Reassessing the origin of lentil cultivation in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic of Southwest Asia: new evidence from carbon isotope analysis at Gusir Höyük

Abstract

Lentils represent the most common pulse crop found in Southwest Asian Neolithic archaeobotanical assemblages. Using carbon isotope determinations and palaeoclimatic modelling this paper investigates variability and change through time in lentil growth habitats at Gusir Höyük, a Pre-Pottery Neolithic habitation site in the Upper Tigris basin of southeast Anatolia dated to the 12th and 11th millennia cal bp. The elevated lentil carbon isotope values from samples dated to ~ 10,500–10,300 cal bp possibly points to greater water availability and the potential onset of lentil cultivation at Gusir Höyük during the Early Pre-Pottery Neolithic B. The paper revisits previous hypotheses about the process and timing of initial lentil domestication in the region through a re-evaluation of materials available from other Neolithic sites in SW Asia. Its findings highlight the important role of wild lentil populations growing in higher-rainfall localities, which may have responded more readily to increasing water availability in the context of early cultivation. It also explores the potential offered by isotopic approaches for detecting early cultivation, highlighting the need for future studies on pulse and cereal crop progenitors in SW Asia and beyond.