The Origins of Agriculture in the Near East

Abstract

The emerging picture of plant and animal domestication and agricultural origins in the Near East is dramatically different from that drawn 16 years ago in a landmark article by Bar-Yosef and Meadow. While in 1995 there appeared to have been at least a 1,500-year gap between plant and animal domestication, it now seems that both occurred at roughly the same time, with initial management of morphologically wild future plant and animal domesticates reaching back to at least 11,500 cal BP, if not earlier. A focus on the southern Levant as the core area for crop domestication and diffusion has been replaced by a more pluralistic view that sees domestication of various crops and livestock occurring, sometimes multiple times in the same species, across the entire region. Morphological change can no longer be held to be a leading-edge indicator of domestication. Instead, it appears that a long period of increasingly intensive human management preceded the manifestation of archaeologically detectable morphological change in managed crops and livestock. Agriculture in the Near East arose in the context of broad-based systematic human efforts at modifying local environments and biotic communities to encourage plant and animal resources of economic interest. This process took place across the entire Fertile Crescent during a period of dramatic post-Pleistocene climate and environmental change with considerable regional variation in the scope and intensity of these activities as well as in the range of resources being manipulated.

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

“…In accordance with the differences observed in the archaeological record between sites in the Levant and the eastern Fertile Crescent (33)(34)(35)(36)(37)(38)(39)(40)(41)(42)(43)(44)(45)(46)(47)(48)(49)(50), the archaeobotanical evidence also highlights regional diversity in the plant-based subsistence around 11.7-10.7 ka Cal BP (PPNA in the Levant) (51)(52)(53). With few exceptions, wild cereals were the preferred type of plant exploited at sites in the southerncentral Levant and the Euphrates area, and there is substantial evidence of cultivation at several sites.…”

“…Recent excavations in the eastern Fertile Crescent have revealed significant differences in terms of architecture (42)(43)(44)(45), lithic industries (39,41,46), burial customs (36), and animal (47)(48)(49)(50) and plant exploitation (51)(52)(53) in comparison with sites in the Levant. Because of these differences, the aceramic Neolithic groups of the eastern Fertile Crescent are often referred to as "sedentary hunter/ herder-gatherer groups" as opposed to the farming societies of the Levantine area (36,54).…”

The complex history of the olive tree: from Late Quaternary diversification of Mediterranean lineages to primary domestication in the northern Levant

“…the Strait of Gibraltar [13,43]). This paradox can be explained by the fact that advanced civilizations emerged in the north Levant, such as the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B [51,52], and that they had enough genetic resources to succeed in domesticating a selfincompatible tree. The domestication of the olive tree appears to have been a long and continuous process that involved numerous genetic exchanges between the cultivated trees and wild gene pools, as already reported for other crops [53].…”

Coevolution of farming and private property during the early Holocene

“…It is not difficult to explain cases where, following its emergence and full development in one location, the farming-cum-private property package was introduced to a new area-as in the case of the importation of farming and herding to Cyprus around 10,500 B.P., or its expansion to many parts of Europe (23,24). For this reason, we will focus on explaining the handful of well-studied cases of the independent emergence and local adoption of farming and its associated property rights.…”