Peruvian Farming as Early as 9200 B.P.
Posted: Thu Jun 28, 2007 3:02 pm
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/ ... 062507.phpThe researchers dated the squash from approximately 9,200 years ago, the peanut from 7,600 years ago and the cotton from 5,500 years ago.
Can one of you guys recall when farming is thought to have begun during the European Neolithic. Does this find predate the earliest evidence in Europe?
It appears the dating above is uncalibrated.Note Tom Dillehay is the primary researcher for Monte Verde.
Here's a bit from Wiki:
Ancient origins
Developed independently by geographically distant populations, systematic agriculture first appeared in Southwest Asia in the Fertile Crescent, particularly in modern-day southern Iraq and Syria. Around 9500 BC, proto-farmers began to select and cultivate food plants with desired characteristics. Though there is evidence of earlier sporadic use of wild cereals, it was not until after 9500 BC that the eight so-called founder crops of agriculture appear: first emmer and einkorn wheat, then hulled barley, peas, lentils, bitter vetch, chick peas and flax.