The Environmental Setting for Plant Domestication in the Near East

Abstract

Wild cereal grains may not have entered the Near East until the end of the Pleistocene 11,000 yr ago. At the time of the last Pleistocene glaciation, the dry-summer climate now characteristic of the Mediterranean Sea area, along with its associated plants (including the wild cereal grains that were later domesticated), had been displaced to the south, specifically to the area of Morocco. The climatic change terminating the Pleistocene resulted in the migration of certain food plants from the Morocco area to the eastern Mediterranean region, and concomitant cultural changes led to the domestication of these plants in their new area. The climatic events were a necessary ingredient in producing optimal conditions for plant and animal domestication. [Quercus, Pistacia, Artemisia, Chenopodiaceae, Plantago, Cedrus, Pinus, Olea, Ostrya, Graminae, Betula, Tilia, Ulmus, Alnus, Carpinus, Abies, Fagus and Triticum are mentioned.].