CAS AR 100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Tell Abu Hureyra, Ain Mallaha, Fertile Crescent

• School: Boston University
• Department: Archaeology
• Course: CAS AR 100
• Professor: Franco Rossi

Document Summary

Oasis hypothesis: good balance of people, animals, plants. Natural habitat hypothesis: happened where wild things already existed, farming is much better than hunting/gathering. Population pressure/edge hypothesis: farming sucks, but high population pressures. Social hypothesis: led to accumulation of surplus trade specialization. When studying domestication, scholars tend to focus disproportionately on the archaeological record of the near east (fertile crescent) Fertile crescent: the area bordering the zagros. Natifuan the final mesolithic culture in the area where agriculture first appeared in the world 11-5000 bce. Wild = brittle stem and hard husk. Domesticated = tough stem (naturally selected for during harvesting) and a brittle husk (due to human selection) Based on the evidence from abu hureyra, researchers link plant domestication in the. Near east to climactic changes at the end of the pleistocene/beginning of the holocene. Gazelle made up about 80% of the early fauna until 7500 bce. After 7500 bce, these were replaced by domesticated sheep and goats.