The role of wild grasses in subsistence and sedentism: New evidence from the northern Fertile Crescent

World Archaeology

Volumn 38, Issue 2, 2006, Pages 179-196

  Savard, Manon ^a   Nesbitt, Mark ^b   Jones, Martin K ^c  

^a UNIVERSITÉ DU QUÉBEC À RIMOUSKI   (Canada)

^b Kew Gardens ^*  (United Kingdom)

^c Cambridge Department of Archaeology   (United States)

Author keywords

Domestication; Epipalaeolithic; Foraging; Hunter gatherers; Natufian; Neolithic

Indexed keywords

ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE; CROP HUSBANDRY; GRASS; HUNTER-GATHERER; NEOLITHIC;

POACEAE;

EID: 33745072420     PISSN: 00438243     EISSN: 14701375     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/00438240600689016     Document Type: Article

References (65)

1. Algaze, G. and Breuninger, R. and Lightfoot, C. and Rosenberg, M. (1991) The Tigris-Euphrates archaeological reconnaissance project: A preliminary report of the 1989-1990 seasons Anatolica, 17, pp. 175-240.
2. Anderson, P.(1999) Experimental cultivation, harvest and threshing of wild cereals: Their relevance for interpreting the use of Epipalaeolithic and Neolithic artifacts. In Prehistory of Agriculture: New Experimental and Ethnographic Approaches. (pp. 118-144). Los Angeles CA: UCLA, Institute of Archaeology, Monograph 40.
3. Aurenche, O. and Kozlowski, S.(1999) La Naissance du Néolithique au Proche Orient. Paris: Editions Errance.
4. Bar-Yosef, O. and Kislev, M.(1989) Early farming communities in the Jordan valley. In Foraging and Farming: The Evolution of Plant Exploitation. (pp. 632-642). London: Unwin Hyman.
5. Bar-Yosef, O. and Meadow, R.(1995) The origins of agriculture in the Near East. In Last Hunters-First Farmers: New Perspectives on the Prehistoric Transition to Agriculture. (pp. 39-94). Santa Fe NM: School of American Research Press.
6. Belfer-Cohen, A. and Bar-Yosef, O.(2000) Early sedentism in the Near East: A bumpy ride to village life. In Life in Neolithic Farming Communities: Social Organization, Identity, and Differentiation. (pp. 19-37). New York: Kluwer.
7. Cauvin, J.(1999) Problems and methods for exploring the beginnings of agriculture: The archaeologist's view. In Prehistory of Agriculture: New Experimental and Ethnographic Approaches. (pp. 180-182). Los Angeles CA: UCLA, Institute of Archaeology, Monograph 40.
8. Cauvin, J.(2000) The Birth of the Gods and the Origins of Agriculture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
9. Chapman, J.(1996) Lepenski Vir. In The Oxford Companion to Archaeology. (pp. 388-389). New York: Oxford University Press.
10. Colledge, S.(2001) Plant Exploitation on Epipalaeolithic and Early Neolithic Sites in the Levant. Oxford: Archaeopress, BAR S986.
11. Colledge, S. and Conolly, J. and Shennan, S. (2004) Archaeobotanical evidence for the spread of farming in the Eastern Mediterranean Current Anthropology, 45, pp. S35-S49.
12. Dittemore, M.(1983) The soundings at M'lefaat. In Prehistoric Archaeology along the Zagros Flanks. (pp. 671-692). Chicago IL: Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.
13. Dobrowolski, A.(1998) Biology and habitats of birds found in excavations at M'lefaat. In M'lefaat: Early Neolithic Site in Northern Irak. (pp. 224-231). Cahiers de l'Euphrate 8
14. Ertug-Yaraş, F.(1997) An ethnoarchaeological study of subsistence and plant gathering in Central Anatolia. In. Washington University. Doctoral dissertation. Department of Anthropology
15. Flannery, K.(1969) Origins and ecological effects of early domestication in Iran and the Near East. In The Domestication and Exploitation of Plants and Animals. (pp. 73-100). London: Duckworth.
16. Harlan, J.(1999) Harvesting of wild-grass seed and implications for domestication. In Prehistory of Agriculture: New Experimental and Ethnographic Approaches. (pp. 1-5). Los Angeles CA: UCLA, Institute of Archaeology, Monograph 40.
17. Henry, D.(1989) From Foraging to Agriculture: The Levant at the End of the Ice Age. Philadelphia PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.
18. Hillman, G.(2000) Abu Hureyra I, the Epipalaeolithic. In Village on the Euphrates: From Foraging to Farming at Abu Hureyra. (pp. 327-398). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
19. Hillman, G. and Legge, A. and Rowley-Conwy, P. (1997) On the charred seeds from Epipalaeolithic Abu Hureyra: Food or fuel? Current Anthropology, 38, pp. 651-659.
20. Keeley, L. (1988) Hunter-gatherer economic complexity and 'population pressure': A cross-cultural analysis Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 7, pp. 373-411.
21. Kislev, M.(1997) Early agriculture and paleoecology of Netiv Hagdud. In An Early Neolithic Village in the Jordan Valley, Part 1, The Archaeology of Netiv Hagdud. (pp. 209-236). Cambridge MA: Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology.
22. Kislev, M. and Simchoni, O. and Weiss, E.(2002) Reconstruction of the landscape, human economy, and hut use according to seeds and fruit remains from Ohalo II. In Ohalo II: A 23,000 Year Old Fisher-Hunter-Gatherers' Camp on the Shore of the Sea of Galilee. (pp. 21-23). University of Haifa: Hecht Museum.
23. Kislev, M. and Weiss, E. and Hartmann, A. (2004) Impetus for sowing and the beginning of agriculture: Ground collecting of wild cereals Proceedings of the National Association of Science, 101, pp. 2692-2695.
24. (1998) M'lefaat: Early Neolithic site in Northern Irak. In Cahiers de l'Euphrate. (pp. 179-273).
25. Kozłowski, S. and Kuźma, K. and Szymczak, K. (1991) La reprise des fouilles à M'lefaat (saison 1989/1990) Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean, 2, pp. 112-118.
26. Lasota-Moskalewska, A.(1998) Mammal bone remains from M'lefaat, Irak (excavation seasons 1989 and 1990). In M'lefaat: Early Neolithic Site in Northern Irak. (pp. 215-221). Cahiers de l'Euphrate 8
27. Lev, E. and Kislev, M. and Bar-Yosef, O. (2005) Mousterian vegetal food in Kebara Cave, Mt. Carmel Journal of Archaeological Science, 32, pp. 475-484.
28. McCorriston, J. and Hole, F. (1991) The ecology of seasonal stress and the origins of agriculture in the Near East American Anthropologist, 93, pp. 46-69.
29. Mazurowski, R.(1998) The ground and pecked stone industry. In M'lefaat: Early Neolithic Site in Northern Irak. (pp. 200-211). Cahiers de l'Euphrate 8
30. Nesbitt, M.(2002) When and where did domesticated cereals first occur in Southwest Asia?. In The Dawn of Farming in the Near East. (pp. 113-132). Berlin: Ex Oriente.
31. Olszewski, D. (1993) Subsistence ecology in the Mediterranean forest: implications for the origins of cultivation in the Epipalaeolithic southern Levant American Antiquity, 95, pp. 420-435.
32. Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit (ORAU) Archaeometry datelist 32 Archaeometry.
33. Peasnall, B.(2000) The round house horizon along the Taurus-Zagros arc: a synthesis of recent excavations of Late Epipaleolithic and Early Aceramic sites in Southeastern Anatolia and Northern Iraq. In. University of Pennsylvania. Doctoral dissertation. Department of Anthropology
34. Peasnall, B. (2002) Intricacies of Hallan Çemi Expedition, 44(1), pp. 5-6.
35. Peasnall, B. and Rosenberg, M.(2001) A preliminary description of the lithic industry from Demirköy Höyük. In Beyond Tools. (pp. 363-387). Berlin: Ex Oriente.
36. Perrot, J. (1966) Le gisement Natufien de Mallaha (Eynan), Israël L'Anthropologie, 70, pp. 437-484.
37. Rielly, K.(1998) Bird bones. In M'lefaat: Early Neolithic Site in Northern Irak. (pp. 222-223). Cahiers de l'Euphrate 8
38. Rosenberg, M. (1994) Hallan Çemi Tepesi: Some further observations concerning stratigraphy and material culture Anatolica, 20, pp. 121-140.
39. Rosenberg, M.(1999) Hallan Çemi. In Neolithic in Turkey: The Cradle of Civilization, New Discoveries. (pp. 25-33). Istanbul: Arkeoloji ve Sanat Yayinlari
40. Rosenberg, M. and Davis, M. (1992) Hallan Çemi Tepesi, an early aceramic Neolithic site in Eastern Anatolia: Some preliminary observations concerning material culture Anatolica 18 1-18
41. Rosenberg, M. and Peasnall, B. (1998) A report on soundings at Demirköy Höyük, an aceramic Neolithic site in Eastern Anatolia Anatolica, 24, pp. 195-207.
42. Rosenberg, M. and Redding, R.(2000) Hallan Çemi and early village organization in Eastern Anatolia. In Life in Neolithic Farming Communities: Social Organization, Identity, and Differentiation. (pp. 39-61). New York: Kluwer.
43. Rosenberg, M. and Togul, H. (1991) The Batman River Archaeological Site Survey, 1990 Anatolica, 17, pp. 241-254.
44. Rosenberg, M. and Nesbitt, M. and Redding, R. and Strasser, T. (1995) Hallan Çemi Tepesi: Some preliminary observations concerning Early Neolithic subsistence behaviors in Eastern Anatolia Anatolica, 21, pp. 1-12.
45. Rosenberg, M. and Nesbitt, M. and Redding, R. and Peasnall, B. (1998) Hallan Çemi, pig husbandry, and post-Pleistocene adaptations along the Taurus-Zagros arc (Turkey) Paléorient, 24, pp. 25-41.
46. Rowley-Conwy, P.(2001) Time, change and the archaeology of hunter-gatherers: How original is the 'original affluent society'?. In Hunter-Gatherers: An Interdisciplinary Perspective. (pp. 39-72). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
47. Savard, M.(2005) Epipalaeolithic to early Neolithic subsistence strategies in the northern Fertile Crescent: The archaeobotanical remains from Hallan Çemi, Demirköy, M'lefaat and Qermez Dere. In. University of Cambridge. Doctoral dissertation. Department of Archaeology
48. Savard, M. and Nesbitt, M. and Gale, R. (2003) Archaeobotanical evidence for Early Neolithic diet and subsistence at M'lefaat (Iraq) Paléorient, 29, pp. 93-106.
49. Smith, B.(1998) The Emergence of Agriculture. New York: Scientific American Library.
50. Starkovich, B.(2005) Faunal data from Hallan Çemi Tepesi: A Late Epipaleolithic/Neolithic transition site in Southeast Anatolia. In. University of Arizona. Master's report, Department of Anthropology
51. Van Zeist, W. and Bakker-Heeres, J. (1982) Archaeobotanical studies in the Levant, 1. Neolithic sites in the Damascus basin: Aswad, Ghoraifé, Ramad Palaeohistoria, 24, pp. 165-256.
52. Van Zeist, W. and Bakker-Heeres, J. (1984) Archaeobotanical studies in the Levant, 3. Late Palaeolithic Mureybet Palaeohistoria, 26, pp. 171-199.
53. Van Zeist, W. and de Roller, G. (1991-2) The plant husbandry of aceramic Çayönü, SE Turkey Palaeohistoria, 33-4, pp. 65-96.
54. Van Zeist, W. and de Roller, G.(2003) The Çayönü archaeobotanical record. In Reports on Archaeobotanical Studies in the Old World. (pp. 143-166). Groningen.
55. (1995) Qermez Dere, Tell Afar: Interim Report No. 3. Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh, Department of Archaeology, Project Paper 14.
56. Watkins, T. and Baird, D.(1987) Qermez Dere: The Excavation of an Aceramic Neolithic Settlement Near Tel Afar, N. Iraq, 1987: Interim Report. Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh, Department of Archaeology, Project Paper 6.
57. Watkins, T. and Baird, D. and Betts, A. (1989) Qermez Dere and the early Aceramic Neolithic of N. Iraq Paléorient, 15(1), pp. 19-24.
58. Watkins, T. and Betts, A. and Dobney, K. and Nesbitt, M.(1991) Qermez Dere, Tel Afar: Interim Report No 2, 1989. Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh, Department of Archaeology, Project Paper 13.
59. Weiss, E. and Kislev, M. and Simchoni, O. and Nadel, D. (2004a) Small-grained wild grasses as staple food at the 23 000-year-old site of Ohalo II, Israel Economic Botany, 58, pp. S125-S134.
60. Weiss, E. and Wetterstrom, W. and Nadel, D. and Bar-Yosef, O. (2004b) The broad spectrum revisited: Evidence from plant remains Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 101, pp. 9551-9555.
61. Willcox, G. (1996) Evidence for plant exploitation and vegetation history from three early Neolithic Pre-Pottery sites on the Euphrates (Syria) Vegetation History and Archaeobotany, 5, pp. 143-152.
62. Willcox, G.(1999a) Archaeobotanical significance of growing Near Eastern progenitors of domestic plants at Jalès, France. In Prehistory of Agriculture: New Experimental and Ethnographic Approaches. (pp. 103-117). Los Angeles CA: UCLA, Institute of Archaeology, Monograph 40.
63. Willcox, G.(1999b) Agrarian change and the beginnings of cultivation in the Near East: Evidence from wild progenitors, experimental cultivation and archaeobotanical data. In The Prehistory of Food: Appetites for Change. (pp. 478-500). London: Routledge.
64. Willcox, G. (2004) Measuring grain size and identifying Near Eastern cereal domestication: Evidence from the Euphrates valley Journal of Archaeological Science, 31, pp. 145-150.
65. Zohary, D. and Hopf, M.(2000) Domestication of Plants in the Old World 3rd edn. Oxford: Oxford University Press.