Agriculture from the stone age through medieval period to the present day?
The transformation from the Paleolithic to the Neolithic revolution was when nomadic tribes started to become extinct because of the discovery of the ability to grow crops and settle in one region,instead of moving from place to place in excursion for food. The Medieval period consisted more of feudalism and serfdom, the exchange of land for military service. Present day economy is based on industry and machinery. All of this came about through invention and evolution produced from the minds of human beings amazingly.
Why didn't Native Americans advance in technology like the Eastern and Western world?
There were different types of advancement. Europe was in a perpetual state of warfare, in a class-driven society, in which the peasants at the bottom were virtual slaves to the nobles. Women were worthless. Native americans were far more advanced socially. In native american societies, government was mostly democratic, with women having equal rights. All people were considered equal. (the US constitution is actually modeled after the Iroquois confederacy.) The poor and the elderly were cared for. ( In Europe they were turned out into the streets to beg) Native americans practiced a high standard of hygiene, with daily bathing and pressurized plumbing in their cities. In Europe, people threw the contents of their chamber pots into the streets, and thought bathing was immoral. Native americans practiced very efficient farming techniques, including multiple crop fields and using fertilizers, and crop rotation. Europe was doing so poorly agriculturally that much of the population was on the brink of starvation. (today, 70% of the world's food crop comes from plants first cultivated and farmed by native americans) What native americans didn't have were beasts of burden (except for dogs) and domesticated livestock (except for turkeys) They also didn't have the constant pressure of warfare to drive them to create more efficient killing weapons. edit****shame that some ignorant people are thumbs-downing a truth they'd rather ignore. btw @ rubicon- an interesting note about just how quick we WERE able to adapt....in 1680, the spanish controlled puebloes revolted, and the captured horses were sold to my nation. ( That was the first time my people saw a horse, and we were the first natives to master them) A generation later, the spanish were attempting to advance into my homeland, when they were stopped in their tracks by a cavalry of 3,000 mounted warriors, all wielding lances and bows from horseback. The Spanish were astonished and rightly intimidated. And we did fight them off for over a hundred years. That's why Arizona isn't part of Mexico. (the method the US used to finally defeat us was to burn all our farms and slaughter all our livestock, until our people were starving and had to submit. That's the only way they could do it.)
Why did it take a heatwave to uncover a Neolithic monument in Ireland?
I haven’t seen this bit of news, but I’d suggest this could be the reason: from above, you can see parch marks in a field where stone or rock is near the surface. You can also see where ditches were because the infill soil will hold more water so the growth over the ditch will still be green where the rest is parched.Similarly, at ground level, the crops growing out of the location of the ditch will be taller than those growing out of normal soil, or where there are stone or brick remains near the surface. In fact, if the stone is very near to the surface, crops might hardly grow at all.
Creating water from ROCKS!!!?
Wow, long answer above. I do not know about leeching water from the atmosphere using rocks. There is such a thing as a solar still though. Maybe the thing with the rocks is a variant of that. The solar still described uses a small rock to create an upside-down pyramid in the plastic sheet. More rocks are used to anchor the sheet. Check out the link for how to build a solar still.