TY - GEN

T1 - The Evolution of Plant Harvesting at The Dawn of Agriculture

T2 - Perspectives from Sickle Gloss Texture Analyses

AU - Ibáñez, Juan

AU - Anderson, Patricia

AU - Arranz-Otaegui, Amaia

AU - González-Urquijo, Jesús

AU - Jörgensen-Lindahl, Anne

AU - Mazzucco, Niccolò

AU - Pichon, Fiona

AU - Richter, Tobias

PY - 2021/1/4

Y1 - 2021/1/4

N2 - Archaeobotanical and genetic analysis of modern plant materials are drawing a complex scenario for the origins of cereal agriculture in the Levant. This paper presents an improved method for the study of early farming harvesting systems based on the texture analysis of gloss observed on sickle blades. We identify different harvesting activities (unripe/semi-ripe/ripe cereal reaping and reed and grass cutting) and evaluate their evolution during the time when plant cultivation activities started and domesticated crops appeared in the Levant (12,800 to 7000 cal BC). The state of maturity of cereals when harvested shifted through time from unripe, to semi-ripe and finally to ripe. Most of these changes in harvesting techniques are explained by the modification of crops during the transition to agriculture. The shift of plant harvesting strategies was neither chronologically linear nor geographically homogeneous. Fully mature cereal harvesting starts to be dominant around 8500 cal BC in Southern Levant and one millennium later in Northern Levant, which fits with the appearance of domestic varieties in the archaeobotanical record. The evolution of plant harvesting better fits with the gradualist model of explanation of cereal agriculture than with the punctuated one.

AB - Archaeobotanical and genetic analysis of modern plant materials are drawing a complex scenario for the origins of cereal agriculture in the Levant. This paper presents an improved method for the study of early farming harvesting systems based on the texture analysis of gloss observed on sickle blades. We identify different harvesting activities (unripe/semi-ripe/ripe cereal reaping and reed and grass cutting) and evaluate their evolution during the time when plant cultivation activities started and domesticated crops appeared in the Levant (12,800 to 7000 cal BC). The state of maturity of cereals when harvested shifted through time from unripe, to semi-ripe and finally to ripe. Most of these changes in harvesting techniques are explained by the modification of crops during the transition to agriculture. The shift of plant harvesting strategies was neither chronologically linear nor geographically homogeneous. Fully mature cereal harvesting starts to be dominant around 8500 cal BC in Southern Levant and one millennium later in Northern Levant, which fits with the appearance of domestic varieties in the archaeobotanical record. The evolution of plant harvesting better fits with the gradualist model of explanation of cereal agriculture than with the punctuated one.

UR - https://www.lens.org/131-916-795-656-994

U2 - 10.21203/rs.3.rs-136472/v1

DO - 10.21203/rs.3.rs-136472/v1

M3 - Other contribution

ER -