Book contents
- Plant Domestication and the Origins of Agriculture in the Ancient Near East
- Plant Domestication and the Origins of Agriculture in the Ancient Near East
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Tables
- Foreword
- Foreword
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 What Is the Agricultural Revolution?
- 2 From Hunter-Gatherers to Farmers in the Near East
- 3 Models That Describe and Explain the Agricultural Revolution, Including Plant Domestication
- 4 The Plant Formations of the Fertile Crescent and the Wild Progenitors of the Domesticated Founder Crops
- 5 The Difference between Wild and Domesticated Plants
- 6 Traditional versus Modern Agriculture – Stability vs Maximization
- 7 The Differences between Plant Domestication and Crop Evolution under Traditional and Modern Farming Systems
- 8 The Differences between Cereal and Legume Crops in the Near East
- 9 The Choice of Plant Species for Domestication
- 10 Where, When and How Did Near Eastern Plant Domestication Occur?
- 11 Domestication of Fruit Trees in the Near East
- 12 Plant Evolution under Domestication
- 13 A Global View of Plant Domestication in Other World Regions
- 14 Animal Domestication in the Near East
- 15 Plant Domestication and Early Near Eastern Agriculture
- Notes
- Further Reading
- References, Chapter 14
- Glossary: Basic Concepts in Genetics, Botany, Ecology, Agronomy and Zoology
- Index
4 - The Plant Formations of the Fertile Crescent and the Wild Progenitors of the Domesticated Founder Crops
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 March 2022
- Plant Domestication and the Origins of Agriculture in the Ancient Near East
- Plant Domestication and the Origins of Agriculture in the Ancient Near East
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Tables
- Foreword
- Foreword
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 What Is the Agricultural Revolution?
- 2 From Hunter-Gatherers to Farmers in the Near East
- 3 Models That Describe and Explain the Agricultural Revolution, Including Plant Domestication
- 4 The Plant Formations of the Fertile Crescent and the Wild Progenitors of the Domesticated Founder Crops
- 5 The Difference between Wild and Domesticated Plants
- 6 Traditional versus Modern Agriculture – Stability vs Maximization
- 7 The Differences between Plant Domestication and Crop Evolution under Traditional and Modern Farming Systems
- 8 The Differences between Cereal and Legume Crops in the Near East
- 9 The Choice of Plant Species for Domestication
- 10 Where, When and How Did Near Eastern Plant Domestication Occur?
- 11 Domestication of Fruit Trees in the Near East
- 12 Plant Evolution under Domestication
- 13 A Global View of Plant Domestication in Other World Regions
- 14 Animal Domestication in the Near East
- 15 Plant Domestication and Early Near Eastern Agriculture
- Notes
- Further Reading
- References, Chapter 14
- Glossary: Basic Concepts in Genetics, Botany, Ecology, Agronomy and Zoology
- Index
Summary
The Fertile Crescent, named so after its lunate silhouette, spans from Khuzestan Province in Iran, across the Zagros Mountains in western Iran (Kurdistan), to the river valleys of the Euphrates and Tigris in Iraq, south-eastern Turkey and northern Syria, and then westwards towards Lebanon, the Mediterranean zone of Israel and Jordan and finally spanning southwards towards the Nile (see Figure Introduction 1). Geologically, most of the Fertile Crescent is covered by rocks that were formed at the bottom of the Tethys Ocean millions of years ago and soils that eroded from these rocks. Additional geological formations include extensive basalt flows characterized by the fertile soils they generate, outcrops of igneous rocks such as granites that are hundreds of millions of years old, and the sandstone deposits formed in the coastal areas of the ocean mostly during the Lower Cretaceous. Valleys of the region are characterized by deep alluvial soils and colluvial deposits from mountains, especially after humans cut down forests, thereby accelerating soil erosion. The coastal plains of the eastern Mediterranean are characterized by low ridges of beach-rocks (kurkar, solidified dunes), sandy loam soils (ḥamra) and dunes originating from quartz particles that eroded from the granite rocks of East Africa, and which were transported to the Mediterranean by the Nile and pushed further to the eastern coast of the Mediterranean by sea currents.
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- Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022