The Origin and Development of Plant Cultivation in the Near East

In the present paper aspects of early Neolithic plant cultivation in the Near East, as revealed by archaeological plant remains, are reviewed. The crop plants of the early Neolithic farmers included cereals, pulses and linseed. Plant cultivation resulted in the loss of an efficient seed-dispersal mechanism. Archaeobotanical evidence of plant collecting by late Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers is still scarce. Fair numbers of potential wild food plants have been demonstrated for early Neolithic sites, but the role of these food resources in the diet of early farming communities remains an matter of speculation. There are indications that already in an early stage of plant cultivation use was made of (near-)surface water to compensate for insufficient precipitation. In the final section a few comments are made on the expansion of plant cultivation from its Near Eastern nuclear area and on the introduction of fruit-tree growing.