In the grand story of human origins, the invention of agriculture
is one of the most pivotal chapters. It is
generally agreed that farming first arose in the Fertile Crescent about 12,000
years ago. But did it arise in at one
end of the Crescent and spread to the other?
Or did it arise independently in various locations across the entire
region, from modern Israel to modern Iran?
Photo caption: Hordeum spontaneum, wild barley from Chogha Golan, Iran. [Image courtesy of TISARP]
New research suggests that agriculture arose independently
at various locations. While the newly developed agricultural techniques and
selected grains probably spread quickly, newly published evidence suggests that
the inventive process itself was widespread.
The research, conducted by Simone Riehl from the University of Tübingen
in Germany along with colleagues from the Tübingen Senckenberg Center for Human
Evolution and Paleoecology, is published in the July 5, 2013 issue of the
journal Science.
A key debate in human evolution is whether momentous changes
such as agriculture occur in big, rapid, and isolated bursts, or whether such grand
changes are the cumulative result of smaller changes widely distributed over
vast areas and long periods of time. This
new evidence seems to support the view that changes are distributed and
cumulative rather than rapid.
Field work in Chogha Golan, Iran, led Riehl’s team to the
discovery of wild, progenitor versions of barley, lentil, and wheat. At the same site, early domesticated forms of
these same plants are found, suggesting that the domestication occurred onsite. Domesticated plants and animals form the core
of agriculture and the economic basis for the rise of human cities and civilization.
Tools and figurines were also found, dating
from 12,000 to around 9,800 years before the present. The rise of agriculture in
this region during this period set the stage for the growth of human
population, the development of cities, and the rise of ever-more complex
cultures.
The article is entitled "Emergence of Agriculture in the Foothills of the Zagros Mountains of Iran." It appears in the 5 July 2013 issue of the journal Science.
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