Because of agriculture, people were able to settle in one location, trade, and develop more diverse diets. For example, the ancient Egyptians thrived because the predictable nature of the Nile permitted cultivation. Furthermore, the religions of many agriculturally influenced societies, such as the Sumerians and the Native Americans, based many important gods and goddesses off of aspects of nature. Almost every prosperous society settled around some type of flowing body of water. The Tigrus and Euphrates are a good example of this as well as the aforementioned Nile river. This pattern can be further seen in China; the very heartland of the nation was separated by the Yellow river and the topography of that location influenced what foods were
