Farmers

While the nomads were rampaging around the steppe, people in many parts of the world learnt that the seeds from grasses such as barley, wheat, rice and maize made good food and could be kept and eaten all through the winter.

They learnt how to plant them the next year. They also raised animals but plants were their main food. These people were farmers. Their settled life-style led to the building of villages. After a few years the soil ran out of minerals and the farmers moved on, burning down part of the forest to make new fertile ground for a few more years. This was the start of the destruction of the world's forest which, for the tropical rain forest, is still continuing today.