Query: Having a surplus of food allowed farmers and hunter-gatherers to spend less time working on what?
Context: The development of writing enabled knowledge to be stored and communicated across generations with much greater fidelity. Combined with the development of agriculture, which allowed for a surplus of food, it became possible for early civilizations to develop, because more time and effort could be devoted to tasks (other than food production) than hunter-gatherers or early subsistence farmers had available. This surplus allowed a community to support individuals who did things other than work towards bare survival.