It has generally been considered that cereals (such as wheat, rice, and maize) were the first crops to be cultivated by human beings. But a new study that included scanning electron microscopy, by Mordechai Kislev, Anat Hartmann, and Ofer Bar-Yosef (micrographs by Yakov Langsam) provides strong evidence that figs were the first agricultural crop in human history.

Kislev et al. recovered nine fig fruits (plus many nutlets called drupelets) from the ruins of a burned building near Jericho. The fire had carbonized the fruit which helped preserve the morphology of the specimens. The site was radiocarbon dated to 11,400 to 11,200 years ago. Microscopic analysis demonstrated that these specimens were of an edible fig that produces drupelets without embryos; that is, these fruits are sterile. Wild fertile figs have a symbiotic relationship with a wasp that plays an essential role in pollinating the fruit, but this fruit is inedible. In this study, no evidence of wasps or where a wasp could exit the fruit were found and these are features found in wild fruit. In other words, wild figs that can be pollinated and reproduce without human intervention are inedible, but edible figs require human intervention. The specimens examined in this study were of the latter variety.