Explores the origins and impact of agriculture across the globe, arguably the most important change in all of human history.

1. Introduction: a world with agriculture Graeme Barker and Candice Goucher; 2. Archaeogenetics Maria Pala, Pedro Soares, Gyaneshwer Chaubey and Martin B. Richards; 3. Agricultural origins: what linguistic evidence reveals Christopher Ehret; 4. What did agriculture do for us? The bioarchaeology of health and diet Charlotte Roberts; 5. Communities Amy Bogaard; 6. Pastoralism Alan Outram; 7. Agriculture and urbanism Daphne Gallagher and Rod McIntosh; 8. Early agriculture in Southwest Asia Alan Simmon; 9. 'Ain Ghazal (Jordan): a neolithic town prima inter pares Gary Rollefson; 10. Early agriculture in South Asia Eleanor Kingwell-Banham, Cameron A. Petrie and Dorian Q. Fuller; 11. Mehgarh Cameron A. Petrie; 12. Early agriculture in China Xinyi Liu, Dorian Q. Fuller and Martin Jones; 13. Xinglonggou Xinyi Liu, Zhijun Zhao and Guoxiang Liu; 14. Early agriculture in Japan Simon Kaner and Kenichi Yano; 15. The transition from wilderness to paddy: a case study from the Nara basin, Japan, 2600-2400 years ago Kenichi Okada; 16. Early agriculture in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Huw Barton; 17. The swamp cultivators at Kuk: early agriculture in the highlands of New Guinea Tim Denham; 18. Early agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa to c.500 CE Paul Lane; 19. The Tichitt tradition (1900-400 BC): early agriculture and social complexity in the West African Sahel Kevin MacDonald; 20. Early agriculture in the Americas Deborah M. Pearsall; 21. Nanchoc Valley, Peru Tom D. Dillehay; 22. Early agricultural society in Europe Alastair Whittle; 23. Pioneer farmers and frontier households in northern Poland, 5500-4000 BC Peter Bogucki and Ryszard Grygiel.