Narrowing the harvest: Increasing sickle investment and the rise of domesticated cereal agriculture in the Fertile Crescent

Osamu Maeda,Leilani Lucas,Fabio Silva,Ken-Ichi Tanno,Dorian Q. Fuller

doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2016.05.032

Osamu Maeda, Leilani Lucas + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2016.05.032

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Abstract

Abstract For the first time we integrate quantitative data on lithic sickles and archaeobotanical evidence for domestication and the evolution of plant economies from sites dated to the terminal Pleistocene and Early Holocene (ca. 12000–5000 cal. BCE) from throughout the Fertile Crescent region of Southwest Asia. We find a strong correlation in some regions, throughout the Levant, for increasing investment in sickles that tracks the evidence for increasing reliance on cereal crops, while evidence for morphological domestication in wheats (Triticum monococcum and Triticum dicoccum) and barley (Hordeum vulgare) was delayed in comparison to sickle use. These data indicate that while the co-increase of sickle blades and cereal crops support the protracted development of agricultural practice, sickles did not drive the initial stages of the domestication process but rather were a cultural adaptation to increasing reliance on cereals that were still undergoing selection for morphological change. For other regions, such as the Eastern Fertile Crescent and Cyprus such correlations are weaker or non-existent suggesting diverse cultural trajectories to cereal domestication. We conclude that sickles were an exaptation transferred to cereal harvesting and important in signalling a new cultural identity of “farmers”. Furthermore, the protracted process of technological and agricultural evolution calls into question hypotheses that the transition to agriculture was caused by any particular climatic event.

Highlights

The origins of agriculture transformed the social and natural worlds
Our study demonstrates the increasing investment in production and the use of sickle blades as well as their regional diversity
The following time slices show the chronological change of sickle blade typology, which reflect the change in degree of their specialized manufacture

Summary

Introduction

Key plant species were transformed into domesticated crops, their micro-habitats became new ecosystems for weeds and pests (Willcox, 2012), and their annual seed produce was co-opted into cycles of harvest, storage and planting by people (Fuller, 2007; Harlan et al, 1973). For the first time large-scale, regional quantitative data on sickle use is directly compared to quantitative archaeobotanical evidence for the transformation of cereal crops towards morphologically domesticated forms, and the transformation in plant economies towards increasing reliance on crops over gathered wild foods. Our analysis, using quantile regression (detailed below) statistically examines a correlation between increasing use of, and investment in, sickle blades and increasing reliance on cereal crops, while at the same time questions a connection between sickle harvesting and evolution of non-shattering cereals (contrary to what has often been proposed, e.g., Wilke et al, 1972; Hillman and Davies, 1990). The paper below elucidates these patterns through a detailed consideration of regional lithic and archaeobotanical variation anchored to a uniformly applied chronometric timescale

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