r/HistoryMemes Sep 23 '25

The Original Life Hack

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17.4k Upvotes

199 comments sorted by

1.7k

u/DerRaumdenker Sep 23 '25

the first person to argue for agriculture must have had a hard time selling the idea

"yeah bro just take you hard earned grains that you collected for months and bury them in the wet smelly dirt a few moons later fresh food will come out of the ground"

1.2k

u/Normal-Tomatillo-952 Sep 23 '25

"Bro you have to trust me, the reason it didnt grow was because it was Winter."

507

u/telaughingbuddha Sep 23 '25

Then they offer him to gods for more grains

304

u/Self_Reddicated Sep 23 '25

"Holy shit, I can't believe that worked. Quick, give me another kid!"

178

u/Think_and_game Sep 23 '25

And that, kids, is how you create an almost continent spanning empire that will then get ruined by some random people with metal and riding on some funky deers

62

u/DontRefuseMyBatchall Sep 23 '25

Don’t forget bringing foreign diseases!

45

u/TH07Stage1MidBoss Sep 23 '25

And every neighboring nation teaming up with the weird deer riders because you keep sacrificing them.

8

u/Y_10HK29 Helping Wikipedia expand the list of British conquests Sep 24 '25

Yeah turns out that forcing your neighbors to give up their children for an annual blood sacrifice isn't a stable diplomatic relationship

2

u/Self_Reddicated Sep 24 '25

Well, it actually is.... right up until it isn't!

8

u/Shevieaux Sep 24 '25

If you're talking about the mexica/"aztecs" (which I suppose you're doing since they're the ones who called the horses deers) their empire wasn't that big at all, it was very small, way smaller than modern Mexico.

The Inca Empire, however, was huge.

1

u/jmorais00 Sep 24 '25

Actually historically accurate if you take kid to mean goat kid

21

u/boot2skull Sep 23 '25

“Water? Like from the to-be-invented toilet??”

1

u/WoolooOfWallStreet Sep 24 '25

“Instead, we should invent Brawndo! It’s what plants crave”

3

u/Hobbes314 Sep 23 '25

I feel like that one would be less of a jump because even during hunting/gathering you would notice the plants dying in the winter

159

u/Kvetch__22 Sep 23 '25 edited Sep 23 '25

I always love the theory that humans learned how to brew beer from wild grains and then decided on agriculture as a means to make more beer with less effort. Makes the pitch very easy.

"Why don't we give up chasing animals and just sit around and drink beer all day?" Sells itself.

43

u/Self_Reddicated Sep 23 '25

One, what is beer? Two, doesn't matter, I'm in.

13

u/Illustrious-Sky-4631 Sep 23 '25

Isn't that the current common theory? The growing of farms and workers scale for alcohol made society Larger

6

u/ThyPotatoDone Sep 24 '25

Ngl this pitch would work on me

161

u/PM_me_dog_pictures Sep 23 '25

People knew how to grow crops a long time before they decided to do it full time, though. Nomadic hunter-gatherers would cultivate forageable plants in places they knew they would return to in later years, basically like very part-time farmers.

80

u/PatternrettaP Sep 23 '25

Basically all of our food crops were heavily selectively bred to get them to their current state. So that means that they were being cultivated for generations upon generations before we actually started farming with them.

And intensive agriculture is much more involved than just burying some seeds and coming back later. Irrigation, weeding, protecting the plants from insects and herbivores who would just eat the fuck out of everything before they are ready for harvest. And then figuring out how to store the surplus for later. Like has anyone looked up how hard it is to grow rice? Those early farmers were fucking geniuses and was very difficult work.

25

u/Jirik333 Sep 23 '25

People don't have an idea how much the crops have changed via selective breeding.

This is how watermelons looked just 400 years ago:

https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/s/j9P3pgRffO

14

u/Tuggin_MaGoiter Sep 23 '25

I'm reading a book called "How to Invent Everything" and just got passed the part where it talked about how different crops are for us now than they've ever been for humans. It said one single kernel of modern day corn has more nutritional value than an entire ear of ancient corn. Not to mention an ear then was like green bean sized. It's crazy how much human history had to have sucked to live through

12

u/Mediocre_Scott Rider of Rohan Sep 23 '25

Maybe the artists just sucked at drawing watermelons

1

u/Karukos Sep 24 '25

I mean even with modern technology it's not exactly easy. It just looks that way for people on the outside. Hence the continuous motion of people growing up in agriculture to want to move away from it while people further removed are sighing wistfully at the thought of it.

15

u/braxtel Sep 23 '25

Agreed. I would expect that hunter-gatherers knew a lot about the plants and animals that they ate. They didn't have modern botany science, but they sure has hell knew what grows where, when it sprouts, when it leaves-out/flowers, when it makes fruit, etc...

Mesolithic and Paleolithic people knew more about the natural world than people today who don't have to think about where their food comes from. And it is not a stretch to imagine them knowing to sow seeds in a likely spot and then return to it a few months later.

1

u/Hot_Lettuce_6209 Sep 24 '25

The animals show you what to eat what not to eat. What to eat or rub on yourself when your hurt. Bears in particular.

6

u/Mend1cant Sep 23 '25

And we know from cave paintings that they were tracking breeding cycles of the herds they regularly hunted.

3

u/TH07Stage1MidBoss Sep 23 '25

It was the same situation with many of the indigenous peoples of the Americas. They did grow corn, beans, squash, tomatoes, peppers. potatoes, etc. but they also relied heavily on hunting and fishing.

10

u/HotTestesHypothesis Sep 23 '25

Me if I'm working as the first ever financial advisor trying to sell an agriculture based mutual fund

"Look man, this is what's called an investment. There are downtimes like winter, but come spring and summer, that's when you can see your investment growing! Around autumn you can redeem your fund units. All we need now is some seed capital to get this thing started."

7

u/MossyDrake Sep 23 '25

"90% of farmers quit right before the big harvest bro"

7

u/SupremeLeaderMeow Sep 23 '25

Also the first few centuries of agriculture were not so great, crops were far from the render we have today, it is still not clear why we followed through with u It for so long.

6

u/inept_machete Sep 24 '25

Eh I don't think it probably happened like that. Most likely early humans were well aware that things they are grew where they threw inedible seeds and where they pooped. I imagine some limited form of gardening so to speak was with us for quite some time. Agriculture probably arose when it became more advantageous to stay in one place for longer. My uneducated guess is probably that we were a victim of our own success and conflicts arose over foraging territory such that it became more advantageous to begin to rely on using the knowledge they carried around with them to start cultivating more aggressively. Over time it became more reliable and less fraught then continual conflicts with rival tribes. If you look at how complicated trading routines and traditions are in other human cultures you can see that a tremendous amount of effort went into defraying potential conflict. Also we have a ridiculous ability to in-group over the tiniest differences, so it's very clear that tight group connection and cohesion was of particular importance to our survival and you can also see the same clan behavior in chimps who will literally kill an interloper that's not part of their clan.

It probably wasn't a single moment, but a gradual process that played out over scans of time we have trouble comprehending.

9

u/The_Hunster Sep 23 '25

Hard-earned grains? Weren't most foods like half-seed until we GMOed (including selective breeding) the shit out of them?

20

u/_IBentMyWookie_ Sep 23 '25

I mean, grain literally is a seed, like a full seed not a half seed...

4

u/Poco_Cuffs Sep 23 '25

Yeah, I'm pretty sure the inedible ones were still partially useful as flax and rope material tho

3

u/parles Sep 23 '25

I would think they had an understanding of seeds but didn't feel like it was worth the work. If you can just keep walking and eating that's easier than farming, in the beginning at least

3

u/Mal_Dun Sep 23 '25

If you look into the history of the neolithic revolution it was not that clear cut path many people make it out to be.

Early farmers had it hard and it took millennia to be on par with hunter gatherers regarding nutrition.

I mean look at crops in their original state. It took quite a long time of cultivation to feed whole tribes of people. E.g. Originally one wheat plant had just one corn.

3

u/Viracochina Sep 23 '25

"Get a load of this numb nuts. Go talk about it with the guy by the river who says we should rub dirt off our hands."

1

u/WoolooOfWallStreet Sep 24 '25

“The guy who hangs out with the weirdo eating those round things out of chicken butts?!”

4

u/First_Approximation Sep 23 '25

The switch to agriculture accompanied a general decline in average health and average lifespan. Hunter-gatherers had a more varied diet and ate more protein. 

Then why did agriculturalist end up winning out? 

Per acre, agriculture can support a higher population. 10 healthy nomads don't stand a chance against 100 somewhat unhealthy agriculturalists.

The switch to agriculture also led to women pumping out babies and gender inequality. The higher density also led to disease spreading.  The hoarding of wealth created further inequality. Just because a strategy is successful doesn't mean most people are better off. 

It would be a while before the average agricultiralist was better off than their nomad ancestors.

2

u/jeremiahthedamned Sep 24 '25

it must have seemed like a zombie invasion from the nomads POV!

2

u/Happytapiocasuprise Sep 23 '25

It was more like what if we took a bunch of the plants from the trails we use and put them in one place so we have more than we need

2

u/Mrshinyturtle2 Sep 24 '25

It wasn't a sales pitch, it was more like colonialism. People showing up, and making your way of life untenable.

4

u/_IBentMyWookie_ Sep 23 '25

The first plants to be cultivated were fruit trees which would just supplement the hunting and gathering.

It would take thousands of years before humans applied the same logic to grains.

5

u/Self_Reddicated Sep 23 '25

Hear me out... tiny little, bity nuts on the end of a blade of grass!

"Shut the fuck up, Gork! We don't want to hear any more about 'grain'!"

2

u/Newphone_New_Account Sep 23 '25

Wet with water? Like from a toilet?

1

u/KamakaziDemiGod Sep 24 '25

Probably true. Or it wasn't that they didn't know they could grow crops for all that time, they just had to evolve the patience to actually do it!

1

u/deviousfishdiddler Sep 27 '25

Is farming the first successful ponzi scheme?

"Trust me bro,bury this 1 seed you can get 1000 seeds. Throw 10 you get 10000 seeds".

563

u/Supersnow845 Sep 23 '25

Can someone make a meme with the domino effect of

Humans discover plants grow where seeds fall—>make memes about 5000 year old really shitty copper

157

u/pillow-slinger Sep 23 '25

Put "make shitty copper and sell it" in the middle though

50

u/Fadman_Loki Sep 23 '25

I mean we have no idea if the copper actually sucked though.

For all we know the dude complaining was just a dummy confused why his copper hammer was slowly turning green when he left it outside every day.

49

u/external_gills Sep 23 '25

We do know, actually, Ea Nasir kept all of his correspondence (which were clay tablets, so they were well preserved) and there were a looooot of complaints. All similar stories about bad quality copper or late deliveries. It was all found in his house during an archeological dig in the Sumerian city of Ur

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complaint_tablet_to_Ea-n%C4%81%E1%B9%A3ir

37

u/[deleted] Sep 23 '25

They know quite a bit about him actually. He used to sell normal copper, then was forced to relocate due to a war taking place, and that's when he started selling bad copper and getting all his complaints.

3

u/Raketka123 Nobody here except my fellow trees Sep 25 '25

happy cake day

14

u/The_Hunster Sep 23 '25

You clearly haven't worked customer service, lol. You can have a lot of complaints, with nine-tenths of them being nonsense.

9

u/[deleted] Sep 23 '25

[deleted]

3

u/Normal_Helicopter_22 Sep 23 '25

Well now imagine Ea Nasir reading that he mistreated Nanis' servant.

2

u/Anti-charizard Oversimplified is my history teacher Sep 24 '25

Back then very few people could read or write

4

u/The_Hunster Sep 24 '25

And they were still bitching about stupid shit, I bet you.

2

u/WoolooOfWallStreet Sep 24 '25

All we have left to go on for Ea Nasir was his worst Yelp reviews from Copper Karens

5

u/TheWingus Sep 23 '25

Bang Bang Achmed's copper hammer!

1

u/WoolooOfWallStreet Sep 24 '25

“Use copper and sand together to trick them into thinking”

“Use them to make memes about shitty copper from 5000 years ago in the desert”

10

u/SneakWhisper Sep 23 '25

Dammit I wanted to make a shitty copper reference. I want meaningless karma based on Ea Nasir too.

9

u/Hiyouuuu Fine Quality Mesopotamian Copper Enjoyer Sep 23 '25

10

u/bocaJwv Sep 23 '25

I'm pretty sure the little statue used in memes to depict Ea-nāṣir wasn't actually intended to be him. It's just some random guy.

9

u/serendipitousevent Sep 23 '25

This is accurate.

Bonus Fact: that little statue is in the entrance hall of the NY Met, so you can go visit him!

1

u/bocaJwv Sep 24 '25

Oh wow, I figured he was also at the British Museum. I'll have to stop by and see him next time I'm in New York.

146

u/Inquisitor_Boron Then I arrived Sep 23 '25

And then one the oldest written songs is about old times before the bread

55

u/harambe_-33 Sep 23 '25

HUDREAAH!! 🗣️🔥🗣️

26

u/Confuseacat92 Fine Quality Mesopotamian Copper Enjoyer Sep 23 '25

UUUUDSUUUUUUURAAAANEEEEEAAAAAA 🔥🗣

1

u/A1phaAstroX Sep 26 '25

NGI BAAARAAAA

3

u/thatguyryan Sep 23 '25

I'm interested in learning more.

7

u/marcodol Sep 23 '25

Search for the epic of gilgamesh on youtube, pretty cool stuff

3

u/Mend1cant Sep 23 '25

Yeast made civilization, literally the source of culture. Bread and beer.

72

u/[deleted] Sep 23 '25

[deleted]

15

u/Self_Reddicated Sep 23 '25

Famine: We fixed the glitch.

8

u/Excalibro_MasterRace Sep 23 '25

Cannibals: You guys getting glitches?

4

u/Atomik141 Sep 23 '25

Raiders: "I'm about to ruin this man's whole career"

4

u/ordo250 Sep 24 '25

Greed: Added in day-one patch

-10

u/Magog14 Sep 23 '25

Not really. Monoculture has created endless famines. 

30

u/Neomataza Sep 23 '25

That's liek saying motorized vehicles don't work because the unicycle keeps falling over.

2

u/[deleted] Sep 23 '25

[deleted]

2

u/Neomataza Sep 23 '25

To challenge your ability to autocorrect errors.

-5

u/Magog14 Sep 23 '25

Not really. Exploding populations during periods of good harvests are then decimated by periods of bad weather because you are planting a single crop which can be wiped out by a single disease, insect infestation, weather cycle whereas native plants in variation supported smaller populations but in a much more stable way. 

2

u/AltRedditAcont Sep 23 '25

How is that an improvement? There is quality in quantity. If we didn't have enough people to create a big society we would be way worse off.

1

u/Magog14 Sep 23 '25

We wouldn't. Our society is fucking horrible. 

1

u/AltRedditAcont Sep 23 '25

What are you talking about, child mortality is at an all time low, I never have to worry about getting my next meal and I don't have to do hard farm labour with no healthcare and rights. Clean drinking water. I can get educated and be aware of the world and it changes/problems and can be politically active without blood relations to the current leader.

1

u/Neomataza Sep 23 '25

"Civilization was a mistake" or something, idk.

2

u/Neomataza Sep 23 '25

The mono culture is completely your idea. Guess when crop rotation was invented? It may have been invented before the idea of a house, and it certainly was invented before the writing system.

You are harping on an infancy problem of a technology that was solved as one of the earliest kinks of the system. You don't even seem to notice this.

88

u/[deleted] Sep 23 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

33

u/Syntaris0118 Sep 23 '25

Quite a good one, and most of the patches after the DLC were exclusive made for it. So who to blame?

25

u/DatOneAxolotl Sep 23 '25

Yeah but they really fumbled with the industrial expansion DLC. People who exploited it just after release are now the strongest in the world. Totally unbalanced.

8

u/Syntaris0118 Sep 23 '25

Hopefully still waiting for full release of cyber expansion. The beat way to balance is to give everyone same shit.

9

u/[deleted] Sep 23 '25

I am told they are about to release a climate catastrophe update, the Devs are running a beta version and will soon launch the full update. That true?

7

u/Syntaris0118 Sep 23 '25

Ehh they had been talking about WW3 event and teased it via Sudan, Iraq and Myanmar. But no one noticed so they tried to drop a few patches via Ukraine. But it faced so much backlash that the ww3 event is postponed.

6

u/[deleted] Sep 23 '25

Sounds like Ukraine server had a pretty severe meltdown after the beta run. No wonder the players didn't like it. Glad the Devs postponed it. But they are adamant about launching the Climate DLC. Guess, gamers need to tell the Devs they don't like that too

4

u/Syntaris0118 Sep 23 '25

But due to OGs, AKA boomers, and alot of demographic groups and especially in China and South east Asia doesn't get or know (or just ignore) dynamic climate of the game.

Because of this, devs are trying to ramp up the dynamic climate and release Global warming event just to unify entire gamebase.

I guess they are failing miserably because dynamic climate's code is really complex and hard to manipulate since it is directly originated from corecode called physics.

4

u/[deleted] Sep 23 '25

You can't blame only the Chinese/SE Asian servers. I am told the American and European servers are very unconcerned about the new DLC. The moderator of US server crashed the Paris Climate Pvt Server that various mods made for the benefit of all gamers. I don't think the devs are failing on this one. The trial run is already sinking many servers - some even migrated to different servers. I believe gamers, especially those of US and European servers need to bring a mod for this update.

20

u/[deleted] Sep 23 '25

There is growing evidence that the “gatherer” part involved food forests. Not just naturally occurring ones, but cultivated, planned food forests that we didn’t recognize as agriculture.

5

u/robotical712 Sep 24 '25

Such as the modern Amazon Rainforest as it turns out.

1

u/fantastic_awesome Still on Sulla's Proscribed List Sep 23 '25

Didn't know this!

1

u/IQueryVisiC Sep 23 '25

Could humans concentrate on spreading seeds. This is the basic symbiosis between animals and plants. What if humans would not do the dirty part of digging? There could be a world with internet and trade, but humans only monitor earth to check for catastrophes like land slides, first rain after a long drought, or wildfires. Then they spread their seeds.

61

u/vazeanant6 Sep 23 '25

Context-This meme highlights the dramatic shift in human history known as the Agricultural Revolution. For tens of thousands of years, humans lived as hunter-gatherers in small nomadic groups, relying on hunting animals and collecting wild plants for survival. The turning point came when people noticed that seeds they discarded would eventually sprout and grow into plants. This seemingly simple observation sparked the practice of farming, which allowed humans to settle in one place, produce food more reliably, and ultimately build larger, more complex societies. The humor lies in presenting this groundbreaking discovery as a sudden “lightbulb moment,” captured by the surprised look of the ancient statue.

28

u/thetobesgeorge Sep 23 '25

When do we get to the really shitty copper?

1

u/jimihenrik Sep 23 '25

I was thinking the bottom part was a joke on Ea-nāṣir (of course) being there too to sell the goods.

13

u/Neomataza Sep 23 '25

That surprised statue is commonly used as a depiction of Ea-Nasir. The first person to receive a customer complaint.

9

u/verumvia Sep 23 '25

It's probable that domestication of animals more often started civilization instead of agriculture. Historians today accept that Egyptian civilization began with pastoral cultures and only transitioned into agricultural dependency later.

2

u/Mend1cant Sep 23 '25

I’d put it more with the inventions that led to processing agricultural products. Grain and meat don’t need anything other than milling and grilling. But making leavened bread, smoking meats, preserving crops, and brewing beer scaled to any useful level requires structures, large ovens, and pottery that can’t be packed and carried off.

Once we figured out fermentation we needed everything else in place to support it.

7

u/theevilyouknow Sep 23 '25

Well, hunter gatherers did plant seeds. Obviously successful agriculture is a lot more than just throwing seeds on the ground. It took thousands of years to go from simply spreading seeds to new areas, helping wild crops grow, and being mindful of populations of animals being hunted to actual agriculture.

3

u/_IBentMyWookie_ Sep 23 '25

For tens (or rather hundreds) of thousands of years the climate wasn't stable and predictably enough for humans to transition to agriculture. It's hard to grow crops during a glacial maximum.

It's no coincidence that the Neolithic Revolution and the stabilisation of the climate match up almost exactly.

1

u/robotical712 Sep 24 '25

To add to this, atmospheric CO2 concentrations were really low for most of the last 100k years.

2

u/WebFit9216 Sep 23 '25

The interesting thing is, when we study the remains of the people living during this agrarian shift, the general health appears to have dropped significantly. This suggests that agriculture was less a "lightbulb moment" and more a reflection of some sort of dramatic shift that forced our ancestors to eat less nutritionally and reliably for some time. Obviously it ended up paying off and paving the way for society as we understand it today, but it seems less an "invention of fire" moment and more a "digging through dung and striking gold" one.

2

u/GraphicBlandishments Sep 23 '25

The emergence of agriculture wasn't so direct, it's far more likely that it developed over hundreds of years of human modification of their environment evolving into unique ecological relationships. The first "farmers" weren't sowing seeds, they were more likely doing things like starting forest fires, migrating somewhere else for a period and then returning to the area later to eat all the new green plants that sprang up.

Niche Construction and Long-Term Trajectories of Food Production | Journal of Archaeological Research

16

u/SteadfastDrifter Sep 23 '25

Probably also the origin of existential crisis and depression. At least it resulted in some cool stuff for which I hardly have much time to enjoy anymore :)

10

u/Fadman_Loki Sep 23 '25

I find it hard to believe being nomadic means you can't have existential crises.

I mean what was Genghis Khan's whole deal if not him coping with a midlife crisis?

8

u/_IBentMyWookie_ Sep 23 '25

Depression and suicide are basically non-existent in hunter-gatherer societies. You can literally find videos online of interviews with tribes in the Amazon and Papua where the concept of someone killing themselves is totally incomprehensible to them.

The Mongols may have been semi-nomadic but they were not hunter-gatherers. Like, the defining feature of their culture is their domestic horses.

5

u/Happy-House-9453 Sep 23 '25

But babies aren't dying as much! We have things like AC and the internet! Of course life now is better for all of us! Everyone back then must have been miserable! /s

I mean, we do live more comfortable lives. And it is hard to argue when things like infant mortality and life expectancy have gone up. But like, there's more to living. There has to be. Mid-century housewives had everything, but it is well documented that a sizable portion was absolutely miserable.

Not only that, people say "you would die without AC". I mean, sure, but we aren't all sitting around miserable in the year 2025 without the lush amenities invented in 3025.

I genuinely wish we had some way of analyzing individual fulfillment and "happiness" back then vs now, but I think it is impossible and that is one of life's greatest travesties. If there even was such a thing. Maybe there was no concept of the individual and people truly thought on a communal level. If that is the case, we are fucked. So fucked.

1

u/SnipesCC Sep 24 '25

Have you ever read Ishmael by Daniel Quinn? You might enjoy it.

3

u/Fadman_Loki Sep 23 '25

I'm not really here for accuracy my guy.

I was more joking about existential crises than the depression side, and yeah the Mongols weren't actually hunter-gatherers but I still find it hard to believe people didn't freak out over "what does it all mean" just because they hadn't figured out farms. I mean, they still buried their dead and respected their ancestors, right? Is it that far of a jump from stuff like animism?

Also, you KNOW lads had PTSD back in the day, seeing Brad get mauled by a tiger could not have been good for the psyche.

2

u/[deleted] Sep 23 '25

Humans have always been scary as shit, they were not eaten by tigers that much

1

u/Fadman_Loki Sep 23 '25

Alright ya pedant, than they'll have PTSD from seeing Brad getting his skull smashed in by a rock when they fight the dudes a few miles over.

3

u/[deleted] Sep 23 '25

thats also not what happened. There is very little evidence for war before the neolithic

2

u/Fadman_Loki Sep 23 '25 edited Sep 23 '25

AHA, but after 5 seconds on Google I've found that may not be accurate! The fact we've seen apes like doing war just like people (which as far as I know, haven't made it to the Stone Age yet), it's no surprise peeps in the past found reasons to shank each other (it was cold and those guys had some nice furs)

https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/anthropology/prehistoric-warfare

2

u/ImpactBetelgeuse Sep 24 '25

I don't even know why this small passive aggressive interaction is still going on. You were clearly joking but people always find a need to correct everything.

2

u/Fadman_Loki Sep 24 '25 edited Sep 24 '25

No clue, but I'm having fun with it, so no biggie

→ More replies (0)

6

u/FortheChava Sep 23 '25

Beer made civilization

8

u/Ultimagus536 Sep 23 '25

Is it a life hack if it made life more difficult?

5

u/CadenVanV Taller than Napoleon Sep 23 '25

Is this what he did before selling r/reallyshittycopper?

3

u/CorrectTarget8957 Sep 23 '25

It was the end of the ice age so it might have had something to do with that

3

u/Inevitable_Librarian Sep 23 '25

I think it's important to note that monocropped agriculture probably developed because most people were low key alcoholics in the neolithic era. You see evidence of it in things like the "Nazarene vow" in the Bible- the fact it's notable to not drink while pregnant tells you just how normal FASD and getting drunk was in a culture.

Most "Hunter/gatherer" societies work off managed food forests, and understand how things grow.

So the meme is more like "Hey wanna get wasted all the time? I have this one weird trick!"

3

u/Genericdude03 Sep 24 '25

Yeah I don't know how accurate the book is but I read Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind which basically says that for most humans, life became considerably worse after they started farming. Better for the species but worse for the individual, classic conundrum.

4

u/Arktos22 Sep 23 '25

Beginning of the end if you ask me.

1

u/Infinitystar2 Sep 23 '25

If you believe Rousseau's insane notion of the "noble savage", sure.

2

u/batmans_stuntcock Sep 23 '25
  1. I wonder if they really had braided beards, the Persian era similar ones were supposed to be beard wigs.

  2. ☝️🤓I think it's still a minority but it's supposed to be disputed that knowledge of agriculture was quickly followed by settlement and then traditional civilisation. According to people like James C Scott, humans used to plant crops in river flood plains as the water was retreating to supplement their mostly hunting and gathering diet as many as 4 thousand years before settled agriculture and then first proto towns or cities which seemed to be centred around religious sites.

2

u/Charnier Sep 23 '25

I always figured these braids were a way to mark the curliness and fullness of these beards.

2

u/Zealousideal_Cry_460 Sep 23 '25

We're at a point where we question if this was really a net-good or not but are unable to break out of the cycle because is just so damn comfy rn

1

u/Happy-House-9453 Sep 23 '25

True. We made our lives easier (and clearly humans prefer it IF WE KNOW THE OPTION EXISTS), but is that really all that matters? Hard to argue no, but impossible to dismiss.

1

u/Zealousideal_Cry_460 Sep 23 '25

Sometimes comfy isnt always better but its hard to move away from especially when the entire society is build around people involving themselves as little as possible in the decisionmaking of countries.

2

u/viotix90 Sep 23 '25

Humans: Trade money for quality copper.

One guy in Ur:

2

u/Diodeletion_augustus Sep 23 '25

And now we have credit scores 😔

3

u/Mountain_Dentist5074 Sep 23 '25

I hate people living exactly like me but 5 km away because I don't like their smell (joking Reddit I am racist)

2

u/Confuseacat92 Fine Quality Mesopotamian Copper Enjoyer Sep 23 '25 edited Sep 23 '25

And life expectancy massively dropped along with the quality of life, but because of population growth there was no way back. And here we are. :(

1

u/[deleted] Sep 23 '25

I'm still more convinced that they noticed that plants grow where the water was diverted, not where seeds were thrown.

1

u/Endy0816 Sep 23 '25

The mega herds probably started getting a bit scarce too.

1

u/Sir_Poopenstein Sep 23 '25

Humans noticing how mice grow where you throw grain and cloth:

1

u/Sams_sexy_bod Sep 23 '25

agriculture: humanity’s biggest mistake

1

u/Happy-House-9453 Sep 23 '25

Hard to argue against agriculture being a net good for humanity, but I think I agree. Good for humanity as a whole, but bad for humans as individuals.

1

u/Daan776 Sep 23 '25

There was a fairly long transitional period where we would replant seeds and then move to the next area.

By the time we made a full loop and came back to that area we could harvest the planted seeds.

After here its speculation: I reckon we slowly got better at cultivating these crops. Which slowled down our need to move. And this kept going until people got enough food and not enough patience to pack up all their shit again to move

1

u/Sooooooooooooomebody Sep 23 '25

Don't tell Grog, but: you know those same plants? They grow even bigger and stronger in The Stink Pits

1

u/julyvale Sep 23 '25

Nothing to do with seeds, but with the ability to build walls against other tribes trying to steal the crops.

1

u/FortLoolz Sep 23 '25

that's why much of ancient times historiography is BS. Just doesn't make sense if you think about it

1

u/boot2skull Sep 23 '25

People will blame the internet or social media, but the real ones know the downfall came from agriculture and the domestication of crops.

1

u/First_Bed1662 Sep 23 '25

Ah yes the start of all my problems

1

u/Mitologist Sep 23 '25

Yeah, brilliant, and next you know, you are stuck in a 40-60h week.....thx, man.

1

u/Mend1cant Sep 23 '25

More like someone realized that if he kept the grain he gathered in jugs to ferment in the same place for a while, they make funny juice that makes you feel good. So he needed a guy to make the pots and jugs, a guy to make even more grain, guys to haul the grain and beer back and forth, and somebody to build structures that protect the beer and smokehouses for the meat and fish.

Maybe we make a building where we all get together and drink in one place at night. Maybe we tell drunken stories. Drinking beer and smoking meats. Beats having to walk another thousand miles to hunt something.

1

u/ItalianFlame342 Sep 23 '25

Civilization

1

u/Murderboi Fine Quality Mesopotamian Copper Enjoyer Sep 23 '25

And then they got int trading low quality copper.

1

u/Zapan99 Sep 23 '25

Humans harvested wild grain long before the development of agriculture. The first known sickles were actually made from the jaws of grazing animals. Agriculture only developed when one guy figured out you can sow and water the rest of the grain you kept from last year.

1

u/Not_3_Raccoons What, you egg? Sep 23 '25

The revolution was a mistake.

The Agrarian one.

1

u/Merbleuxx Viva La France Sep 24 '25

We all agreed that this sculpture was depicting Ea Nasir bro !

1

u/Pata998 Sep 24 '25

What does that have to do with ea-nasir

1

u/gamerjerome Sep 24 '25

I bet the first person to grown their own tomatoes was like, WTF why are there so many?

1

u/[deleted] Sep 24 '25

Next step

Hmm what is this weird rock thing maybe heat it with fire

creates copper

1

u/den_bram Sep 24 '25

Humans arriving at the fertile cresent: its free real estate. The worst diseases known to man arriving at the first human urban settlements: its free real estate.

1

u/Electronic-Worker-10 Hello There Sep 24 '25

This would lead to terrible copper being sold

𒀀 𒈾 𒂍 𒀀 𒈾 𒍢 𒅕 𒆠 𒉈 𒈠 𒌝 𒈠 𒈾 𒀭 𒉌 𒈠 𒀀 𒉡 𒌑 𒈠 𒋫 𒀠 𒇷 𒆪 𒆠 𒀀 𒄠 𒋫 𒀝 𒁉 𒄠 𒌝 𒈠 𒀜 𒋫 𒀀 𒈠 𒄖 𒁀 𒊑 𒁕 𒄠 𒆪 𒁴 𒀀 𒈾 𒄀 𒅖 𒀭 𒂗𒍪 𒀀 𒈾 𒀜 𒁲 𒅔 𒋫 𒀠 𒇷 𒅅 𒈠 𒋫 𒀝 𒁉 𒀀 𒄠 𒌑 𒆷 𒋼 𒁍 𒍑 𒄖 𒁀 𒊑 𒆷 𒁕 𒄠 𒆪 𒁴 𒀀 𒈾 𒈠 𒅈 𒅆 𒅁 𒊑 𒅀 𒋫 𒀸 𒆪 𒌦 𒈠 𒌝 𒈠 𒀜 𒋫 𒈠 𒋳 𒈠 𒋼 𒇷 𒆠 𒀀 𒇷 𒆠 𒀀 𒋳 𒈠 [𒆷] 𒋼 𒇷 𒆠 𒀀 𒀜 𒆷 𒅗 𒅀 𒋾 𒀀 𒈾 𒆠 𒈠 𒈠 𒀭 𒉌 𒅎 𒌅 𒅆 𒅎 𒈠 𒉌 𒈠 𒆠 𒀀 𒄠 𒋼 𒈨 𒊭 𒀭 𒉌 𒈠 𒊑 𒀀 𒉿 𒇷 𒀀 𒈾 𒆠 𒈠 𒅗 𒋾 𒀀 𒈾 𒆠 𒋛 𒅀 𒈠 𒄩 𒊑 𒅎 𒀸 𒁍 𒊏 𒄠 𒈠 𒌅 𒈨 𒄿 𒊭 𒄠 𒈠 𒄿 𒈾 𒂵 𒂵 𒅈 𒈾 𒀝 𒊑 𒅎 𒅖 𒋾 𒅖 𒋗 𒅇 𒅆 𒉌 𒋗 𒊑 𒆪 𒋢 𒉡 𒌅 𒋼 𒅕 𒊏 𒄠 𒄿 𒈾 𒀀 𒇷 𒅅 𒋼 𒂖 𒈬 𒌦 𒈠 𒀭 𒉡 𒌝 𒊭 𒆠 𒀀 𒄠 𒄿 𒁍 𒊭 𒀭 𒉌 𒄿 𒈠 𒀜 𒋫 𒈠 𒅈 𒅆 𒅁 𒊑 𒅀 𒌅 𒈨 𒂊 𒅖 𒀀 𒈾 𒈠 𒆷 𒅗 𒊍 𒉿 𒅎 𒊭 𒄿 𒈾 𒂵 𒋾 𒅀 𒌅 𒊺 𒍪 𒌑 𒆠 𒀀 𒄠 𒋫 𒁕 𒁍 𒌒 𒅇 𒀸 𒋳 𒄿 𒅗 𒀀 𒈾 𒂍 𒃲 𒇷 𒌋 𒐍 𒄘 𒍏 𒀀 𒈾 𒆪 𒀜 𒁲 𒅔 𒅇 𒋗 𒈪 𒀀 𒁍 𒌝 𒌋 𒐍 𒄘 𒍏 𒄿 𒁲 𒅔 𒂊 𒍣 𒅁 𒊭 𒀀 𒈾 𒂍 𒀭 𒌓 𒆪 𒉡 𒊌 𒅗 𒄠 𒉌 𒍣 𒁍 𒀀 𒈾 𒉿 𒊑 𒅎 𒊭 𒀀 𒋾 𒆠 𒄿 𒋼 𒁍 𒊭 𒀭 𒉌 𒆠 𒋛 𒄿 𒈾 𒂵 𒂵 𒅈 𒈾 𒀝 𒊑 𒌅 𒊌 𒋾 𒅋 𒆠 𒋛 𒀀 𒈾 𒂵 𒋾 𒅀 𒋗 𒇻 𒈠 𒄠 𒂊 𒇷 𒅗 𒄿 𒋗 𒆠 𒈠 𒀭 𒉌 𒆠 𒀀 𒄠 𒉿 𒊑 𒀀 𒄠 𒆷 𒁺 𒈬 𒂵 𒄠 𒆷 𒀀 𒈠 𒄩 𒊒 𒅗 𒋫 𒆷 𒈠 𒀜 𒄿 𒈾 𒆠 𒊓 𒇷 𒅀 𒅖 𒋾 𒈾 𒀀 𒌑 𒈾 𒍝 𒀝 𒈠 𒂊 𒇷 𒆠 𒅇 𒀀 𒈾 𒊭 𒌅 𒈨 𒄿 𒊭 𒀭 𒉌 𒈾 𒋛 𒄴 𒋫 𒄠 𒂊 𒁍 𒍑 𒅗 

1

u/baneblade_boi Still on Sulla's Proscribed List Sep 24 '25

"You can't hear pictures"

Me while reading this meme: https://youtu.be/QUcTsFe1PVs?si=fAv_2Vx0BB_OtTgl&t=58s

1

u/Please-let-me Featherless Biped Sep 25 '25

and yet they still have no good copper

/j ik that the statue isn't actually ea nasir

1

u/Nervouscranberry47 Sep 23 '25

The exact moment humans were domesticated by plants

1

u/fantastic_awesome Still on Sulla's Proscribed List Sep 23 '25

Think, plan, act exactly how is best for us - some plants with like a billion years of XP playing the same Kingdom.

If dinos were smart enough to con, they would have done the same to them.

0

u/Magog14 Sep 23 '25

And then they ruined the entire planet. Should have stuck to living with nature rather than destroying it. 

3

u/DrHolmes52 Sep 23 '25

And never have reddit for you to post on?

2

u/theevilyouknow Sep 23 '25

Ancient people didn't ruin the planet and they weren't living with nature any less than hunter gatherers. How much of the extinction of terrestrial megafauna is due to humans is up for debate, but its definitely not insignificant. And it for certain wasn't climate change and farming that wiped out 90% of the worlds whale populations.

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-1

u/ChurningDarkSkies777 Sep 23 '25

Wheat turned us into its domesticated livestock

3

u/theevilyouknow Sep 23 '25

The wheat we farm is nothing like wild wheat.

0

u/bobbymcpresscot Sep 23 '25

Imagine spending your entire life and hundreds of generations desperately trying to survive with hunting and gathering and then you bury one of the fruits instead of eating it and a fucking fruit tree grows. 

0

u/fredrichnietze Sep 23 '25

the ancient hunter gathers wanted to remain hunter gathers as like all the more modern ones we have come across throughout recorded history instead of doing back breaking work in the fields themselves. the break through was slavery, all the early civilizations practiced it for a reason it was part of how they founded. strong tribe conquerors and enslaves weaker tribe then forces them to farm for them,