Need to go into history to understand the cause of disease or find the cure - 2

Draught animals: from 4000 BC

Four basic farm animals, out of which cattle represent the most significant development in village life. Not only does the cow provide much more milk than its own offspring require, but the brute strength of the ox was an unprecedented addition to man's muscle power. 

From about 4000 BC, oxen are harnessed and put to work by mankind. They were made to drag sledges, somewhat later even ploughs and wheeled wagons (an almost simultaneous innovation in the Middle East and European Countries). The plough, it was found to immeasurably increase the crop of wheat or rice and that to very fast, compared to hands. The wagon enabled these wheat and rice to be brought home from more distant fields. 

With these developments in place by mankind, the transition to settled communities became a reality and complete - from hunter-gatherer to farmer.  The Neolithic Revolution only spread to areas which are suitable for farming.  In the jungles of the world, hunting and gathering remained the standard way of life for human communities until the 20th century.  An intermediate stage, that of nomadic pastoralism, moving of the the flocks to new pastures, prevails in semi-barren regions. 

The use of a draught animal was considered a valuable but not an essential part of this farming revolution. No beast powerful enough for the purpose is available in America, but this did not prevent agriculture and civilization from evolving. 

Neolithic burials: from 8000 BC

As aresult of the Neolithic Revolution, the communities remain settled in one place, the burial of their dead becomes a matter of intense concern. An early solution was to keep them within the family home, buried beneath the floor or even under the bed. 

About 8000 BC, in Jericho, burials are found under the floors of houses as well as in nearby vacant lots. In Catal Huyuk, 1500 years later, later on the normal place for burial was within the house, under the brick and plaster platform which is used for sleeping and other everyday purposes. 

A procedure in Catal Huyuk was for the body kept outside the town, where vultures and insects strips the bones dry. When the skeleton is ready for burial, the sleeping platform in the house is opened up and the space for the newcomer was arranged in such a way so that both the present occupants and newcomers have space designated, and the platform is bricked up again and plastered over. 

A society with elaborate shrines most probably must certainly have accompanied such an event with considerable ritual that is even prevalent now. The majority of burials are without funeral gifts, but in a few cases the jewels of women and the weapons of men are buried with them. 

Need to go into history to understand the cause of disease or find the cure - 1

The first farmers from 8001 BC

From watering the plants in a dry spell and from weeding around a plant, it is a small step in collecting its seeds and planting them in a protected spot where they will have better than average chances of growing.

From keeping animals in cages, to kill them when needed was a small step in keeping them until their offspring are born.

The process of cultivating crops and domesticating animals was a slow process formed at first only a small part of a community’s diet, most of it coming still from hunting and gathering.  In each place where the change happened, its pattern is no different.

The earliest place known to have lived mainly from the cultivation of crops is Jericho. By around 8000 BC this community, who were occupying a naturally well-watered region, were into growing selected forms of wheat (emmer and einkorn are the two varieties), which was soon to be followed by barley. Though no longer gatherers like before, these people turned into hunters. Their source of meat was wild gazelle, cattle, goat and boars. 

Jericho is also known as the first town, that too it was no accident, with a population of 2000 or more. A pioneering agricultural community, surrounded by various other tribes dependent mostly on gathering food, offers easy pickings which then needed vigorous protection. Jericho had protective walls and a tower. 

Sheep and goats, cattle and pigs: 9000-7000 BC

The first animals known to have been domesticated as a source of food are sheep in the Middle East.  This deducing was arrived at after see high proportion of bones of one-year-old sheep discarded in a settlement at Shanidar, in what is now called northern Iraq.   Goats soon followed thereafter, and since then these two become the standard animals of the nomadic pastoralists, a tribes which moves all year long with their flocks, guided by the availability of fresh grass. 

We also find that cattle and pigs are also associated more with settled communities, were domesticated slightly later - and it might have started probably not long after 7000 BC.  The Ox may first have been bred by humans in western Asia. The pig must have been probably first domesticated in China. 

Need to go into history to understand the cause of disease or find the cure

We need to go into history that is millions of years ago to understand the difference in lifestyle as it is called now and the way of living and how mankind evolved from Stone Age to its current state.  As far as one can go into history, almost the whole of human history, in the ancient times, at least 3 million years ago, mankind had lived by carrying out two basic activities of hunting for food, fishing and gathering edible items of all kinds from fruits to insects.  Mankind has lived by doing what comes naturally - as a hunter-gatherers.  The animals communicate well enough to hunt as a group, bees can locate where the best pollen is.  Well it is true that human beings also have dignified both activities with elaborate ritual and with attention to the spirits of nature.  The only exception in human race is that business of hunting and gathering has involved specialization, the men doing the hunting and the women doing the gathering.  Unlike the animals, humans carry home the food they hunted and share and consume it, rather than hunt and consume it there and then.  All these is a result of mankind’s ability to communicate, speculate, and rationalize.  These does not alter the fact that 3 million years ago Stone Age man, the hunter-gatherer, engaged in an activity as natural as the swoop of a eagle or the grazing of a deer.

The change then came 10,000 years ago when mankind first discovered how to cultivate crops and then discovered how to domesticate animals.  This was the most significant development in human history.  It happened within the Stone Age, the tools used then were flint rather than metal it is this dividing line which separates the old Stone Age (palaeolithic) from the new Stone Age (Neolithic) and this has been aptly called the Neolithic Revolution.  In this revolution, the strange thing that occurred independently in separate parts of the world – the middle east and in the America.  How this unlikely coincidence occurred which ended in the cold phase of the then present ice age.  Bison, in herds, moved to colder regions, Mammoths become extinct and plants of all kinds grow more easily in the new temperature zones.  It is not very hard to imagine that in these circumstances, a strong human race impulse to abandon the all the pursuit of the bison and to just stay, instead, in a region where edible plants are now growing in sufficient profusion seem worth encouraging and protected by weeds around them. Some human groups adapted to a new way of life. Others go after the bison.  If the impulse is to settle down, there is also a strong incentive to ensure that animals remain nearby as a supply of food and this may involve attempts to herd them and/or to pen them in enclosures, or to entice them near the settlement by laying out fodder. 

Origin of disease - Cancer was unheard of in ancient civilization

In the ancient world, the word "Cancer" was unheard of.

Ancient Egypt (3200BC to 515BC) is where we first see the dawn of what, today, we call "medical care". The Egyptian civilization was one of the first great civilization on this planet. Egyptians thought gods, demons and spirits played a key role in causing diseases. Many people who famed to become doctors according to the role entrusted upon them, at that time believed that evil spirits blocked channels in the body, and this affected the way the body functioned. 

Research into this involved trying to find ways to unblock these so called "Blocked Channels". Gradually, through a process which took lots of trial and errors and some basic science was discovered and thus the profession of a "doctor of medicine" emerged and started gaining prominence. Ancient Egyptian doctors as well as other civilizations used a combination of natural remedies, combined with prayer and offerings to cure the so called diseases.

Unlike prehistoric peoples who were not able to document their healing procedures, ancient Egyptians were able to document their research and knowledge and keep it safe, they were could read and write; they also had a system of mathematics which helped scientists make calculations based on various parameters. Documented ancient Egyptian medical literature is among the oldest in existence today but there may be more such civilization whose healing methods are documented.

The ancient Egyptians had an agricultural economy, organized and structured government, social conventions and properly enforced laws through which they functioned. Their society was stable even at that time; many people lived their whole lives in the same place, unlike most of their prehistoric predecessors who had to move from one place to another in search of food and fresh pastures. This stability allowed medical research to develop and improve.