Konjan Cham River near Chogha Golan, Iran [Credit: TISARP/University of Tübingen] |
Now, Simone Riehl from the University of Tübingen in Germany, along with colleagues from the Tübingen Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Paleoecology, have analyzed plant remains at the aceramic (pre-pottery) Neolithic site of Chogha Golan in Iran, and their results show that people were growing and grinding cereal grains like wheat and barley at the same time as their counterparts to the west. Their findings appear in the 5 July issue of the journal Science.
This is a photo of the excavations in area A at Chogha Golan, Iran [Credit: TISARP/University of Tübingen] |
The plant remains found at the Chogha Golan site document more than 2,000 years of the region's land use and represent the earliest record of long-term plant management in Iran, according to the researchers.
Architecture and grinding equipment from excavation area A in Chogha Golan, Iran [Credit: TISARP/University of Tübingen] |
"Plentiful findings of chaff remains of the cereals indicate that people processed their harvest within the sites they were living in," Riehl said. "Mortars and grinding stones may have been used for turning the grain into some kind of bulgur or flour, which may have been further processed either by cooking or roasting."
This is a sample of Hordeum spontaneum, wild barley from Chogha Golan, Iran [Credit: TISARP] |
Taken together, these new insights suggest that the eastern region of the Fertile Crescent likewise made significant contributions to the development of Neolithic culture. The findings by Riehl et al. indicate that essentially simultaneous processes led to the management of wild plants and the domestication of cereal grains across most of the Fertile Crescent.
An animal figurine from Chogha Golan [Credit: Mohsen Zeidi] |
"For some time, the emergence of agriculture in Iran was considered as part of a cultural transfer from the west," Riehl said. "This opinion was, however, mostly based on the lack of information from Iranian sites."
Excavations in the Fertile Crescent: Tübingen archaeologists found evidence of early agriculture at Chogha Golan [Credit: Simone Riehl] |
Author: Brandon Bryn | Source: American Association for the Advancement of Science [July 05, 2013]