Agrarian change and the beginnings of cultivation in the Near East

This chapter aims to examine the change in the subsistence system in the Near East from a gathering economy to one of production, in the light of observations made during experimental cultivation of primitive cereals at Jales, together with field observations of wild cereals in their natural habitat at a number of stations in Syria. It is argued that subsistence change in the Near East was a gradual process, proceeding over millennia rather than centuries, and that the adoption of cultivation required little innovation because, on the one hand, the ‘tool kit’ already existed and, on the other, the natural life cycle of the plants concerned had been exploited for some considerable time. The evolutionary paths led to present-day wild and domestic cereals are not fully understood. In their natural habitat wild cereals sow themselves immediately after ripening. Germination tests were carried out by the local agricultural college at Aubenas on samples of our seed grain under laboratory conditions.