When Natufians, the First Farmers, started farming.

LeBrok

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According to this new study it happened much earlier than we expected, around 23 thousand years ago!!! This paper claim that primitive, yet ture farming practices and seed selection, were established 11 thousand years before Neolithic "revolution".
Yet again science points to the fact, that farming is not just a brilliant idea, which everybody can pick up and change his/her life, but slow evolutionary adaptation to new food source and farming skills. It took at least 11 k years for evolution to select and enhance farming genes, the farming predispositions.

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0131422

[h=2]Abstract[/h]Weeds are currently present in a wide range of ecosystems worldwide. Although the beginning of their evolution is largely unknown, researchers assumed that they developed in tandem with cultivation since the appearance of agricultural habitats some 12,000 years ago. These rapidly-evolving plants invaded the human disturbed areas and thrived in the new habitat. Here we present unprecedented new findings of the presence of “proto-weeds” and small-scale trial cultivation in Ohalo II, a 23,000-year-old hunter-gatherers' sedentary camp on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, Israel. We examined the plant remains retrieved from the site (ca. 150,000 specimens), placing particular emphasis on the search for evidence of plant cultivation by Ohalo II people and the presence of weed species. The archaeobotanically-rich plant assemblage demonstrates extensive human gathering of over 140 plant species and food preparation by grinding wild wheat and barley. Among these, we identified 13 well-known current weeds mixed with numerous seeds of wild emmer, barley, and oat. This collection provides the earliest evidence of a human-disturbed environment—at least 11 millennia before the onset of agriculture—that provided the conditions for the development of "proto-weeds", a prerequisite for weed evolution. Finally, we suggest that their presence indicates the earliest, small-scale attempt to cultivate wild cereals seen in the archaeological record.
 
According to this new study it happened much earlier than we expected, around 23 thousand years ago!!! This paper claim that primitive, yet ture farming practices and seed selection, were established 11 thousand years before Neolithic "revolution".
Yet again science points to the fact, that farming is not just a brilliant idea, which everybody can pick up and change his/her life, but slow evolutionary adaptation to new food source and farming skills. It took at least 11 k years for evolution to select and enhance farming genes, the farming predispositions.

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0131422


Amazingly early for this isn't it? I also found this interesting:

"Some of the plants are the progenitors of domesticated crop species such as emmer wheat, barley, pea, lentil, almond, fig, grape, and olive. Thus, about 11,000 years before what had been generally accepted as the onset of agriculture, people’s diets relied heavily on the same variety of plants that would eventually become domesticated." What continuity... I eat these things or products made from them every week. Twenty three thousand years is a good run. :)

I think they're also saying that it might have been a failed attempt, ended perhaps by the inundation of the site, although they also note that the general knowledge might have remained in the group afterwards. Whichever way it happened, they kept on trying it over and over again until it reached a sort of critical mass.

I imagine the sickle looking something like this. There were very similar illustrations in a book I've mentioned before: "The Source" by Michener. Have you ever used a modern one? Nobody would ever need to go to a gym if they had to use one a couple of hours a day!:)
Museum_Quintana_-_Neolithische_Sichel.jpg



I never thought that hunter-gatherers had year round sites this early either, but I suppose it was a sort of blessed environment for them.

Did you notice the comment about the grave with the bones of a man in them? Somebody should test those if they aren't already.
 
I think they're also saying that it might have been a failed attempt, ended perhaps by the inundation of the site, although they also note that the general knowledge might have remained in the group afterwards. Whichever way it happened, they kept on trying it over and over again until it reached a sort of critical mass.

I imagine the sickle looking something like this. There were very similar illustrations in a book I've mentioned before: "The Source" by Michener. Have you ever used a modern one? Nobody would ever need to go to a gym if they had to use one a couple of hours a day!:)
I held modern ones in my hand but never used them. Actually, they were mostly used to grab straws of wheat to tie them together in bunches. They were not used to cut wheat anymore, but scythe was.
d%E5%9B%9E%E6%8A%A5%E7%A7%8D%E7%94%B0%E5%B7%A5%E5%85%B7-40427590.jpg




Did you notice the comment about the grave with the bones of a man in them? Somebody should test those if they aren't already.
What is holding them back?! We are talking about sites in rich Israel and well educated scientists. Are they afraid they won't find continuity with modern population? :)
 

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