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Science 20 November 1998:
Vol. 282. no. 5393, p. 1446
DOI: 10.1126/science.282.5393.1446
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News

NEOLITHIC AGRICULTURE:
The Slow Birth of Agriculture

Heather Pringle

New techniques for tracing the rise of farming are contradicting the view that cities and agriculture emerged together in a single "Neolithic Revolution." Tiny plant fossils are allowing archaeologists to spot the first signs of crop domestication thousands of years earlier than had been thought, and to find them in unexpected places, such as the South American rainforest. In many regions, settlements came thousands of years after crops, while in others, villages appear long before intensive agriculture (see p. 1442), implying a long, slow transition to the agrarian way of life. To many researchers, the timing suggests that worldwide environmental change--climate fluctuations at the end of the Ice Age--may well have prompted cultivation.

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
After 10,000 Years of Agriculture, Whither Agronomy?: Previously Published in Agron. J. 100:22-34 (2008).
F. P. Miller (2008)
Agron. J. 100, S-40-S-52
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
After 10,000 Years of Agriculture, Whither Agronomy?.
F. P. Miller (2008)
Agron. J. 100, 22-34
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
The Initial Domestication of Goats (Capra hircus) in the Zagros Mountains 10,000 Years Ago.
M. A. Zeder and B. Hesse (2000)
Science 287, 2254-2257
   Abstract »    Full Text »


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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)