scholarly journals Regional diversity on the timing for the initial appearance of cereal cultivation and domestication in southwest Asia

2016 ◽  
Vol 113 (49) ◽  
pp. 14001-14006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amaia Arranz-Otaegui ◽  
Sue Colledge ◽  
Lydia Zapata ◽  
Luis Cesar Teira-Mayolini ◽  
Juan José Ibáñez
Keyword(s):  
Plant Domestication ◽  
Southwest Asia ◽  
Subsistence Strategies ◽  
Early Adoption ◽  
Cereal Species ◽  
Fertile Crescent ◽  
Initial Appearance ◽  
Southern Central ◽  
Diverse Plant ◽  
Cereal Cultivation

Recent studies have broadened our knowledge regarding the origins of agriculture in southwest Asia by highlighting the multiregional and protracted nature of plant domestication. However, there have been few archaeobotanical data to examine whether the early adoption of wild cereal cultivation and the subsequent appearance of domesticated-type cereals occurred in parallel across southwest Asia, or if chronological differences existed between regions. The evaluation of the available archaeobotanical evidence indicates that during Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) cultivation of wild cereal species was common in regions such as the southern-central Levant and the Upper Euphrates area, but the plant-based subsistence in the eastern Fertile Crescent (southeast Turkey, Iran, and Iraq) focused on the exploitation of plants such as legumes, goatgrass, fruits, and nuts. Around 10.7–10.2 ka Cal BP (early Pre-Pottery Neolithic B), the predominant exploitation of cereals continued in the southern-central Levant and is correlated with the appearance of significant proportions (∼30%) of domesticated-type cereal chaff in the archaeobotanical record. In the eastern Fertile Crescent exploitation of legumes, fruits, nuts, and grasses continued, and in the Euphrates legumes predominated. In these two regions domesticated-type cereal chaff (>10%) is not identified until the middle and late Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (10.2–8.3 ka Cal BP). We propose that the cultivation of wild and domesticated cereals developed at different times across southwest Asia and was conditioned by the regionally diverse plant-based subsistence strategies adopted by Pre-Pottery Neolithic groups.

Survival in a Climate of Change: The Origins and Evolution of Nomadic Dairying in Mongolia

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 20-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul S. Kindstedt ◽  
Tsetsgee Ser-Od
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Southwest Asia ◽  
Early Neolithic ◽  
Eurasian Steppe ◽  
Rapid Climate Change ◽  
Fertile Crescent ◽  
Change Events

Dairying and cheesemaking originated in the Fertile Crescent during the early Neolithic and then spread widely throughout Southwest Asia and Europe. Rennet coagulated cheesemaking became a key preservation strategy for milk in these regions. A different form of dairying, based on nomadic and semi-nomadic herding, and a different form of milk preservation based on the production of dried acid coagulated and acid-heat coagulated cheeses, developed on the Eurasian steppe and is still practiced in Mongolia today. This work seeks to reconstruct the migration and evolution of dairying and cheesemaking practices from their Neolithic origin in Southwest Asia to Mongolia, and to establish the role that rapid climate change events played in this process.

Prehistoric Agriculture in China: Food Globalization in Prehistory

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giedrė Motuzaitė Matuzevičiūtė ◽  
Xinyi Liu
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Foxtail Millet ◽  
Animal Husbandry ◽  
Plant Domestication ◽  
Research Review ◽  
Prehistoric Agriculture ◽  
Continental Scale ◽  
Centre Of Origin ◽  
Fertile Crescent ◽  
The World

It is commonly recognised that farming activities initiated independently in different parts of the world between approximately 12,000 and 8,000 years ago. Two of such agricultural centres is situated in modern-day China, where systems based on the cultivation of plants and animal husbandry has developed. Recent investigations have shown that between 5000 and 1500 cal. bce, the Eurasian and African landmass underpinned a continental-scale process of food “globalisation of staple crops. In the narrative of food domestication and global food dispersal processes, China has played a particularly important role, contributing key staple food domesticates such as rice, broomcorn, and foxtail millet. The millets dispersed from China across Eurasia during the Bronze Age, becoming an essential food for many ancient communities. In counterpoise, southwest Asian crops, such as wheat or barley, found new habitats among the ancient populations of China, dramatically changing the course of its development. The processes of plant domestication and prehistoric agriculture in China have been a topic of extensive research, review, and discussion by many scholars around the world, and there is a great deal of literature on these topics. One of the consequences of these discoveries concerning the origins of agriculture in China has been to undermine the notion of a single centre of origin for civilisation, agriculture, and urbanism, which was a popular and widespread narrative in the past. It has become clear that agricultural centres of development in China were concurrent with, rather than after, the Fertile Crescent.

scholarly journals Pathways to plant domestication in Southeast Anatolia based on new data from aceramic Neolithic Gusir Höyük

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ceren Kabukcu ◽  
Eleni Asouti ◽  
Nadja Pöllath ◽  
Joris Peters ◽  
Necmi Karul
Keyword(s):  
Plant Domestication ◽  
Environmental Constraints ◽  
Southwest Asia ◽  
Wheat Grain ◽  
Site Specific ◽  
Plant Use ◽  
Legume Crop ◽  
Southeast Anatolia ◽  
Aceramic Neolithic ◽  
Radiometric Data

AbstractSoutheast Anatolia is home to some of the earliest and most spectacular Neolithic sites associated with the beginning of cultivation and herding in the Old World. In this article we present new archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological data from Gusir Höyük, an aceramic Neolithic habitation dating to the 12th-late 11th millennia cal BP. Our results show selective use of legume crop progenitors and nuts during the earlier part of this period, followed by the management of cereal and legume crop progenitors from the mid-11th millennium cal BP. This contrasts with data available from other Anatolian habitations indicating broad spectrum plant use with low crop progenitor inputs. Early aceramic Neolithic Anatolian plant and animal exploitation strategies were site-specific, reflecting distinctive identities and culinary choices rather than environmental constraints. A multivariate evaluation of wheat grain metrics alongside botanical and radiometric data indicate that early wheat domestication in southeast Anatolia occurred at a faster pace than predicted by current hypotheses for a protracted transition to farming in Southwest Asia. We argue that this phenomenon is best explained as a corollary of the increasing importance of cereals in feasting at southeast Anatolian sites characterised by increasing architectural complexity and elaboration during the 11th millennium cal BP.

Crop Domestication and Gender

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lincoln Taiz ◽  
Lee Taiz
Keyword(s):  
Agricultural Development ◽  
Close Association ◽  
Wild Plants ◽  
Plant Domestication ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Crop Domestication ◽  
Fertile Crescent ◽  
And Gender

“Crop Domestication and Gender” traces the rise of permanent settlements and incipient agriculture from the Pre-pottery Neolithic to the Pottery Neolithic in the Levant, together with the iconographic changes that show a shift from the predominance of zoomorphic forms to female forms concurrent with the increasing importance of agriculture. It discusses relevant geographic features, climactic periods and changes in temperature, rainfall and glaciation while exploring the important transitional cultures and the artifacts that reveal the progress of agricultural development and plant domestication. Domestication of the founder crops of the Fertile Crescent are described, together with markers in the archaeological record that distinguish wild plants from domesticated plants. The abundance of female figurines at the Neolithic village of Sha’ar Hagolan and the presence of cryptic agricultural symbols at Hacilar and Çatalhüyük, support a close association of women, cats, and agriculture, most famously exemplified by the so-called “grain bin goddess“ of Çatalhüyük.

Reconsidering the Ocampo Caves and the Era of Incipient Cultivation in Mesoamerica

1997 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 342-383 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce D. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Food Production ◽  
Crop Plants ◽  
Plant Domestication ◽  
Origins Of Agriculture ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Cultural Contexts ◽  
Initial Appearance ◽  
Northeastern Mexico ◽  
Almost All

In northeastern Mexico, near Ocampo, Romero’s and Valenzuela’s caves have been central to explanations of agricultural origins in Mesoamerica for more than four decades. Along with caves in Tehuacán and Oaxaca, these "Ocampo caves" have provided almost all of the available evidence for the initial appearance of a number of key Mesoamerican crop plants, including maize, beans, and squash. This article reanalyzes the cultural and temporal context of five crop plant assemblages in the Ocampo caves: maize (Zea mays), bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria), and three species of squash (Cucurbita argyrosperma, C. moschata, C. pepo). Fifteen AMS radiocarbon dates on early domesticates both confirm the stratigraphic integrity of the two caves and substantially revise the temporal framework for initial appearance of core domesticates in northeastern Mexico, showing the transition to food production in Tamaulipas took place more recently than previously thought. A substantially foreshortened chronology for Ocampo crop plants confirms the northern periphery role of Tamaulipas in the origins of agriculture in Mexico, while also underscoring the need for establishing AMS-based archaeobotanical sequences across Mesoamerica to gain an adequate context for understanding the temporal, environmental, and cultural contexts of initial plant domestication in the region.

Iberia

2020 ◽  
pp. 50-94
Author(s):  
David M. Carballo
Keyword(s):  
Animal Husbandry ◽  
Southwest Asia ◽  
Imperial Rome ◽  
Fertile Crescent ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Economic Developments ◽  
Administrative Strategies ◽  
The Waves ◽  
Cultural Developments

A deep history of Iberia examines the waves of conquest and cultural developments on the Iberian peninsula. Agriculture was imported to Iberia from the Fertile Crescent region of Southwest Asia and included animal husbandry and the use of pack animals. Autonomous cultural developments of native Iberians were stimulated by maritime powers that sailed west along the Mediterranean: the Phoenicians, Greeks, Carthaginians, and Romans, each growing in their imperial reach and providing a base for later political and economic developments. Iberians also took advantage of their geographical setting on a peninsular hinge between the Mediterranean and Atlantic worlds, which connected two major maritime spheres of interaction and saw the development of hybrid ships increasingly suited to open ocean crossing. Following the collapse of imperial Rome, Iberia fluctuated between Christian and Islamic rule, with the former emerging victorious after a centuries-long program of national unification known as the Reconquista, or “reconquest.” Crops introduced by Muslims and administrative strategies implemented by Christian kingdoms in frontier regions were direct predecessors of the plantation-like economies eventually imposed on the Americas.

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