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PERSPECTIVES: ARCHAEOLOGY
A crucial event in human history was the beginning of agriculture about 10,000 years ago in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic Near East. The accumulation of surplus food supplies enabled large settlements to be established, resulting in the emergence of Western civilization. There has been much debate about exactly when and where agriculture first began. Kislev (1) proposed that cereals were domesticated after 7000 B.C., later than previously assumed (noncalibrated ^sup14^C dates). In contrast, Hillman and Colledge (2) recently suggested that rye and pulses were first domesticated during the late Epipaleolithic at Tel Abu Hureyra 1, 8900 to 8600 B.C. If confirmed, these would be the earliest domesticated crops reported.
Regarding the "where" question, it is generally believed that plant domestication first took place in the Jordan Valley and adjacent areas of the southern Levant (in present-day Israel and Jordan). However, we think that botanical, genetic, and archaeological evidence point to a small core area within the Fertile Crescent-- near the upper reaches of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in present-day southeastem Turkey/northern Syria-as the cradle of agriculture (see the figure).
The wild progenitors of all seven Neolithic founder crops (einkorn wheat, emmer wheat, barley, lentil, pea, bitter vetch, and chickpea) as well as flax are found together only in this core area of the Fertile Crescent (see the figure). Wild chickpea grows only in this restricted core area, and its limited distribution is an important clue to the origins of farming in the Near East (3). It is unlikely that such a rare species would have been domesticated as a founder crop 10,000 years ago had farming originated outside of this restricted core area. Furthermore, the putative site of einkorn wheat domestication lies within the limited distribution of wild chickpea (see the figure) (4). The archaeological record also provides evidence to support the view that the wealthy, farming-based Neolithic societies of the core area were the earliest settlements of this type in the Fertile Crescent.
Near-Eastern Neolithic agriculture was based on three cereals (einkorn wheat, emmer wheat, and barley), four pulses (lentil, pea, chickpea, and bitter vetch), and a fiber crop (flax). Wild chickpea has been found in only 10 locations within a small area in southeastern Turkey/northern Syria (3). The distribution of...