During most of the Stone Age, people in Egypt, like people everywhere else in the world, lived byhunting and gatheringtheir food. They traveled around from place to place in the Nile Valley, harvesting wild grasses, digging up roots, picking berries, and finding bird eggs. They fished in the Nile River and they gathered reeds from its shores to make baskets. They hunted wild cattle and turtles.
But farming brought many other changes too. Once people were planting crops, they had to defend the land where their crops were. If strangers came by, they couldn't just leave. There was more fighting. Soon people began to band together into larger communities that could fight better. They chose leaders. And those leaders, seeing the advantages that farming brought them, forced more and more people to start farming and settle down under their leadership.
But farming brought many other changes too. Once people were planting crops, they had to defend the land where their crops were. If strangers came by, they couldn't just leave. There was more fighting. Soon people began to band together into larger communities that could fight better. They chose leaders. And those leaders, seeing the advantages that farming brought them, forced more and more people to start farming and settle down under their leadership.
By around 10000 BC, Egypt had gotten crowded enough so that people were forced to begin growing their own food instead of only huntingand gathering it. About the same time, people also started farming inWest Asia.
Probably people have always known how to grow plants from seeds, but they preferred to just go out and pick wild food, because that was easier. But when there got to be enough people, the wild food didn't grow enough to feed everyone, and people had to beginplanting their own as well. People also began to keep tame cows, sheep, and pigs. Today we call this the Agricultural Revolution.