The ancestors of modern humans had to live through a lot to get to the point where we are today. One of the most important milestones in that history was the development of civilization that used agriculture rather than being hunters and gatherers.

While ancient human ancestors have traveled throughout much of the Earth, real civilization started in one specific region, and thanks to an 18,000 year-old stalagmite, researchers now have a much better understanding of why this took place.

The stalagmite is in a cave located in modern Kurdistan, and by analyzing it, researchers were able to learn about the local climate conditions during that time period. This was at the time when the Earth’s last glacial period was ending, meaning the local weather and conditions were changing rapidly.

The researchers published their findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

These cave formations develop over the course of thousands of years, and during that time, they collect various sediment and other things that modern scientists can study. Specifically, they can look at the different isotopes in the stalagmite in order to get a surprisingly accurate look at the climate conditions present when that particular segment of the formation took place.

For example, they were able to reveal that 14,560 years ago, there was an increase in rainfall throughout this area, which resulted in limestone deposits occurring more quickly. Then the rain let off around 12,700 years ago, which could be seen by a greater amount of trace elements such as strontium, zinc, sodium, and barium.

In the study, the authors comment on the conditions in the area, saying that the climate:

“created a mosaic of spatially restricted, yet resource rich, environments. While these were not suited to supporting large, year-round settlements, they encouraged mobility, allowing people to exploit seasonally available resources across different elevations and ecotones, such as open-woodland, grassland, and riparian habitats.”

This, they say, created the conditions needed for our ancestors to begin building a culture that allowed them to settle in the area and develop agriculture.

Being able to study the formations from across the entire time period where this took place allowed researchers to see what made it not just possible, but probable that the development of civilization would occur in these conditions.

If you thought that was interesting, you might like to read about the mysterious “pyramids” discovered in Antarctica. What are they?