The Birth of Agriculture During the Neolithic
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The birth of agriculture during the Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (7 to 10,000 years ago) pertains to a stage of culture following the Paleolithic and is characterized by the use of polished stone implements, development of permanent dwellings, cultural advances such as pottery making, domestication of animals and plants, the cultivation of grain and fruit trees, and weaving. The change from hunting/gathering to primitive farming appears so abrupt that this technological change is often characterized as the Neolithic Revolution. The discovery of smelting and the creation of bronze tools has given the name Bronze Age to the Late Neolithic period. Origins of Agriculture Agriculture must be thought of as a series of discoveries involving the domestication of plants and animals and their management. The precise origin of the fi rst center of agriculture is obscure. Carl O. Sauer (1952) has proposed that the beginnings may be southeast Asia. Its candidacy is proposed as a result of an ability to support a population by hunting and fishing and a naturally rich flora—especially asexually propagated plants. The spread of early agricultural techniques led to new advances as new plant forms were carried to new environments. The evidence places contemporary agriculture 7000 to 9000 years ago in the river valleys in three locations : - Tigris-Euphrates Rivers (Mesopotamia—present day Iraq) - Indus River - Nile River The earliest evidence of agricultural development occurs in the area known as the Fertile Crescent (present-day Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Israel). Jarmo is one of the earliest villages. Agriculture also developed in other areas such as China and MesoAmerica but at a later date. The fertile Crescent MAIZE DOMESTICATION Maize (Zea mays) is a plant of enormous modern-day economic importance as foodstuff and alternative energy source. Scholars agree that maize was domesticated from the plant teosinte (Zea mays spp. parviglumis) in central America at least as early 9,000 years ago. In the Americas, maize is called corn, somewhat confusingly for the rest of the English-speaking world, where 'corn' refers to the seeds of any grain, including barley, wheat or rye. The process of maize domestication radically changed it from its origins. The seeds of wild teosinte are encased in hard shells and arranged on a spike with five to seven rows that shatter when ripe to disperse its seed. Modern maize has hundreds of exposed kernels attached to a cob which is completely covered by husks and cannot reproduce on its own. The morphological change is among the most divergent of speciation known on the planet, and it is only recent genetic studies that have proven the connection. The earliest undisputed domesticated maize cobs are from Guila Naquitz cave in Guerrero, Mexico, dated about 4280-4210 cal BC. 1) Theories of Maize Domestication Scientists have put forward two main theories about the rise of maize. The teosinte model argues that maize is a genetic mutation direct from teosinte in the lowlands of Guatemala. The hybrid origin model states that maize originated in the Mexican highlands as a hybrid of diploid perennial teosinte and early-stage domesticated maize. Eubanks has suggested a parallel development within the Mesoamerican interaction sphere between lowland and highland. Recently starch grain evidence has been discovered in Panama suggesting the use of maize there by 7800-7000 cal BP, and the discovery of wild teosinte growing in the Balsas river region of Mexico has lent support to that model. The Xihuatoxtla rockshelter in the Balsas river region has been discovered to contain domesticated maize starch granules in occupation levels dated to the Paleoindian period, more than 8990 cal BP. That suggests that maize may have been domesticated by hunter- gatherers thousands of years before it became a staple of people's diets. 2) The Spread of Maize Eventually, maize spread out from Mexico, probably by the diffusion of seeds along trade networks rather than migration of people. It was used in the southwestern United States by about 3200 years ago, and in eastern United States beginning about 2100 years ago. By 700 AD, maize was well established up into the Canadian shield. DNA studies suggest that purposeful selection for various traits continued throughout this period, leading to the wide variety of species today. For example, 35 different races of maize have been identified in precolumbian Peru, including popcorns, flint varieties, and varieties for specific uses, such as chicha beer, textile dyes, and flour. 3) Maize in American popular culture: the case of a Native legend The Strange Origin of Corn "A long time ago, when the Indians were first made, one man lived alone, far from any others. He did not know fire, and so he lived on roots, bark, and nuts. This man became very lonely for companionship. He grew tired of digging roots, lost his appetite, and for several days lay dreaming in the sunshine. When he awoke, he saw someone standing near and, at first, was very frightened. But when he heard the stranger's voice, his heart was glad, and he looked up. He saw a beautiful woman with long light hair! "Come to me," he whispered. But she did not, and when he tried to approach her, she moved farther away. He sang to her about his loneliness, and begged her not to leave him. At last she replied, "If you will do exactly what I tell you to do, I will also be with you." He promised that he would try his very best. So she led him to a place where there was some very dry grass. "Now get two dry sticks," she told him, "and rub them together fast while you hold them in the grass." Soon a spark flew out. The grass caught fire, and as swiftly as an arrow takes flight, the ground was burned over. Then the beautiful woman spoke again: "When the sun sets, take me by the hair and drag me over the burned ground." "Oh, I don't want to do that!" the man exclaimed. "You must do what I tell you to do," said she. "Wherever you drag me, something like grass will spring up, and you will see something like hair coming from between the leaves. Soon seeds will be ready for your use." The man followed the beautiful woman's orders. And when the Indians see silk on the cornstalk, they know that the beautiful woman has not forgotten them." http://www.indians.org/welker/origcorn.htm Some precisions about the website: Indians.org - AIHF The American Indian Heritage Foundation was establised to provide relief services to Indian people nationwide and to build bridges of understanding and friendship between Indian and non-Indian people. Under the umbrella of the National Heritage Foundation, Princess Pale Moon founded the American Indian Heritage Foundation (AIHF) in 1973. WHEAT DOMESTICATION Wheat is a grain crop with some 25,000 different cultivars in the world today: most of these forms are varieties of two groups: common wheat and durum wheat. Common or bread wheat Triticum aestivum accounts for some 95% of all the consumed wheat in the world today; the other five percent is durum or hard wheat T. turgidum ssp. durum, used in pasta and semolina products. Bread and durum wheat are both domesticated forms of wild emmer wheat (reported variously as T. araraticum, T. turgidum ssp. dicoccoides, or T. dicocoides). Another early form of wheat called einkorn (T. monococcum), was domesticated at about the same time, but has limited distribution today. 1) Origins of Wheat The origins of our modern wheat, according to genetics and archaeological studies, are found in the Karacadag mountain region of what is today southeastern Turkey--wheat makes up two of the classic eight founder crops of the origins of agriculture. There, some 12,000 years ago or so, both einkorn and emmer wheats were domesticated. The earliest collected wheat was wild emmer, at the Ohalo II site, about 23,000 years ago. Emmer was first cultivated in the southern Levant (like Tell Aswad in Syria); while einkorn is found in Abu Hureyra, Mureybet, Jerf el Ahmar in Syria, Göbekli Tepe in Turkey other neolthic sites). Spelt (T. spelta) and Timopheev's wheat (T. timopheevii) were ancient forms of emmer wheat developed by the late Neolithic, but neither has much of a market today. The main differences between the wild forms of wheat and domesticated wheat are that domesticated forms have larger seeds with hulls and a non-shattering rachis. When wild wheat is ripe, the rachis--the stem that keeps the wheat shafts together--shatters so that the seeds can disperse themselves. But that naturally useful brittleness doesn't suit humans, who prefer to wait until the wheat is ripe to harvest it. Of course, if farmers harvest wheat when they believe it is ready, they only get the wheat that remains on the rachis: that wheat is what the farmers plant and in the process selected wheats with rachis that didn't become brittle at harvest time. Other traits apparently selected for include spike size, growing season, plant height, and grain size. 2) How Long Did Domestication Take ? One of the ongoing arguments about wheat is the length of time it took for this process to occur. Some scholars argue for a fairly rapid process, of a few centuries; while others argue that the process from cultivation to domestication took up to 5,000 years. These scholars are debating the date of the earliest domestication: all of them agree, and the evidence is abundant, that by ca 10,400 years ago, domesticated wheat was in widespread use throughout the Levant region.