Chapter 5 - Transition to Agriculture

Domestication of Plants

• Wild barley and wheat have a brittle rachis, which allows for natural dispersal of seeds when disturbed by the wind.
• Domesticated forms of barley and wheat have a tough rachis, preventing natural dispersal, and instead, requiring human harvest.
• This genetic change from brittle to tough rachis is advantageous for humans but not the plants.

Epipaleolithic Period

• The Epipaleolithic period refers to the interval between 23,000 to 9600 cal BC.
• During this period, hunter-gatherer-forager groups lived in the Middle East.
• The period is characterized by a cool, dry climate, which coincided with the Last Glacial Maximum.

Fertile Crescent

• The Fertile Crescent is an arc of Mediterranean forest running from Jordan/Israel/Lebanon to Turkey and northern Syria, and then south and east through the Zagros Mountains.
• This region is significant for the origins of food production.

Göbekli Tepe

• Göbekli Tepe is an unusual Pre-Pottery Neolithic A and B site in Turkey.
• The site features structures with large T-shaped pillars, with early structures being circular and later ones being rectangular.

Early Epipaleolithic

• The Early Epipaleolithic period dates from 23,000 to 17,000 cal BC.
• During this period, hunter-gatherer-foragers were highly mobile, staying at small sites for only days or weeks at a time.
• The site of Ohalo II was occupied year-round and included brush hut dwellings, fish bones, and wild barley and other cereal grasses.

Middle Epipaleolithic

• The Middle Epipaleolithic period dates from 17,000 to 13,000 cal BC.
• This period was somewhat warmer and wetter than the preceding period.
• Many hunter-gatherer-foragers remained mobile, but Kharaneh IV continued as a year-round aggregate occupation.

Late Epipaleolithic

• The Late Epipaleolithic period dates from 13,000 to 9600 cal BC.
• This period is also known as the Natufian period.
• The Early Natufian period (13,000–11,000 cal BC) coincided with a warmer, wetter climatic optimum.

Natufian Period

• During the Natufian period, the desert was overtaken by lusher environments like Mediterranean forest and steppe.
• The forest was characterized by abundant cereal grasses, acorns, gazelles, and long-term human settlements.
• Hunter-gatherer-foragers in the steppe of Jordan, Syria, and southern Israel were more mobile.
• Early Natufians established villages because cereal grasses ripen in the summer, acorns are collected in the fall, and both are storable resources.

Theories on Food Production

• The Feasting Model suggests that the cultural importance of feasting rituals led to manipulation and ultimately domestication of food resources.
• The Small Seed Investment theory notes that investing time in the seasonal use of small seeds is a viable survival strategy.
• The Hostile Pleistocene theory suggests that humans might have developed domesticated food resources and agriculture sooner, but did not until the hostile environment of the Pleistocene subsided.
• The Niche Construction Theory suggests that humans actively change or manipulate features of the landscape around them and resources in those landscapes in ways that build a niche or habitat in which they can be successful over long periods of time.

Social Stratification

• The depiction of elites in ancient art is more common than that of commoners because they had the resources necessary to create or commission personal portraits and ritual iconography.
• The establishment of elites is a significant question in human history.
• The threat of military coercion is one explanation for allegiance at great personal expense.