Abstract
The transition from foraging systems to agricultural dependence is a persistent focus of archaeological research, and the focus of a major research project supported by the European Research Council (ERC grant no. 323842, ’ComPAg’). Gordon Childe, director of the Institute of Archaeology 1947–1957, influentially defined the Neolithic revolution as that which instigated a series of changes in human societies towards sedentism (settling in one place), larger populations, food production based on domesticated plants and animals, transformed cosmologies and the dawn of new malleable technologies such as ceramics and textiles (Childe 1936).
Highlights
With hindsight the development of agriculture was a revolutionary leap in the history of human societies and economies, but archaeology indicates that it was a drawn-out episode rather than a true revolution
While archaeologists have long had an interest in the ‘Neolithic revolution’ (Childe 1936), the availability of larger archaeobotanical datasets to document plant domestication for most parts of the world is quite recent
Focusing on the relationships between people and plants allows us to examine both the effects that humans have had on plant behaviour and the effects that plants have had on us - such as the move towards sedentism, higher population densities and landscape modifications to favour a comparatively limited number of plant species we call crops
Summary
This research project seeks to examine the changing relationships between humans and plants that has led to parallel pathways towards the evolution of domesticated crops and agricultural systems across the globe. This project aims to look at both aspects of convergent evolution, cultural and botanical, by synthesizing, expanding and comparing archaeobotanical evidence from around the world, but with particular emphasis on Asia and Africa in the Old World.
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