New evidence of Lateglacial cereal cultivation at Abu Hureyra on the Euphrates

Hillman, G. C.; Hedges, R. E. M.; Moore, Andrew M.; Colledge, Sue; Pettitt, Paul

doi:10.1191/095968301678302823

Cited by 274 publications

(137 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…[11,12]. These interventions prompted the gradual emergence of domestication traits in the crop plants, the first indications of these traits being seen in the archaeobotanical record around 12 500 cal BP [14]. Eventual fixation of the domestication syndrome by 9000 cal BP enabled agriculture to spread beyond its area of origin to other parts of southwest Asia and throughout Europe, north Africa and south-central regions of Asia [17,65].…”

Section: Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Specialisation in particular species has been inferred at several sites. For example, at Gilgal in the Jordan Valley (see Figure 1), assemblages containing hundreds of thousands of wild barley and oat grains have been dated to 11 400-11 200 cal BP [13] and, at Abu Hureyra on the Euphrates, wild rye with the first phenotypic indications of domestication was present around 12 500 cal BP [14]. This was a period when the prevailing climatic conditions are thought to have been unsuitable for the unassisted establishment of these species, suggesting human intervention in the amelioration of the soil environment.…”

Section: Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The complex origins of domesticated crops in the Fertile Crescent

Brown

Jones

Powell

et al. 2009

Trends in Ecology & Evolution

263

159

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A combination of genetics and archaeology is revealing the complexity of the relationships between crop plants and their wild ancestors. Archaeobotanical studies are showing that acquisition of the full set of traits observed in domesticated cereals was a protracted process, intermediate stages being seen at early farming sites throughout the Fertile Crescent. New genetic data are confirming the multiregional nature of cereal domestication, correcting a previous view that each crop was domesticated by a rapid, unique and geographically localised process. Here we review the evidence that has prompted this reevaluation of the origins of domesticated crops in the Fertile Crescent and highlight the impact that this new multiregional model is having on modern breeding programmes.The importance of agriculture The beginning of agriculture around 10 000 years ago has repeatedly been seen as the major transition in the human past, a changeover from the natural environment in control of humans, to humans in control of the natural environment. Before agriculture, humans were hunter-gatherers, dependent on wild resources for their nutritional requirements, which led to a largely nomadic lifestyle dictated by the annual cycle of animal and plant availability. The cultivation of plants and the husbandry of animals enabled humans to exert a measure of control over their food resources, protecting them from climatic and environmental uncertainty. As a result of further stabilisation and increase in the food supply, populations grew rapidly and the need for all members of a community to devote themselves to food procurement declined, leading to stratified societies and the elaborate civilisations and world systems of the historic period. Our present-day dependence on agriculture needs no emphasis: without it the world would support only a fraction of the current human population.As such a key episode, it is no surprise that a diversity of research approaches has been applied to the study of agricultural origins. For archaeologists, agriculture is a central component in the cultural changes associated with the beginning of the Neolithic (see Glossary), with much of the recent focus on placing the domestication of plants in its correct context within the package of changes originally described by Gordon Childe as a 'revolution' [1] but now viewed as a series of distinct episodes occurring at different places at different times. Implicit in this debate has been a recognition that the transition to agriculture is itself a multi-episode process that begins with gathering from the wild and ends with the cultivation of plants that have undergone the full suite of genetic and phenotypic changes that characterise the domesticated crop [2,3]. Anthropologists, ecologists and evolutionists have proposed various models for the role of humans in this multi-episode process, these ranging from a view of agriculture as one of the inspired human inventions of the past [4] to hypotheses that define domestication as the outcome of a natural coevolu...

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Section: Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

The complex origins of domesticated crops in the Fertile Crescent

Brown

Jones

Powell

et al. 2009

Trends in Ecology & Evolution

263

159

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Evidence of predomestication cultivation has been established from 13,000-12,500 years B.P. (30,31), during the Younger Dryas. Within the predomestication period, there appear to have been numerous beginnings of agriculture, with different species hailing from different localities rather than in a single Neolithic Package (32).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The genetic expectations of a protracted model for the origins of domesticated crops

Allaby

Fuller

Brown³

2008

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

246

166

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Until recently, domestication has been interpreted as a rapid process with little predomestication cultivation and a relatively rapid rise of the domestication syndrome. This interpretation has had a profound effect on the biological framework within which investigations into crop origins have been carried out. A major underlying assumption has been that artificial selection pressures were substantially stronger than natural selection pressures, resulting in genetic patterns of diversity that reflect genetic independence of geographic localities. Recent archaeobotanical evidence has overturned the notion of a rapid transition, resulting in a protracted model that undermines these assumptions. Conclusions of genome-wide multilocus studies remain problematic in their support of a rapid-transition model by indicating that domesticated crops appear to be associated by monophyly with only a single geographic locality. Simulations presented here resolve this conflict, indicating that the results observed in such studies are inevitable over time at a rate that is largely influenced by the long-term population size. Counterintuitively, multiple origin crops are shown to be more likely to produce monophyletic clades than crops of a single origin. Under the protracted transition, the importance of the rise of the domestication syndrome becomes paramount in producing the patterns of genetic diversity from which crop origins may be deduced. We identify four different interacting levels of organization that now need to be considered to track crop origins from modern genetic diversity, making crop origins a problem that could be addressed through system-based approaches.domestication ͉ phylogenetics ͉ protracted transition ͉ simulation

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“…After millennia of ameliorating climate following the Last Glacial Maximum, the abrupt Younger Dryas oscillation at ca 10 500 -9500 BC marked a major reversal to colder and drier conditions. Many have argued that this destabilized the Epipalaeolithic way of life [69,70].…”

Section: Unstable Niches and The Origins Of Agriculturementioning

confidence: 99%

Foraging and farming as niche construction: stable and unstable adaptations

Rowley‐Conwy

Layton

2011

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

180

111

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All forager (or hunter -gatherer) societies construct niches, many of them actively by the concentration of wild plants into useful stands, small-scale cultivation, burning of natural vegetation to encourage useful species, and various forms of hunting, collectively termed 'low-level food production'. Many such niches are stable and can continue indefinitely, because forager populations are usually stable. Some are unstable, but these usually transform into other foraging niches, not geographically expansive farming niches. The Epipalaeolithic (final hunter-gatherer) niche in the Near East was complex but stable, with a relatively high population density, until destabilized by an abrupt climatic change. The niche was unintentionally transformed into an agricultural one, due to chance genetic and behavioural attributes of some wild plant and animal species. The agricultural niche could be exported with modifications over much of the Old World. This was driven by massive population increase and had huge impacts on local people, animals and plants wherever the farming niche was carried. Farming niches in some areas may temporarily come close to stability, but the history of the last 11 000 years does not suggest that agriculture is an effective strategy for achieving demographic and political stability in the world's farming populations.

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New evidence of Lateglacial cereal cultivation at Abu Hureyra on the Euphrates

Cited by 274 publications

References 44 publications

The complex origins of domesticated crops in the Fertile Crescent

The complex origins of domesticated crops in the Fertile Crescent

The genetic expectations of a protracted model for the origins of domesticated crops

Foraging and farming as niche construction: stable and unstable adaptations

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