Mordechai E. Kislev

Early Domesticated Fig in the Jordan Valley

It is generally accepted that the fig tree was domesticated in the Near East some 6500 years ago. Here we report the discovery of nine carbonized fig fruits and hundreds of drupelets stored in Gilgal I, an early Neolithic village, located in the Lower Jordan Valley, which dates to 11,400 to 11,200 years ago. We suggest that these edible fruits were gathered from parthenocarpic trees grown from intentionally planted branches. Hence, fig trees could have been the first domesticated plant of the Neolithic Revolution, which preceded cereal domestication by about a thousand years.

Nuts, nut cracking, and pitted stones at Gesher Benot Ya‘aqov, Israel

The Acheulian site of Gesher Benot Ya‘aqov (Israel) has revealed a unique association of edible nuts with pitted hammers and anvils. Located in the Dead Sea rift, on the boundary between the Arabian and African plates, the site dates to the Early-Middle Pleistocene, oxygen isotope stage 19. In a series of strata, seven species of nuts, most of which can be cracked open only by a hard hammer, were uncovered. Five of the species are extant terrestrial nuts, and two are aquatic nuts now extinct in the Levant. In addition, the site yielded an assemblage of pitted hammers and anvils similar in pit morphology to those used by chimpanzees and contemporary hunter–gatherers. This is the first time, to our knowledge, that a site has offered both paleobotanical and lithic evidence of plant foods eaten by early hominins and technologies used for processing these foods. The evidence also sheds light on the structure of the community: ethnographic analogies suggest that mixedgender groups may have been active on the shores of paleoLake Hula.

Epipalaeolithic (19,000 BP) cereal and fruit diet at Ohalo II, Sea of Galilee, Israel

Abstract Charred plant remains, 19,000 years old, were uncovered at Ohalo II on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, Israel. The wild barley and other edible grasses and fruits found suggest, by their ripening seasons, that the site was occupied at least during spring and autumn. The species found provide insights into the subsistence strategy of the earliest known hunter-gatherer community of the Levantine Epipaleolithic period. In addition, the remains of barley rachis nodes provide new evidence distinguishing between domesticated and wild types in ancient archaeobotanical material.

Germination, Genetics, and Growth of an Ancient Date Seed

An ancient date seed (Phoenix dactylifera L.) excavated from Masada and radiocarbon-dated to the first century Common Era was germinated. Climatic conditions at the Dead Sea may have contributed to the longevity of this oldest, directly dated, viable seed. Growth and development of the seedling over 26 months was compatible with normal date seedlings propagated from modern seeds. Preliminary molecular characterization demonstrated high levels of genetic variation in comparison to modern, elite date cultivars currently growing in Israel. As a representative of an extinct date palm population, this seedling can provide insights into the historic date culture of the Dead Sea region. It also has importance for seed banking and conservation and may be of relevance to modern date palm cultivation.

Spatial Organization of Hominin Activities at Gesher Benot Ya’aqov, Israel

Home Is Where the Hearth Is One aspect of human intelligence is the ability to organize our living and working spaces. It was generally thought that this capability arose with modern humans in the past 100,000 years or so. However, Alperson-Afil et al. (p. 1677) found evidence of domestic organization 800,000 years ago at a Pleistocene hominin campsite in the Jordan Valley. Around patches of burnt debris, the remains of a wide range of plant and animal foodstuffs were found, including fruits and seeds, as well as remnants of turtles, elephants, and small rodents. Specific types of stone tools appear to have been made around the hearths, where there was also evidence of nut roasting and consumption of crabs and fish. In a more distant area there were signs of intensive flint knapping and food chopping. The spatial distribution of artifacts implies that living space was organized by use as early as 800,000 years ago. The spatial designation of discrete areas for different activities reflects formalized conceptualization of a living space. The results of spatial analyses of a Middle Pleistocene Acheulian archaeological horizon (about 750,000 years ago) at Gesher Benot Ya’aqov, Israel, indicate that hominins differentiated their activities (stone knapping, tool use, floral and faunal processing and consumption) across space. These were organized in two main areas, including multiple activities around a hearth. The diversity of human activities and the distinctive patterning with which they are organized implies advanced organizational skills of the Gesher Benot Ya’aqov hominins.

Small-Grained Wild Grasses as Staple Food at the 23 000-Year-Old Site of Ohalo II, Israel

More than 16 000 grains of small-grained grasses were retrieved at Ohalo II, a submerged 23 000-year-old site on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, Israel. The grains were part of a very large archaeobotanical assemblage, unique for its period and region, as well as its exceptionally good preservation. This paper proposes that these grains were a staple food at Ohalo II, based on several lines of evidence: 1. the large number of grains found; 2. the fact that all grains were fully mature; and 3. ethnographic parallels for the use of small-grained grasses in hunter-gatherers’ societies as well as among present-day agriculturalists.

Domestication of emmer wheat and evolution of free-threshing tetraploid wheat

We describe here the initial steps of cultivation of wild emmer in the Levant, i.e., the western part of the Fertile Crescent, as well as genetic changes caused by spontaneous mutations, leading to its domestication and to the development of free-threshing tetraploid wheat, Triticum turgidum. Review of archaeological findings from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) (10,300-9,500 BP; uncalibrated) indicates that wild emmer was first cultivated in the southern Levant. Domesticated emmer (with a nonbrittle spike) appeared several hundred years later in the early PPNB (9,500-9,000 BP), and for a millennium or more was grown in a mixture with wild emmer in many Levantine sites. After the appearance of domesticated emmer, types with naked, free-threshing grains emerged in the late PPNB (9,000-7,500 BP). We support the model in which domestication occurred independently in several sites across the Levant. According to this view, the genes for non-brittleness were transferred to numerous wild emmer genotypes thro...

Netiv Hagdud: An Early Neolithic Village Site in the Jordan Valley

AbstractNetiv Hagdud is an Early Neolithic village site in the Lower Jordan Valley. Systematic excavations exposed a 500-sqm surface, which included several oval and circular houses. Carbonized plant remains, animal bones, and a wealth of lithic assemblages were the primary materials recovered from the houses and the fill. The seeds indicate that barley cultivation was practiced, along with the continuous gathering of wild fruits and seeds. Gazelle hunting and trapping of migratory waterfowl provided the major meat sources. Evidence concerning distribution of subsistence activities indicates that the site was occupied during at least nine months each year. Domestic activities are expressed in a variety of grinding and pounding tools, a few bone objects, and numerous flint tools. The lithic industry, classified as Sultanian, is characterized by the presence of Khiam points, sickle blades, and tranchet (Tahunian) axes, and is similar to that uncovered in Jericho. Flexed burials, the removal of adult skulls,...

Origins of the cultivation oflathyrus sativus andL. cicera (fabaceae)

Most of the early and rich archaeobotanical finds ofLathyrus sect.Cicercula, particularly those of the most ancient periods, came from the Balkan peninsula. It has been found that cultivation ofL. sativus began there in the early Neolithic period, around 6000 b.c.e., as a result of the expansion of Near Eastern agriculture of annuals into the region. This, in turn, encouraged development of a greater variety of legumes by the domestication of an additional native species. Similarly, it is suggested that domestication ofL. cicera in southern France and the Iberian peninsula occurred only after the introduction of agriculture into the area. Cultivation of these two closely related species in adjacent regions led to the raising of a mixed crop in many ancient fields. Lathyrus sativus may perhaps be the first crop domesticated in Europe.

Stem rust of wheat 3300 years old found in Israel.

A fungus parasite observed on two ancient lemma fragments of wheat was identified as Puccinia graminis. The fragments were found in a storage jar from the Late Bronze Age excavated at Tel Batash, Israel, Uredia, hyphae, and germinating uredospores, though charred, were well preserved.