Archaeological Records of Human Campsites
Archaeological records of human campsites indicate that early humans started out as small bands of hunters who supplemented kills with foraged and gathered edible items. The hunter-gatherer cultures allowed humans to exploit agriculture, once it was discovered about 10,000 years ago. Humans began to farm seriously around 8000 BC in parts of the Middle East and South Western Asia and there was full-scale agriculture in many places just after 4000 BC. -Turning to agriculture for food was extremely important for the human species, since plants are the primary producers and form the base of the food chain.
As food energy moves from one trophic level to another about 90% of the available energy is lost with each transfer. It remains true to this day that a vegetarian diet can support many more people than if the crop was fed to sheep and these sheep were eaten by humans. Apart from this, grain and beans are more easily stored than meat for unfavourable periods when hunting may not be possible. For these and many more reasons agriculture permitted the establishment of stable populations with more free time from the process of providing subsistence. This gave humans greater opportunities for inventiveness and development of technologies which have greatly influenced the survival and growth of human population.