groups may have traded, fought, or learned from each other. These human-to-human connections helped spread farming across different places, the study suggests.
Humans as drivers of change
The researchers used a model that was first made to study animals like wolves and deer—one group as hunters, the other as prey. In this case, they used the idea to study people. The model helped them understand how farming communities and hunter-gatherer groups may have influenced one another.
As farming groups moved into new areas, they came across people who lived differently. These meetings may have led to new ideas, more farming, and changes in how people survived. Farming may have spread not just through land but also over water, the study found.
The study’s lead author, Dr. Javier Rivas, says their findings offer a new way to look at early human life. He said the model helped show how population growth, migration, and culture worked together to shape the world.
Looking ahead
The researchers say this model could help study other major moments in history. They hope to add more data in the future and study different parts of the world.
Dr. Rivas says they want their method to become a helpful tool for learning about how people lived long ago. He believes it can help explain other big changes in human history, too—not just the move to farming.
This study brings new attention to how early humans influenced each other. It shows that the change from hunting to farming may have had more to do with people than with the planet.