Carbon-14 dating is a scientific technique for determining the age of organic material. It mainly uses the properties of radiocarbon, a radioactive isotope of carbon, to ascertain the approximate year that an ancient organism died. With the method currently used, Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS), researchers are able to very accurately determine the age of extremely small specimens of organic matter. AMS has therefore also become an extremely reliable means of dating in archeology.

The invention of agriculture is called the first revolution in human history, in order to express the tremendous influence it had on human culture. As for the second revolution, that was the industrial revolution of the eighteenth century.