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When did the first agriculture develop after the last Ice Age?

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Domesticated yaks carrying supplies in colorful bundles walk along a rocky mountain trail toward Everest Base Camp, with snow-covered peaks in the background in Sagarmatha National Park, Nepal. — Domestication Domesticated yaks (*Bos grunniens*) carrying supplies to an Everest base camp in Sagarmatha National Park, Khumbu region, Nepal.

The first agriculture appears to have developed at the closing of the last Pleistocene glacial period, or Ice Age, approximately 11,700 years ago.1

As global temperatures warmed and ecosystems reorganized, humans began to transition from foraging to agriculture. This process did not occur simultaneously across the globe; rather, it involved diverse cultural responses and independent developments in various regions. For example, in the Fertile Crescent, evidence from radiocarbon dating indicates that incipient agriculture and settled village communities were established by about 8000 bce, if not earlier.12

It is important to note that the transition was not a sudden event but rather a continuum of subsistence practices, where early resource management often bridged the boundary between hunting and gathering and formal farming.1