Arranz-Otaegui Amaia, Colledge Sue, Zapata Lydia, Teira-Mayolini Luis Cesar, Ibáñez Juan José
Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, University of Copenhagen, 2300 Copenhagen, Denmark;
Institute of Archaeology, University College London, London WC1H 0PY, United Kingdom.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2016 Dec 6;113(49):14001-14006. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1612797113.
Recent studies have broadened our knowledge regarding the origins of agriculture in southwest Asia by highlighting the multiregional and protracted nature of plant domestication. However, there have been few archaeobotanical data to examine whether the early adoption of wild cereal cultivation and the subsequent appearance of domesticated-type cereals occurred in parallel across southwest Asia, or if chronological differences existed between regions. The evaluation of the available archaeobotanical evidence indicates that during Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) cultivation of wild cereal species was common in regions such as the southern-central Levant and the Upper Euphrates area, but the plant-based subsistence in the eastern Fertile Crescent (southeast Turkey, Iran, and Iraq) focused on the exploitation of plants such as legumes, goatgrass, fruits, and nuts. Around 10.7-10.2 ka Cal BP (early Pre-Pottery Neolithic B), the predominant exploitation of cereals continued in the southern-central Levant and is correlated with the appearance of significant proportions (∼30%) of domesticated-type cereal chaff in the archaeobotanical record. In the eastern Fertile Crescent exploitation of legumes, fruits, nuts, and grasses continued, and in the Euphrates legumes predominated. In these two regions domesticated-type cereal chaff (>10%) is not identified until the middle and late Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (10.2-8.3 ka Cal BP). We propose that the cultivation of wild and domesticated cereals developed at different times across southwest Asia and was conditioned by the regionally diverse plant-based subsistence strategies adopted by Pre-Pottery Neolithic groups.
最近的研究通过强调植物驯化的多区域和长期性质，拓宽了我们对西南亚农业起源的认识。然而，几乎没有考古植物学数据来检验野生谷物种植的早期采用以及随后驯化型谷物的出现是否在西南亚各地同时发生，或者各区域之间是否存在时间差异。对现有考古植物学证据的评估表明，在新石器时代A期前陶文化（PPNA）期间，野生谷物物种的种植在中南部黎凡特和幼发拉底河上游地区等很常见，但肥沃新月地带东部（土耳其东南部、伊朗和伊拉克）的植物性生计侧重于对豆类、山羊草、水果和坚果等植物的开发利用。大约在公元前10700 - 10200年（新石器时代B期前陶文化早期），中南部黎凡特地区对谷物的主要开发利用仍在继续，并且与考古植物学记录中出现相当比例（约30%）的驯化型谷物谷壳相关。在肥沃新月地带东部，对豆类、水果、坚果和草类的开发利用仍在继续，在幼发拉底河地区豆类占主导地位。在这两个地区，直到新石器时代B期前陶文化的中晚期（公元前10200 - 8300年）才发现驯化型谷物谷壳（>10%）。我们认为，野生和驯化谷物的种植在西南亚各地是在不同时间发展起来的，并且受到新石器时代前陶文化群体所采用的区域多样化植物性生计策略的制约。
