A History of Agriculture in India v1.c14: Chapter 8. The Neolithic Agricultural Revolution in Western Asia

A History of Agriculture in India v1.c14

Language: English

v1.c14.s1 Polished Stone-Axes — 1 part
v1.c14.s2 Cultivation of Plants — 10 parts
v1.c14.s3 Domestication of Animals — 7 parts
v1.c14.s4 Housing, Pottery, Basketry and Loom — 9 parts
v1.c14.s5 References — 2 parts

Chapter 8. The Neolithic Agricultural Revolution in Western Asia

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INVENTION OF POLISHED STONE IMPLEMENTS, DISCOVERY OF AGRICULTURE AND DOMESTICATION OF ANIMALS

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WHILE people were hunting wild animals and subsisting on leaves and fruits of the jungle trees in India, a remarkable development took place in western Asia, viz. the discovery of agriculture.

The birthplace of the Neolithic agricultural revolution was the hilly region embracing Israel, Jordan, Anatolia, Iraq, the Caspian Basin and the adjoining Iranian plateau. It is in this region that wild ancestors of two major cereals, wheat and barley, and of domesticated animals like goat, sheep, pig, and cattle (*Bos primigenius*), are found. Thus, apart from the fertile soil, all the requirements of mixed farming, which include agriculture and stock-raising, were present in this region (Fig. 49).

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The Natufians, who are so named after a camp-site in the Wadi-el-Natuf, in Jordan, used sickles of small flint blades set with gum into the grooved shafts of bone. The blades were finely notched and set in a line to make a continuous saw-edge. The silica in the grass or corn stalks had polished the edges of the flints into a bright lustre from constant use. On the flat rock floor at the cave mouth were hollows made by pounding the grain into flour, and stone mortars were found for the same purpose.

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In Fig. 48, a reconstruction of a harvesting scene from the Fertile Crescent, two men and a woman are shown harvesting wheat with stone sickles. In the background is a cluster of huts.

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It is the animals that live in herds that are more amenable to domestication. The herd is usually led by a leader whom the herd follows. If the leader is captured, the rest of the herd can easily be caught. Sheep, goats, cattle and pigs, which are the main domestic animals, come under this category and no wonder that they were the first to be domesticated. Similarly, among plants it is the grasses which tend to grow densely, and are most amenable to control by man. Most of our cereals, e.g. wheat, barley, oats and rice, are grasses.

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The oldest Neolithic settlement sites known are Ali Kosh, Bus Mordeh phase (7500 B.C.) in Iran, Jericho in Jordan (7000 B.C.), Jarmo in Iraq (6750 B.C.) and Belt Cave below the Caspian (6500 B.C.) in northern Iran. Between them, they more or less embrace the region called the Fertile Crescent, which saw the rise of Neolithic culture. Ali Kosh, Jericho, Jarmo and other ecologically similar localities witnessed the first attempts at agriculture. These are mountainous areas where adequate rainfall for non-irrigation agriculture exists. The Ali Kosh villagers harvested their cereals with flint sickles, which were set into hafts by means of asphalt. They ground up wheat, barley, and crop weeds on saddle-shaped or shallow-basin grinding-slabs, using simple discoidal handstones of pitted limestone. An innovation was the use of the stone mortar and pestle.

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Braidwood states, "Jarmo was a permanent, year-round settlement with about two dozen mud-walled houses that were repaired and rebuilt frequently, creating about a dozen distinct levels of occupancy. We have identified there the remains of two-row barley (cultivated barley today has mostly six rows of grains on a spike) and two forms of domesticated wheat. Goats and dogs, and possibly sheep, were domesticated. The bones of wild animals, quantities of snail shells and acorns and pistachio-nuts indicate that the people still hunted and collected a substantial amount of food. They enjoyed a varied, adequate and well-balanced diet which was possibly superior to that of the people living in the same area today."¹

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¹ Braidwood, R.J. The Agricultural Revolution, Scientific American, Sept. 1960

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Jarmo and other ecologically similar localities witnessed the first attempts at agriculture. In the region about Jarmo, the present-day botanical evidence strongly substantiates the idea that here are found wild wheat, wild barley, lentil, pea, flax, fig and almond—all of which are potentially domesticable in their present forms, or have potential factors for hybridization. All are found in a definitely wild state, that is, in uncultivable situations, so that they must be considered indigenous and not later introductions. From this region, Neolithic culture diffused in a series of waves to Aegean and Levant, Egypt, southern Russia, the Balkans and the Danube Valley, Italy, France, Spain, the British Isles and India.

Polished Stone-Axes

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Polished stone-axe or celt, with its edge carefully ground, was an important tool which enabled the Neolithic man to obtain a foothold in the forests. In the forest clearings, these farmers started the cultivation of crops. Very often, fire was used for burning forests, and grains of cereals were dibbled with the aid of pointed sticks, as is still done by some farmers in the hill areas of Assam. Later on, stone-hoes with wooden handles were invented. The sowing of crops was largely the work of women, who are credited with the discovery of agriculture. It was only after the domestication of cattle and the invention of the plough, which came much later, that woman was liberated from the toil of cultivation. In most states in India, even now whereas ploughing is done by man it is the woman who follows the plough and drops the seed in the furrows.

Cultivation of Plants

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It is the cereals—wheat, barley, rice, millets and maize—which have contributed most to the building up of the Neolithic culture. They yield nutritious food and the grains can be easily stored for a number of years. All the cereals have arisen from wild grasses, and wild ancestors of a number of them are known. One of the major differences between the cultivated forms and the wild ancestors is that in the latter the seed is shed as soon as it is ripe, whereas in the former the seeds remain enclosed in their husks and can only be separated by threshing. The cultivated forms possibly arose from a lethal mutation as a result of which non-shattering varieties developed, and they could be successfully harvested, threshed and winnowed. A fascinating history of cultivated plants has been built up by the discovery of carbonized seeds and impressions on potsherds from archaeological sites. The study of pollen has provided us with evidence of farming, inferred from the occurrence of cereal pollen or the pollen of weeds associated with cultivation. Sculptures and paintings showing agricultural operations also provide evidence of past agriculture. Other evidences are storage pits, pots, sickles, hoe-blades and saddle-querns.

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Wheat. Vavilov recognized 14 species of *Triticum*, which fall into three groups with 7, 14 and 21 chromosomes respectively. Among these, the most ancient are the 7-chromosome wheats comprising *T. aegilopoides*, the wild einkorn, and *T. monococcum*, the einkorn. Carbonized seeds of both these species have been found at Jarmo. Both have fragile stems, loose spikelets, and a single seed in each spikelet. Both easily hybridize. The wild einkorn is found in Armenia and Georgia in the Soviet Union, and in western Iran. There are no records of this wheat in India, Africa or China. Einkorn is still cultivated in the hilly regions of Europe and the Middle East. Its importance lies in the fact that it is the ancestor of all other cultivated wheats, excepting emmer (Fig. 52).

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There are seven species of 14-chromosome wheats. They originated through hybridization and chromosome doubling of the 7-chromosome einkorn with a 7-chromosome wild grass which is still unidentified. The only wild species with 14 chromosomes is the wild emmer, *T. dicoccoides*, which is found in Armenia, northern Palestine, Syria, Turkey, and western Iran. The wheat found at Jarmo is of an irregular type with coarse and loose ears comparable with those of *T. dicoccoides*. From its original home, emmer diffused into Egypt, Ethiopia and Europe. It is still grown on a considerable scale in Ethiopia. Emmer was the wheat of Egypt until it was replaced by bread wheat after Alexander the Great conquered Egypt in the fourth century B.C. Outside Ethiopia, emmer lingers on as a relict crop in Yugoslavia and southern India.

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The third domesticated wheat was also a tetraploid. It was so trivial that there is no common name for it; scientifically, it is named *Triticum* timopheevi. It originated in Transcaucasian Georgia and has spread only as a collector's item for genetic studies.

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The 14-chromosome wheats have tough stems and seeds which thresh free from their glumes and consist of 4 species: *T. durum* (macaroni), *T. persicum* (Persian), *T. turgidum* (rivet) and *T. polonicum* (Polish).

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The wheat we grow today is none of these three early domesticates. All three are known as glume wheats because the spike, or the seed-bearing head, breaks up when it is threshed, leaving each seed enclosed in a hard, shell-like glume, or husk. The seeds must then be processed further, usually by pounding in a mortar, to free them of the husks. Some time after emmer was domesticated a mutation occurred that caused the base of the glume to collapse at maturity, freeing the seed. At the same time, the spike became tough, so that it did not fall apart as the ancestral spikes had done. The mutated, free-threshing emmer is the ancestor of our macaroni wheats.

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'The major wheat species of the world, and the one that contributes most to the annual harvest of 360 million tonnes, is still another kind, known generally as bread wheat. It is a hexaploid; that is, it has 21 pairs of chromosomes. It arose long after the initial domestication of the three primitive glume wheats. Its extra set of chromosomes was contributed by a wild goat-grass called *Triticum tauschii*, and the distribution of the wild progenitor suggests that the hybridization may have taken place somewhere near the southern end of the Caspian Sea. *T. tauschii* is the only species of goat-grass with a continental distribution, and it may have contributed to the adaptation that makes it possible for bread wheat to be grown on the dry steppes of the world. As a wild grass *T. tauschii* is essentially worthless, but as a contributor of genetic characteristics it literally made a billion-dollar crop out of a million-dollar one'.²

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² Harlan, J.R. The Plants and Animals that Nourish Man, *Scientific American*, Sept. 1976

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The 21-chromosome wheats comprise five species and are widely cultivated. Of these, *T. aestivum* (common), *T. sphaerococcum* (shot) and *T. compactum* (club) are true bread wheats which comprise 90 per cent of the wheat grown today. Grains of *T. sphaerococcum*, the common wheat of northern and central India, found from Mohenjo-daro are dated about 2300 B.C. This wheat seems to have been grown widely in the Indus Valley.

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Barley. There are two species of cultivated barely, the two-rowed (*Hordeum distichum*), and the six-rowed (*H. hexastichum*). The wild ancestor of the two-rowed barley is found in Palestine, Arabia, Asia Minor, Transcaucasia, Iran and Afghanistan, and the six-rowed barley in eastern Tibet. The earliest find of barley is from Jarmo.

Domestication of Animals

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During the Neolithic times, along with the cultivation of cereals the [Figure: Fig. 48. A Neolithic rural scene, depicting the harvesting of wheat and barley with stone sickles, with clusters of huts in the background (Reconstruction from the Museum of Evolution of Life, Chandigarh)]

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[Figure: Fig. 49. The distribution of the wild ancestors of domestic plants and animals in the Old World (Based on a map in Sonia Cole, The Neolithic Revolution; by permission of the Trustees of the British Museum, Natural History; courtesy: UNESCO)]

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Fig. 50. The diffusion of farming into Asia and Europe (Based on a map in Sonia Cole, The Neolithic Revolution; by permission of the Trustees of the British Museum, Natural History; courtesy: UNESCO)

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[Figure: Before 5000 B. C. Before 3300 B. C. Before 2000 B. C.]

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domestication of animals was also carried on. This became possible because the habits and habitats of animals and plants and their reproduction and growth came under keen observation. Domestic animals like sheep, goats and cattle are movable sources of food, and their dung is used as manure. Goats and cattle also supply milk. The hair of sheep and goats can be woven into cloth or beaten into felt. The use of animals to carry loads or draw ploughs and vehicles is a later adaptation.

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Changes in climate and the advent of aridity are regarded as important factors favouring the domestication of wild animals. With the decline of food and water supplies, the wild animals herded hungrily round the scattered oases around which human settlements had already been established. The close contact of wild animals with man paved the way for their domestication.

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The time sequence in which wild animals were domesticated is as follows: Firstly, goat and sheep; secondly, cattle and pigs; and lastly, draught and transport animals such as the horse and the ass. This sequence is borne out by the excavations carried out in the Belt Cave, where the remains of domesticated sheep and goats are found in the earliest pre-pottery horizon dated to the first half of the sixth millennium, whereas the remains of pigs and cattle are found in the second half of the same millennium.

Housing, Pottery, Basketry and Loom

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A distinctive feature of the Neolithic culture was the development of houses built of locally available materials. Walls made of pise or sun-dried bricks were popular in south-western Asia, Africa and China. The oldest-known Neolithic houses are of Jericho and Jarmo, in which both stones and pise were used. The walls were lined with lime-plaster, and the floors were plastered and burnished with smooth stones. The wooden door frames were possibly provided with skin curtains.

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The development of agriculture and the production of foodgrains in sizeable quantities led to the problem of storage. Pots were required not only for storing foodgrains but also for cooking. Though Jericho was occupied in the eighth millennium, the first pots are dated about the middle of the sixth millennium. The first pots were hand-made from clay, and the use of the wheel in pottery came much later. The baking of pots is of significance for the beginning of science. As Gordon Childe observes, "It is the earliest conscious utilization by man of a chemical change." The use of pottery extended the range of cooking operations and improved the diet of man.

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Basketry was first developed in Iraq, Iran, Palestine and Egypt. Coiled basketry was popular in Egypt. Weaving was made possible by abundant supplies of flax and wool. Flax was the material used for textile in the early Neolithic times in Egypt, Asia and Europe. According to Jacquetta [Figure: Fig. 51. Neolithic sites in South-West Asia and eastern Europe (After J. Braidwood, Oriental Institute, University of Chicago; courtesy: UNESCO)]

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[Figure: Fig. 52. Ancestry of common wheat (After P.C. Mangelsdorf)]

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Hawkes, the Danubians, the windmill people of England, and the first Scandinavian settlers had no textile garments, but relied entirely on skins and furs. Spinning, weaving and making of pots is again credited to women.

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The invention of weaving had a deeper implication. As Bernal observes, "Weaving is clearly a further adaptation of basket-making, and both of them involve regularities, first of all actually practised and then thought about, which are at the basis of geometry and arithmetic. The forms of patterns produced in weaving and the number of threads involved in producing them are essentially of a geometrical nature, leading to a deeper understanding of the relations between form and number."

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Saddle-querns were used for grinding grain. Possibly, parched grains were used, and the grinding operation may not have been so arduous. Techniques of baking and brewing were also developed.

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During the Neolithic or the Polished Stone Age, man acquired the skill of grinding and polishing stone implements like celt, axe or adze, and invented the sickle for harvesting crops. He began to control his food supply by cultivating plants and domesticating animals. Bernal regards the invention of the technique of agriculture, ranking with the utilization of fire and of power, as one of the three most momentous inventions in human history. Like all great transformations, it was not a single act but a process including numerous observations and inventions, all subservient to the essential achievement—the cultivation of seed-giving grasses. Apart from the discovery of agriculture and animal husbandry, other achievements of the Neolithic revolution were wood-working, and manufacture of pottery and textiles. Thus when we speak of the Neolithic revolution, what is implied is not a catastrophe but a major change in the techniques of food production which gave man control over his environment and saved him from the precarious existence of a mere hunter and gatherer of wild berries and roots. For the first time, he lived in settled villages, and apart from security from hunger he had leisure to think and contemplate.

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From the Fertile Crescent area, agriculture and animal husbandry slowly diffused into adjoining lands (Fig. 50). It reached the valleys of the Tigris and the Euphrates, Asia Minor, Egypt, Greece, the Danubian area in Europe, Italy, southern France, Iberia and Iran before 3300 B.C., and Sind a little later.

References

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Braidwood, R.J. *The Near East and the Foundations for Civilization*, New York, 1952 Braidwood, R.J. *The Agricultural Revolution*, *Scientific American*, Sept. 1960 Butzer, K.W. *The Significance of Agricultural Dispersal into Europe*, in *Prehistoric Agriculture* (Ed. Struever, S.), New York, 1971 Childe, G. *Man Makes Himself*, London, 1936

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Curwen, E.C. and Hatt, G. *Plough and Pasture, The Early History of Farming*, New York, 1961 Harlan, J.R. The Plants and Animals that Nourish Man, *Scientific American*, Sept. 1976 Hawkes, J. and Woolley, L. *History of Mankind. I. Prehistory and the Beginnings of Civilization*, UNESCO. George Allen & Unwin Ltd, London, 1963 Helbaek, H. Archaeology and Agricultural Botany. *Ann. Rep. Inst. Archaeol.*, London, pp. 44-59, 1953 Randhawa, M.S. *et al.* *Evolution of Life*, New Delhi, 1969 Sauer, C.O. Planters of the Old World and their Household Animals, *Prehistoric Agriculture* (Ed. Struever, S.), New York, 1971 Watson, R.A. and P.J. The Domesticator of Plants and Animals, *Prehistoric Agriculture* (Ed. Struever, S.), New York, 1971 Whyte, R.O. *Evolution of Land Use in South-Western Asia*, F.A.O., Rome, 1960

Linked texts (1)

Mohenjo-daro