Having one´s own heard of domesticated animals ensured a regular meat supply. The advantages to having a major source of meat under one´s control are obvious. Later¸ domesticated animals provided byproducts such as milk¸ cheese¸ and butter¸ as well as skins for clothes and tent coverings and materials for leather shields and armor. In the later millennia¸ people learned how to breed animals for specialized tasks such as plowing¸ transportation¸ and traction.
Domestication implies a genetic selection emphasizing specia; features of continuing use to the domesticator. Wild Sheep have no wool¸ wild cows only produce milk only for their offspring¸ and undomesticated chickens do not lay surplus eggs. Changes in wool bearing¸ lactation¸ or egg production could be achieved by isolating species from a larger isolating wild populations for selective breeding under human care. Isolating species from a larger gene pool produced domestic sheep with thick¸ woolly coats and domestic goats providing regular supplies of milk¸ which formed a staple in the diet of many human populations.
No one knows exactly how domestication animals begin. Three elements are vital to domestication ¦ constraining the movement of the target population¸ regulating their breeding¸ and controlling their feeding to shape future generations. At the end of the Ice Age¸ hunters in southwestern Asia were concentrating on gazelles (a small desert antelope) and other steppe animals. Wild Sheep and goats were intensively hunted on the southern shores of the Caspian Sea. Gregarious¸ highly social animals like goats and sheep are the most easily domesticated beasts; they follow the lead of a dominant herd member or all move together. They also tolerate feeding and breeding in a confined environment.
Hunters often fed off the same herd for a long time¸ sometimes deliberately sparing young females and immature beasts to keep the source of food alive. Young animals captured alive in the chase might be taken back to the camp to grow dependent on those who caged them¸ thus becoming partially tamed. A hunter could grasp the possibility of gaining control of the movements of a few key members of a herd¸ who would be followed by the others. Once the experience of keeping pets or of restricting game movements had suggested a new way of life¸ people might experiment with different species. As part of domestication¸ animals and humans increased their mutual interdependence.
The process of animal domestication undoubtedly was prolonged¸ developing in several areas of southwest Asia at approximately the same time. Although animal bones are scared and often unsatisfactory as evidence of early domestication¸ most authorities now agree that the first species to be domesticated in southwestern Asia were goats and sheep¸ by about 9500 B.C.E. Goats and sheep animals that live in herds¸ whose carcasses yield much meat for their size. They can readily be penned and isolated to develop a symbiotic relationship with people.
Cattle are much more formidable to domesticate¸ for their prototype was Bos primigenius¸ the wild ox much hunted by Stone Age people. South African archaeologist Andrew Smith¸ an expert on herding¸ believes that the first domesticated animals came from better disciplined wild herds in arid environments¸ where it was easier to control the movements of animals. Such conditions may have persisted over much of southwestern Asia and the Sahara Desert as the climate became drier after 7000 B.C.E.
Some animals¸ such as sea mammals¸ resist domestication because much of their lives is spent out of range of human influence. Most early successes with domestication took place with gregarious animals. They can be thought of as s food reserve¸ as “grain on the hoof.”
Domesticating Wheat and Barley ¦
The qualities of wild wheat¸ barley¸ and similar crops are quite different from those of their domestic equivalents. In the wild¸ these grains occur in dense stands. They can be harvested by tapping the stem with the hands and gathering the seeds in a basket as they fall off or by uprooting the plant. The tapping technique is effective because the wild grain is attached to the stem by a brittle joint¸ or rachis. When the grass is tapped¸ the weak rachis breaks and the seed falls into the basket.
The first cultivated wheat and barley crops were of the wild¸ brittle – rachised type and the resulting crops would probably have been large enough to generate domestic type mutants in the first two to five years. Selection for the semi–tough
rachised forms was an unconscious process during the earliest stages of domestication¸ perhaps accelerated by the use of sickles or uprooting of individual plants to harvest ripes seeds rather then merely tapping them into waiting baskets. Computer simulations have shown that domestic¸ semi–tough rachised forms may have been rare at first¸ but they would have been fully domesticated within 20 to 30 generations – for these cereals¸ between 20 and 30 years. Even with less–intense selective pressures than those assumed in the experiment¸ domesticated could have been achieved within one or two centuries. Archaeobotanist Gordon Hillman of London University believes that the farmers would have started conscious selection as soon as the domesticates became sufficiently common to be recognized¸ perhaps 1 to 5 percent of the crop. From then on¸ domestication would have been completed in three or four years.
Although the broad outlines of the process of domestication can be reconstructed through controlled experimentation and computer simulation¸ it is most unlikely that anyone will ever find “transitional” grains in southwestern Asian sites that will document the actual process underway. The changeover from wild to domesticated strains was so rapid that we are more likely to find wild seeds in one level and domesticated ones in the next. This is precisely what has been found at southwestern Asian sites such as Abu Hureya in Syria¸ where farming appears abruptly about 10¸000 B.C.E.
Southwest Asian Farming ¦
(10¸000 to 5¸000 B.C.E.)
The universal global warming at the end of the Ice Age had dramatic effects on temperate regions of Asia¸ Europe¸ and North American. Ice sheets retreated¸ sea levels rose. The climatic changes in southwestern Asia were more subtle¸ in that they involved shifts in mountain snow lines¸ rainfall patterns¸ and vegetational cover. However¸ these same cycles of change had momentous impacts¸ on the sparse human populations of the region. At the end of the Ice Age¸ no more than a few thousand foragers lived along the eastern Mediterranean coast¸ in the Jordan and Euphrates Valley. Within 200 years¸ the human population of the region numbered in the tens of thousands¸ all s a result of village life and farming. Thanks to environmental and archaeological discoveries¸ we now know something about this remarkable change in local life.
Pollen samples from freshwater lakes in Syria and else where tell us forest cover expanded rapidly at the end of the Ice Age¸ for the southwestern Asia climate was still cooler and considerably wetter than today. Many areas were richer in animal and plant species than they are now¸ making them highly favorable for human occupation. About 10¸000 B.C.E.¸ most human settlements lay in the Levant (the area along the Mediterranean coast) and in the Zagros mountains of Iran and their foothills (146 Figure 5.1) Some local areas¸ like the Jordan River valley¸ the Middle Euphrates valley¸ and some Zagros valleys¸ were more densely¸ population than elsewhere. Here more sedentary and more complex societies flourished. These people exploited the landscape intensively¸ foraging on hill slopes for wild cereal grasses and nuts¸ while hunting gazelle and other game on grassy lowlands and in river valleys. Their settlements contain exotic objects such as sea shells¸ stone bowls¸ and artifacts made of obsidian (volcanic glass)¸ all traded from afar. This considerable volume of inter–community exchange brought a degree of social complexity in its wake.
Thanks to extremely fine þ grained excavation and extensive use of flotation methods¸ we know a great deal about the foraging practices of the inhabitants of Abu Hureyra in Syria´s Euphrates Valley. Abu Hureyra was founded about 11¸5000 B.C.E. a small village settlements of cramped pit dwellings (house dug partially in the soil) with reed roofs supported by wooden uprights. For the next 1¸500 years¸ its inhabitants enjoyed a somewhat warmer and damper climate than today ¸ living in a well–wooded steppe area where wild cereal grasses were abundant. They subsisted off spring migrations of Persian gazelles from the south. With such a favorable location¸ about 300 to 400 people lived in a sizable¸ permanent settlement. They were no longer a series bands¸ but lived in as large community with more elaborate social organization¸ probably grouped into clans of people of common decent. The flotation samples from the excavations allowed botanist Gordon Hillman to study changing plant–collecting habits¸ as if he were looking through a telescope at a changing landscape. Hundreds of tiny plant remains show how they exploited nut harvests in nearby pistachio and oak forests. However¸ as the climate dried up¸ the forests retreated from the vicinity of the settlement. The inhabitants to wild cereal grasses instead¸ collecting them by the thousands¸ while percentages of nuts fell. By 10¸200 B.C.E.¸ drought conditions were so severe that the people abandoned their long–established settlement¸ perhaps dispersing into smaller camps.
Five centuries later¸ about 9700 B.C.E.¸ a new village rose on the mound. At first¸ the inhabitants still hunted gazelle intensively. Then¸ about 9¸000 B.C.E. within the space of a few generations¸ they switched abruptly to herding domesticated goats and sheep and to growing einkorn ¸ pulses¸ and other cereal grasses. Abu Hureyra grew rapidly until it covered nearby 30 acres (12 hectares). It was a close – knit community of rectangular¸ one – story mud – brick houses¸ joined by narrow lanes and courtyards¸ finally abandoned about 6¸000 B.C.E.
Many complex factors led to the adoption of the new economies¸ not only at Abu Hureyra¸ but aat many other locations such aas Ain Ghazal¸ also in Syria¸ where goat toe bones showing the telltale mark of abrasion caused by foot tethering (hobbling) testify to early herding of domestic stock. Most settlements lay on low ground¸ near well watered¸ easily cultivable land. Their inhabitants usually lived in small¸ densely clustered villages of circular or oval one – room houses. The most famous of these many settlements is at the base of the Biblical city of Jericho ¸ famous for the siege in which Joshua collapsed the city walls with the blast of trumpets.
A small camp flourished at the bubbling Jericho spring by at least 10¸500 B.C.E.¸ but a more permanent farming settlements quickly followed. Soon the inhabitants built massive stone walls complete with towers and a rock – cut ditch more than 9 feet (2.7 meters) deep and 10 feet (3 meters) wide around their settlement. Their beehive– shaped huts clustered inside the walls. The communal labor of wall and ditch building required both political and economic resources on a scale unheard of a few thousand years earlier. Why the walls were needed remains a mystery¸ but they nay have been flood works or for defense¸ resulting from competition from neighboring groups for scare food resources. Jericho also yielded compelling evidence of ancestor worship in the form of human skulls with plastered
faces¸ a clear sign that people enjoyed a close link with the supernatural and the land¸ guarded traditionally by the dead.
The populations of the Levant increased considerably between 8¸ 000 and 6¸ 000 B.C.E.¸ scattered in permanent villages as far east as the more arid Syrian plateau. Emmer wheat¸ barley¸ lentils¸ and peas were grown in small fields¸ crops were rotated with pluses to sustain soil fertility. Some communities like Jericho became important trading centers. The farmers were using obsidian from Turkey¸ turquoise from Sinai¸ and sea shell ornaments from used small clay spheres¸ cones¸ and disks to keep track of commodities traded. These tokens are though to represent a simple recording system evolved into written script.
In the Zagros highlands of Iran ¸ the herding of goats and sheep probably began some what earlier than in the lowlands. Here¸ open steppe was ideal country both for intensive hunting of wild goats and sheep and¸ after 10¸000 B.C.E.¸ for herding them as well. At the village of Ganj Dareh near Kermanshah in Iran¸ foragers occupied a seasonal hunting camp in about 10¸500 B.C.E. About 1500 years later¸ a small farming village of rectangular mud–brick houses stood on the same spot– a settlement based on goat and sheep herding and cereal horticulture. One of the best–known prehistoric farming villages in the Zagros is Jarmo¸ little more than a cluster of 25 mud houses¸ forming irregular huddle separated by small alleyways and courtyards. Jarmo¸ was in its heyday in about 6¸000 B.C.E.¸ by which time more than 80 percent of the villages´ food came from their fields or herds.
Below¸ on the lowlands¸ farming began along the eastern edge of the flat Mesopotamian plain as early as it did in the Levent. The village of Ali Kosh on the plains of Khuzistan¸ north of where the Tigris and Euphrates become one river¸ started off life as a small settlement of rectangular mud–brick houses as early as 9¸000 B.C.E. As time went on¸ the houses became larger¸ separated one from another by lanes or courtyards. The people drove their herds of goats and sheep to the highlands during the hot summer months¸ bringing them back to lush lowland pastures in fall. These same seasonal herding practices continue to this day. Ali Kosh documents more than 2000 years of farming and herding on the lowlands¸ a period that saw the development of improved cereal strains and the development of irrigation as a means of intensifying agricultural production. Only 5¸000 years after food production first appeared¸ people in the Levant and Mesopotamia were living in cities with thousands of inhabitants.
Site
Men´s and Women´s Work at Abu Hureyra¸Syria
In earlier times¸ many people spent most of their lives working at specific tasks¸ labor that left tell–tale signs on their bones. For instance¸ people who squat habitually develop specific anatomical conditions of their hips¸ knees¸ and ankles.
Biological anthropologist Theya Molleson of London´s Natural History Museum examined the fragmentary skeletons of about 162 people from the early farming village Abu Hureyra in Syria. She found ample evidence of repetitive tasks. Some people´s neck bones displayed enlarged upper vertebrae´ the result of carrying heavy loads on their heads. Other displayed the characteristic facets at the forward side of the ankles which are found in people who squat habitually from aan early age. The condition occurred in men¸ women¸ and children.
Many Abu Hureyra skeletons from people in otherwise good health displayed collapsed lower vertebrae¸ grossly arthritic big toes¸ and muscular arms and legs (as revealed by prominent muscle attachments).
The toe bones were very revealing ¦ Older individuals displayed a degenerative condition of the metatarsals ¸ and even younger people showed changes in the big toes and second toe joints which had resulted from kneeling with the toes tucked under the foot. This position was used by people who spent long periods of time laboring at household tasks such as grinding grain. When Molleson examined pictures from ancient Egyptian and Assyrian tombs¸ she found just such a position being used by grain grinders¸ metalworkers¸ and other artisans.
At Abu Hureyra¸ a community without metal¸ the inhabitants must have been grinding grain on shallow querns. The weight of the body was used to grind the grain¸ the toes being used as a base for applying force to the grinding motion. This was a very painful and tiring activity indeed¸ hard on the arms as well as the toe. (page32) The Abu Hureyra skeletons displayed well marked attachments for the deltoid muscles on the upper arm¸ which probably resulted from the movement at the end of the pushing stroke during grinding.
Theya Molleson measured the first metatarsal bone of the feet bones in her sample. She found the larger ones belonged to males¸ the smaller to females. On the latter¸ the arthritic condition associated with grinding was found. The constant¸ daily use of saddle querns (saddle– shaped grinding stones) caused this condition to develop in the knees and the lower back of many Abu Hureyra individuals. Grinding with such a quern is very laborious ; it involves pushing a rubbing stone over a slightly tilted quern set as close to the knees as possible. Many passes are needed to produce flour for baking¸ a grinding method placing severe stress knees¸ wrists¸ and lower back¸ reflected in the bones of those who carried out this constant daily work– the women of the community.
The Abu Hureyra people had heavily abraded teeth¸ resulting from eating coarse grain, but they may have sifted grain through fiber baskets ¦ Some of the teeth display the characteristic grooving resulting from chewing basket fiber to soften it.
(10¸000 to 5¸000 B.C.E.)
The universal global warming at the end of the Ice Age had dramatic effects on temperate regions of Asia¸ Europe¸ and North American. Ice sheets retreated¸ sea levels rose. The climatic changes in southwestern Asia were more subtle¸ in that they involved shifts in mountain snow lines¸ rainfall patterns¸ and vegetational cover. However¸ these same cycles of change had momentous impacts¸ on the sparse human populations of the region. At the end of the Ice Age¸ no more than a few thousand foragers lived along the eastern Mediterranean coast¸ in the Jordan and Euphrates Valley. Within 200 years¸ the human population of the region numbered in the tens of thousands¸ all s a result of village life and farming. Thanks to environmental and archaeological discoveries¸ we now know something about this remarkable change in local life.
Pollen samples from freshwater lakes in Syria and else where tell us forest cover expanded rapidly at the end of the Ice Age¸ for the southwestern Asia climate was still cooler and considerably wetter than today. Many areas were richer in animal and plant species than they are now¸ making them highly favorable for human occupation. About 10¸000 B.C.E.¸ most human settlements lay in the Levant (the area along the Mediterranean coast) and in the Zagros mountains of Iran and their foothills (146 Figure 5.1) Some local areas¸ like the Jordan River valley¸ the Middle Euphrates valley¸ and some Zagros valleys¸ were more densely¸ population than elsewhere. Here more sedentary and more complex societies flourished. These people exploited the landscape intensively¸ foraging on hill slopes for wild cereal grasses and nuts¸ while hunting gazelle and other game on grassy lowlands and in river valleys. Their settlements contain exotic objects such as sea shells¸ stone bowls¸ and artifacts made of obsidian (volcanic glass)¸ all traded from afar. This considerable volume of inter–community exchange brought a degree of social complexity in its wake.
Thanks to extremely fine þ grained excavation and extensive use of flotation methods¸ we know a great deal about the foraging practices of the inhabitants of Abu Hureyra in Syria´s Euphrates Valley. Abu Hureyra was founded about 11¸5000 B.C.E. a small village settlements of cramped pit dwellings (house dug partially in the soil) with reed roofs supported by wooden uprights. For the next 1¸500 years¸ its inhabitants enjoyed a somewhat warmer and damper climate than today ¸ living in a well–wooded steppe area where wild cereal grasses were abundant. They subsisted off spring migrations of Persian gazelles from the south. With such a favorable location¸ about 300 to 400 people lived in a sizable¸ permanent settlement. They were no longer a series bands¸ but lived in as large community with more elaborate social organization¸ probably grouped into clans of people of common decent. The flotation samples from the excavations allowed botanist Gordon Hillman to study changing plant–collecting habits¸ as if he were looking through a telescope at a changing landscape. Hundreds of tiny plant remains show how they exploited nut harvests in nearby pistachio and oak forests. However¸ as the climate dried up¸ the forests retreated from the vicinity of the settlement. The inhabitants to wild cereal grasses instead¸ collecting them by the thousands¸ while percentages of nuts fell. By 10¸200 B.C.E.¸ drought conditions were so severe that the people abandoned their long–established settlement¸ perhaps dispersing into smaller camps.
Five centuries later¸ about 9700 B.C.E.¸ a new village rose on the mound. At first¸ the inhabitants still hunted gazelle intensively. Then¸ about 9¸000 B.C.E. within the space of a few generations¸ they switched abruptly to herding domesticated goats and sheep and to growing einkorn ¸ pulses¸ and other cereal grasses. Abu Hureyra grew rapidly until it covered nearby 30 acres (12 hectares). It was a close – knit community of rectangular¸ one – story mud – brick houses¸ joined by narrow lanes and courtyards¸ finally abandoned about 6¸000 B.C.E.
Many complex factors led to the adoption of the new economies¸ not only at Abu Hureyra¸ but aat many other locations such aas Ain Ghazal¸ also in Syria¸ where goat toe bones showing the telltale mark of abrasion caused by foot tethering (hobbling) testify to early herding of domestic stock. Most settlements lay on low ground¸ near well watered¸ easily cultivable land. Their inhabitants usually lived in small¸ densely clustered villages of circular or oval one – room houses. The most famous of these many settlements is at the base of the Biblical city of Jericho ¸ famous for the siege in which Joshua collapsed the city walls with the blast of trumpets.
A small camp flourished at the bubbling Jericho spring by at least 10¸500 B.C.E.¸ but a more permanent farming settlements quickly followed. Soon the inhabitants built massive stone walls complete with towers and a rock – cut ditch more than 9 feet (2.7 meters) deep and 10 feet (3 meters) wide around their settlement. Their beehive– shaped huts clustered inside the walls. The communal labor of wall and ditch building required both political and economic resources on a scale unheard of a few thousand years earlier. Why the walls were needed remains a mystery¸ but they nay have been flood works or for defense¸ resulting from competition from neighboring groups for scare food resources. Jericho also yielded compelling evidence of ancestor worship in the form of human skulls with plastered faces¸ a clear sign that people enjoyed a close link with the supernatural and the land¸ guarded traditionally by the dead.
The populations of the Levant increased considerably between 8¸ 000 and 6¸ 000 B.C.E.¸ scattered in permanent villages as far east as the more arid Syrian plateau. Emmer wheat¸ barley¸ lentils¸ and peas were grown in small fields¸ crops were rotated with pluses to sustain soil fertility. Some communities like Jericho became important trading centers. The farmers were using obsidian from Turkey¸ turquoise from Sinai¸ and sea shell ornaments from used small clay spheres¸ cones¸ and disks to keep track of commodities traded. These tokens are though to represent a simple recording system evolved into written script.
In the Zagros highlands of Iran ¸ the herding of goats and sheep probably began some what earlier than in the lowlands. Here¸ open steppe was ideal country both for intensive hunting of wild goats and sheep and¸ after 10¸000 B.C.E.¸ for herding them as well. At the village of Ganj Dareh near Kermanshah in Iran¸ foragers occupied a seasonal hunting camp in about 10¸500 B.C.E. About 1500 years later¸ a small farming village of rectangular mud–brick houses stood on the same spot– a settlement based on goat and sheep herding and cereal horticulture. One of the best–known prehistoric farming villages in the Zagros is Jarmo¸ little more than a cluster of 25 mud houses¸ forming irregular huddle separated by small alleyways and courtyards. Jarmo¸ was in its heyday in about 6¸000 B.C.E.¸ by which time more than 80 percent of the villages´ food came from their fields or herds.
Below¸ on the lowlands¸ farming began along the eastern edge of the flat Mesopotamian plain as early as it did in the Levent. The village of Ali Kosh on the plains of Khuzistan¸ north of where the Tigris and Euphrates become one river¸ started off life as a small settlement of rectangular mud–brick houses as early as 9¸000 B.C.E. As time went on¸ the houses became larger¸ separated one from another by lanes or courtyards. The people drove their herds of goats and sheep to the highlands during the hot summer months¸ bringing them back to lush lowland pastures in fall. These same seasonal herding practices continue to this day. Ali Kosh documents more than 2000 years of farming and herding on the lowlands¸ a period that saw the development of improved cereal strains and the development of irrigation as a means of intensifying agricultural production. Only 5¸000 years after food production first appeared¸ people in the Levant and Mesopotamia were living in cities with thousands of inhabitants.
Site |
| Men´s and Women´s Work at Abu Hureyra¸Syria |
| In earlier times¸ many people spent most of their lives working at specific tasks¸ labor that left tell–tale signs on their bones. For instance¸ people who squat habitually develop specific anatomical conditions of their hips¸ knees¸ and ankles.
Biological anthropologist Theya Molleson of London´s Natural History Museum examined the fragmentary skeletons of about 162 people from the early farming village Abu Hureyra in Syria. She found ample evidence of repetitive tasks. Some people´s neck bones displayed enlarged upper vertebrae´ the result of carrying heavy loads on their heads. Other displayed the characteristic facets at the forward side of the ankles which are found in people who squat habitually from aan early age. The condition occurred in men¸ women¸ and children. Many Abu Hureyra skeletons from people in otherwise good health displayed collapsed lower vertebrae¸ grossly arthritic big toes¸ and muscular arms and legs (as revealed by prominent muscle attachments). The toe bones were very revealing ¦ Older individuals displayed a degenerative condition of the metatarsals ¸ and even younger people showed changes in the big toes and second toe joints which had resulted from kneeling with the toes tucked under the foot. This position was used by people who spent long periods of time laboring at household tasks such as grinding grain. When Molleson examined pictures from ancient Egyptian and Assyrian tombs¸ she found just such a position being used by grain grinders¸ metalworkers¸ and other artisans. At Abu Hureyra¸ a community without metal¸ the inhabitants must have been grinding grain on shallow querns. The weight of the body was used to grind the grain¸ the toes being used as a base for applying force to the grinding motion. This was a very painful and tiring activity indeed¸ hard on the arms as well as the toe. (page32) The Abu Hureyra skeletons displayed well marked attachments for the deltoid muscles on the upper arm¸ which probably resulted from the movement at the end of the pushing stroke during grinding. Theya Molleson measured the first metatarsal bone of the feet bones in her sample. She found the larger ones belonged to males¸ the smaller to females. On the latter¸ the arthritic condition associated with grinding was found. The constant¸ daily use of saddle querns (saddle– shaped grinding stones) caused this condition to develop in the knees and the lower back of many Abu Hureyra individuals. Grinding with such a quern is very laborious ; it involves pushing a rubbing stone over a slightly tilted quern set as close to the knees as possible. Many passes are needed to produce flour for baking¸ a grinding method placing severe stress knees¸ wrists¸ and lower back¸ reflected in the bones of those who carried out this constant daily work– the women of the community. The Abu Hureyra people had heavily abraded teeth¸ resulting from eating coarse grain, but they may have sifted grain through fiber baskets ¦ Some of the teeth display the characteristic grooving resulting from chewing basket fiber to soften it. |