A 9000 BC agricultural farm discovered on
the island of Cyprus threatens to upset the “Middle East origin of agriculture”
theory, or at least throw it out of kilter by several thousand years.
The communal building in Klimonas partially excavated. |
The settlement, Klimonas, has shown that
organised agriculture was present on that island at least 2000 years before it
was previously assumed that this technology spread out from the Middle East.
The findings, which also reveal the early
development of maritime navigational skills by these populations, have been
published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS).
Sedentary villagers of the Early Neolithic
began cultivating wild grains in the Middle East in about 9500 BCE.
Recent discoveries have shown that the
island of Cyprus was visited by human groups during that period, but until now
the earliest traces of cereal crops and the construction of villages did not
predate 8400 BCE.
The latest findings from the archaeological
excavations of Klimonas indicate that organized communities were built in
Cyprus between 9100 and 8600 BCE: the site has yielded the remnants of a
half-buried mud brick communal building, 10 meters in diameter and surrounded
by dwellings, that must have been used to store the village's harvests.
The archaeologists have found a few votive
offerings inside the building, including flint arrowheads and green stone
beads.
A great many remnants of other objects,
including flint chips, stone tools and shell adornments, have been discovered
in the village. The stone tools and the structures erected by these early
villagers resemble those found at Neolithic sites from the same period on the
nearby continent.
Remains of carbonized seeds of local plants
and grains introduced from the Levantine coasts (including emmer, one of the
first Middle Eastern wheats) have also been found in Klimonas.
An analysis of the bone remains found on
the site has revealed that the meat consumed by these villagers came from the
hunting of a small wild boar indigenous to Cyprus (the only large game on the
island at the time), and that small domestic dogs and cats had been introduced
from the continent.
This would indicate that these early
farming societies migrated from the continent shortly after the emergence of
agriculture there.
In addition, their ability to move a whole
group of people long distances shows that they had already mastered maritime
navigation at the dawn of the Neolithic period.
Source: First wave of cultivators spread to
Cyprus at least 10,600 y ago. Jean-Denis Vigne, et al. Proceedings of the
National Academy of Science, May 7, 2012.
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