From hunter to farmer

From the Nile to the Amstel is a journey through cultural history, starting with the transition from hunting to farming. Around 10,000 BC, people cease moving around and begin to establish permanent settlements. They fashion tools from stone, wood and bone.

Grain is first cultivated in the Fertile Crescent, an area between present-day Israel, Iraq and Turkey. The items found here include fire stones, tools to work the land and shape wood, the first earthenware objects, and the remnants of oblong farm structures made of wood. Small idols, often female figures, indicate the extreme importance of the cult of the fertile goddess.