The switch to agriculture happened 10,000 years ago in the Middle East. Domestication of animals happened at about the same time. After development of a sedentary lifestyle, new environmental limits begin to emerge. By 2,000 years later, the quality of the plaster had deteriorated. Eventually they stopped making plaster altogether, then abandoned the village.
Evidence suggests that they had used up the available fuelwood in the area.
Current Bedouin populations in the area also combine goat herding with agriculture, but the Ain Gazal population was much larger. The change to farming in the Middle East 10,000 years ago was the Neolithic Revolution. The next great revolution, in terms of how we use the Earth, was the Industrial Revolution, which started just over 200 years ago in England. The IR created wealth and markets, environmental pollution, and the need for raw materials. Another important changes was enclosing private land with fences, individual owners were then willing to invest in mechanization and modern agricultural technology.