Agriculture in the Ancient Near East

Abstract

Agriculture in the ancient Near East is a topic mainly studied by archaeologists and philologists who contribute to our knowledge with the earliest archaeological evidence of cultivation as well as with complex descriptions of field management through the study of cuneiform texts. Extensive contributions also derive from biological and environmental sciences studying the genetics and origins of our modern crops and the ancient environmental conditions of agricultural development by investigating archaeobotanical, zooarchaeological, and geoarchaeological remains from archaeological sites in this large geographic area. This article sets a geographic focus on the Fertile Crescent, an area of relatively high precipitation that stretches from the Levant in the west to the Turkish-Syrian border in the north and Iraq and Iran down to the Persian Gulf in the southeast. The Fertile Crescent is the area where agriculture is known to have evolved and developed into an economy that supported the em ...

Full text

Agriculture in the Ancient Near East
Simone Riehl*
Institute for Archaeological Sciences, University of T€
ubingen, T€
ubingen/Deutschland, Germany
Agriculture in the ancient Near East is a topic mainly studied by archaeologists and philologists who
contribute to our knowledge with the earliest archaeological evidence of cultivation as well as with
complex descriptions of field management through the study of cuneiform texts. Extensive contri-
butions also derive from biological and environmental sciences studying the genetics and origins of
our modern crops and the ancient environmental conditions of agricultural development by inves-
tigating archaeobotanical, zooarchaeological, and geoarchaeological remains from archaeological
sites in this large geographic area.
This article sets a geographic focus on the Fertile Crescent, an area of relatively high precipitation
that stretches from the Levant in the west to the Turkish-Syrian border in the north and Iraq and Iran
down to the Persian Gulf in the southeast. The Fertile Crescent is the area where agriculture is known
to have evolved and developed into an economy that supported the emergence of ancient civiliza-
tions (Fig. 1). The close relationship between cultural and agricultural development defines the
structure of this entry with tripartite division into (1) emerging agriculture in Neolithic populations;
(2) the establishment of agricultural production, expansion of human populations, and genesis of
first cities; and (3) complex agricultural systems in city-states and oriental empires until roughly
300 BC.
Emerging Agriculture
Considered as the basis for the development of early civilizations, agricultural beginnings reach
back more than 12,000 years. Archaeological and archaeobotanical research in the Fertile Crescent
during the last decades decisively determined our current knowledge on the earliest findings of
systematically gathered wild progenitor species of modern crops in the late Upper Paleolithic period
(ca. 21000 BC), on the cultivation of wild cereals, and on the appearance of first domesticated
species in the Aceramic Neolithic (syn. Pre-Pottery Neolithic) period.
The first domesticated species in the Fertile Crescent are einkorn (Triticum monococcum ssp.
monococcum), emmer (Triticum turgidum ssp. dicoccum), barley (Hordeum vulgare), lentil (Lens
culinaris), garden pea (Pisum sativum), chickpea (Cicer arietinum), bitter vetch (Vicia ervilia), and
linseed (Linum usitatissimum) (Fig. 2). Singular finds of broad bean (Vicia faba) and grass pea
(Lathyrus sativus) have also been discovered in the Aceramic Neolithic, but become frequent only
from the late Neolithic onwards. Possibly also rye belongs to the early domesticated species, as
recorded at Abu Hureyra and a number of other sites (Hillman, Hedges, Moore, Colledge, & Pettitt,
2001). It disappears from the Fertile Crescent during the early Holocene and has its comeback only
in the Central European Iron Age. Remains of free-threshing wheat (Triticum aestivum/durum) also
occur very early, but become abundant not before the Early Bronze Age. Horticulture starts much
*Email: simone.riehl@uni-tuebingen.de
*Email: simone.riehl@senckenberg.de
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later than the cultivation of cereals, pulses, and linseed –in the Chalcolithic period at earliest (see
below “▶Established Agricultural Societies”).
While the use of plants in subsistence has already been demonstrated for Paleolithic sites, the so
far oldest evidence for systematic large-scale gathering of wild cereals dates to 21000 BC and
derives from late Upper Paleolithic Ohalo II in Israel. The cultivation of wild cereals started between
9500 and 9000 BC in the Aceramic Neolithic (syn. Pre-Pottery Neolithic) period at a small number
of sites (e.g., Jerf el Ahmar, Syria, or Chogha Golan, Iran).
Populations of Aceramic Neolithic sites with evidence of pre-domestication of wild cereals
continued hunting wild sheep and goat, while for some of the sites, the beginning management of
these animals is suggested (Zeder & Hesse, 2006). Early settlements of cultivators are often
accompanied by storage structures, ground stone tools such as grinding stones and mortars, and,
as concerns possible, harvesting tools, sometimes yield blades with sickle gloss (Riehl, Zeidi, &
Conard, 2013; Fig. 3). During these periods changes in the settlement structures were also observed
and related with population growth and social change, including monolithic communal architecture.
Until recently important questions on the emergence of agriculture were addressing the timing and
the localization of early domesticated species. There is meanwhile agreement that domesticated
species occurred in a number of archaeological sites throughout the Fertile Crescent (multiple
Fig. 1 Location of the earliest archaeological sites with cultivated and/or domesticated species in the Fertile Crescent:
(1) Chogha Golan, (2) Ali Kosh, (3) Chia Sabz, (4) Ganj Dareh Tepe, (5) Sheikh-e Abad, (6) Jani, (7) Tepe Abdul
Hosein, (8) M'lefaat, (9) Nemrik, (10) Qermez Dere, (11 ) Magzalia, (12) Körtik Tepe, (13) Hallan Cemi, (14) Cayonu,
(15) Cafer Hoyuk, (16) Asikli Hoyuk, (17) Can Hasan III, (18) Nevali Cori, (19) Göbekli Tepe, (20) Akarcay Tepe, (21)
Djade, (22) Halula, (23) Jerf al Ahmar, (24) Mureybet, (25) Abu Hureyra, (26) El Kowm I and II, (27) Bouqras, (28) Abr,
(29) Qaramel, (30) Tell Ras Shamra, (31) Kissonerga, (32) Parekklisha-Shillourokambos, (33) Tell Ghoraifé, (34) Tell
Aswad, (35) Tell Ramad, (36) Yiftah'el, (37) Iraq ed Dubb, (38) Gilgal, (39) 'Ain Ghazal, (40) Netiv Hagdud, (41) Dhra,
(42) Jericho, (43) Nahal Hemar, (44) Wadi Fidan, (45) Beidha, (46) Basta, (47) Dhuweila, (48) Azraq 31, (49) Wadi Jilat
7; PPNA: Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (9800–8700 BC), PPNB: Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (8600–7000 BC), PPN is applied to
Iranian sites, because PPNA and PPNB have additional cultural connotations that do only apply to sites in the western
and northern part of the FC
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Fig. 2 Timeline of levels of plant management throughout the Epipaleolithic and Aceramic Neolithic periods in the different regions of the Fertile Crescent
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origins model; Fuller, Willcox, & Allaby, 2011) more or less simultaneously from the PPNB
onwards and started to dominate plant assemblages from the mid-PPNB (Pre-Pottery Neolithic B;
8300–7500 BC) onwards (Nesbitt, 2002; Fig. 2).
Domesticated species evolved through the management of their wild progenitors; thus the
identification of cultivation of the wild progenitor species (syn. pre-domestication cultivation) is
essential for our understanding of how hunter-gatherers evolved into farmers. Pre-domestication
cultivation began more or less simultaneously, but the crop species cultivated varied in the different
areas (Willcox, 2013). Archaeobotanical data suggests that the transition from pre-domestication
cultivation starting around 9500 BC to the first occurrence of domesticated phenotypes took several
hundreds of years; thus archaeobotanical and archaeological research questions on the emergence of
agriculture now address the reasons for the slow development of agriculture, while some genetic
studies on modern cereal crops still favor models of a rapid transition to agriculture.
The role of climate has been frequently discussed as one potential main release factor for the
emergence of agriculture. While earlier studies were attributing more relevance to the cooler climatic
conditions of the Younger Dryas, suggesting a decrease of resources to have pushed hunter-gatherers
into agriculture, recent research acknowledges regional variation of climatic effects due to the very
diverse geomorphological layout and rather focuses on the warmer and moister conditions during
the early Holocene to have provided an ideal environment for larger-scale cereal cultivation. Also
the end of the early Neolithic (PPNB cultures) has been related to climate fluctuations –the 8200 BP
event, respectively (Bar-Yosef, 2009).
Most of the local evidence for climate effects on subsistence development is however currently
too coarsely resolved to allow general conclusions on the relationship between climate fluctuations
and the emergence of agriculture. Future research will have to focus on local paleoclimate archives
in the direct vicinity of archaeological sites to address questions of interactions between people and
climate.
Fig. 3 Archaeological tools with potential agricultural use from the Aceramic Neolithic site of Chogha Golan (Iran);
from left to right: mortar, pestle, blades
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Established Agricultural Societies
While the emergence of agriculture fascinated many researchers, much less is known on agriculture
in settlements of the Pottery Neolithic (syn. late Neolithic: 6800–5300/5200 BC), while there is
more information again on Chalcolithic (5200–4000 BC) agriculture (Fig. 4).
For the late Neolithic a variety of cultures overlapping in space and time has been defined, such as
the Hassuna (c. 6500–6000 BC), Samarra (c. 6000–5500 BC), or Halaf cultures (c. 6000–5400 BC),
with settlements of very diverse size, duration, and layout. Although some settlements were very
large and of long-term occupation (e.g., Tell Sabi Abyad or Tell Halula), small, temporary sites were
much more frequent, suggesting that the population had a high degree of mobility (Akkermans &
Schwartz, 2003).
Fig. 4 Archaeological sites of the late Neolithic (Pottery Neolithic) and Chalcolithic periods with archaeobotanical
information: (50) Ali Kosh, (51) Arjoune, (52) Arjoune, (53) Ayios Epiktitos Vrysi, (54) Bouqras, (55) Cape Andreas
Kastros, (56) Catal Hoyuk, (57) Cayonu, (58) Choga Mami, (59) Dhali Agridhi, (60) Dhuweila, (61) El Kowm I, (62)
Jaffarabad, (63) Jericho, (64) Khirokitia, (65) Magzalia, (66) Tell Abu Hureyra, (67) Tell el'Oueili, (68) Tell Ras Shamra,
(69) Tepe Hasanlu, (70) Tepe Musiyan, (71) Tepe Yahya, (72) Umm Dabaghiyah, (73) Wadi Jilat 7, (74) Yarim Tepe I,
(75) Abu Hamid, (76) Arpachiyah, (77) Aswan region, (78) Bendebal, (79) Bnei Beraq, (80) Çadir Höy€
uk, (81)
Cayboyu (Aswan), (82) Choga Mami, (83) Eridu, (84) Girikihaciyan, (85) Hacinebi Tepe, (86) Hassek Höy€
uk, (87)
Hirbet el-Msas (Tel Masos), (88) Horum H€
uy€
uk, (89) Horvat Beter, (90) Ikiztepe, (91) Jaffarabad, (92) Jawa, (93)
Jericho, (94) Kenan Tepe, (95) Kish, (96) Kissonerga, (97) Kissufim Road, (98) Korucutepe, (99) Kosak Shamali, (100)
Kumtepe, (101) Kurban Höy€
uk, (102) Lemba-Lakkous, (103) Mylouthkia, (104) Nahal Mishmar, (105) Nahal Qanah
Cave, (106) Oylum Höy€
uk, (107) Sataf, (108) Sharafabad, (109) Shiqmim, (110) Tappeh Gijlar, (111) Tel Saf, (112) Tell
Abu Matar, (113 ) Tell Afis, (114 ) Tell Aqab, (115 ) Tell Brak, (116) Tell el'Oueili, (117) Tell Esh-Shuna, (118) Tell Halif,
(119 ) Tell Hammam et-Turkman, (120) Tell Ilbol, (121) Tell Karrana, (122) Tell Kurdu, (123) Tell Sabi Abyad, (124)
Tell Shiukh Fawqani, (125) Tepe Farukhabad, (126) Tepe Hasanlu, (127) Tepe Sabz, (128) Tepe Yahya, (129) Tepecik,
(130) Tilbeshar, (131) Tuleilat Ghassul, (132) Umm Dabaghiyah, (133) Umm Qseir, (134) Wadi Fidan, (135) Yarim
Höy€
uk
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As concerns agriculture, this period may be seen as a consolidation period when domesticated
species had completely replaced their wild progenitors; cultivation on extended territories and
intensive storage along with an increase in pastoralism took place, which allowed population growth
(cf. Neolithic demographic transition). Agriculture was cereal based with mainly barley and emmer
wheat. Free-threshing wheat is also present in larger numbers in some Syrian settlements, while
einkorn is better represented towards the coast in Palestine, Cyprus, and Turkey. All other early
Neolithic crop species continued to be cultivated. Despite a focus on crop species, wild plants still
seem to play a major role in the human diet, and similarly hunting contributed largely to subsistence.
Although ancient people were always using a wide array of plant food, the cultivation of vegetables
is extremely difficult to prove, because in contrast to seeds and fruit stones, their soft tissues preserve
rarely in the archaeological context and they are extremely difficult to identify. Therefore knowledge
on vegetable cultivation mainly derives from the textual evidence of the Early Bronze Age onwards
(Waetzoldt, 1987). The occasional presence of storage of wild plant seeds in Neolithic sites
(Fairbairn, Martinoli, Butler, & Hillman, 2007) suggests a broad-spectrum economy rather than
specialized agricultural production. On the other hand, irrigation techniques as evident for the
central Mesopotamian Samarra culture (e.g., Choga Mami; Helbaek, 1972) imply collective aims
to increase crop yields in these societies which consequently led to a higher degree of specialization.
In a highly variable landscape like the Fertile Crescent as a whole, with regionally strong suscep-
tibility to drought, people were settling in regions where freshwater was easily available, even in the
regions of higher precipitation such as northern Syria during the Neolithic Halaf period, where most
of the sites were located close to flowing water.
The Chalcolithic period is associated with a range of changes in the organization of subsistence
and lifestyle. The southern Iraqi site of Tell al-Ubaid (6500–3800 BC) is name giving for the cultural
traditions of the Chalcolithic. The Ubaid culture expanded into northern Mesopotamia roughly
1,000 years later and is considered as the starting point towards urbanization and the basis for the
later Sumerian civilizations in the south. Small cities and religious centers developed in this area
(e.g., Eridu), and together with a precursor of the later emerging writing system, the beginnings of
controlling trade were set (Nissen, 1999).
Farmers of the southern Mesopotamian Ubaid culture were applying irrigation techniques on the
alluvial soils of the Euphrates resulting in high yields which supported rapid population growth. The
presence of early irrigation has been recognized also in the geoarchaeological record, i.e., directly in
the forms of canals and indirectly by the location of archaeological sites in regions of low mean
annual precipitation (Wilkinson, 2003).
The Chalcolithic period is also closely related to the beginnings of horticulture. As it requires the
technological knowledge of vegetative propagation, it is generally considered to have developed
after grain agriculture had been fully established. In contrast to cereal agriculture, there is also
a higher necessity of a year-round sedentary lifestyle to protect the plants from pests and browsing
damage which should have resulted in a generally lower mobility at least for parts of the population.
In the archaeobotanical record, the morphological differentiation between wild and domesticated
fruit stones is generally problematic which explains the difficulty to determine the precise begin-
nings of fruit domestication. Also the extent of fruit cultivation is impossible to assess without
textual sources which are available only from the Early Bronze Age onwards.
While single olive stones occur at least since the Aceramic Neolithic or even earlier (e.g., at
Epipaleolithic Ohalo II/Israel), they become more frequent in the Chalcolithic period. The natural
distribution of wild olive (Olea europaea ssp. oleaster) follows the Mediterranean coast, limited in
distribution into the inland regions of the Fertile Crescent through summer drought. This explains
the presence of olive mostly in the western part of the Fertile Crescent during the Chalcolithic period.
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Olive finds from further inland Early Bronze Age sites are discussed for their origin, as irrigation
practice may well have allowed olive cultivation outside its natural distribution area, while trade of
economic products already played a certain role and may have equally contributed to the extended
area of findings. A comparatively moister climate during the early to mid-Holocene may have also
played a role in ancient crop plant distribution differing from modern patterns (Riehl, Pustovoytov,
Weippert, Klett, & Hole, 2014).
In contrast to olive the natural distribution of wild grape (Vitis vinifera ssp. sylvestris) extends
further inland along the lower foothills of the Taurus Mountains between southern Turkey and
northern Syria. Its archaeological finds therefore extend further into these inland regions during the
Chalcolithic period. Although earliest finds of grape date back to the Neolithic period, its domes-
tication in the Fertile Crescent has long been considered to have happened during the Early Bronze
Age. However, recent findings, such as the Chalcolithic winery of Areni in Armenia (4000 BC),
suggest possibilities of earlier or simultaneous cultivation outside the Fertile Crescent (Barnard,
Dooley, Areshian, Gasparyan, & Faull, 2011).
As with the two previous fruit crops, fig(Ficus carica) has been found in early prehistoric sites,
but its domestication probably occurred during the Chalcolithic period, although there are claims for
domestication at Aceramic Neolithic Gilgal I/Israel (Kislev, Hartmann, & Bar-Yosef, 2006). Seeds
of wild fig are indiscernible from domesticated seeds and a final proof of very early domestication is
therefore pending. Its relatively large size and high content in carbohydrates may explain its
attractiveness for gathering humans.
Date (Phoenix dactylifera) is mainly found in archaeological sites located within the natural
distribution area of the tree which is south of 32N latitude. Beside of some very early finds, date
stones appear domesticated around 4000 BC in southern Mesopotamia at the site of Eridu and
a number of other Chalcolithic sites in Iraq, Iran, and Jordan. It becomes a very important economic
plant in later history, i.e., during the Early Bronze Age when oasis agriculture developed (Tengberg,
2012). Rosaceae fruits (apple, pear, plum, cherry) need grafting/vegetative propagation and are
intensively cultivated not before classical antiquity (Greek and Roman times).
The end of the Chalcolithic has been related with diverse catastrophic events, including invasions
and climate change, i.e., the 5200 BP event (Bar-Matthews & Ayalon, 2011). Such an event, as
recorded for the western part of the Fertile Crescent, may have resulted in increased interannual
variation in precipitation and extended droughts that would have affected yields. Although the d
13
C
record in Chalcolithic barley grains reflects increased drought for Tell esh-Shuna in Jordan and Tell
Shioukh Faouqani in northern Mesopotamia, the effects in other regions of the Fertile Crescent of
such climate fluctuations may have been very diverse (Riehl, Pustovoytov, Weippert, Klett &
Hole, 2014).
Complex Agricultural Systems
The city-states and empires of the Bronze and Iron Ages and their sociopolitical layout under
numerous different kings cannot be discussed here in detail (for more information, see Akkermans &
Schwartz, 2003; Van De Mieroop, 2003; Nissen, 1999; and other textbooks). There is a massive
amount of data on agricultural techniques in southern Mesopotamia from cuneiform texts (various
volumes of the Bulletin on Sumerian Agriculture), while information on agricultural production in
other regions of the Fertile Crescent also derives from archaeological and archaeobotanical studies
(Fig. 5).
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Fig. 5 Archaeological sites of the Bronze Age periods and the Iron Age with archaeobotanical information (locations with multiple numbers are multi-period sites; only
the first number appears in the map): (136) Abu Salabikh, (137/212/289) 'Afula, (138/291) Arad, (139) Arslantepe, (140/141/249) Aswan region, (142) Bab'edh Dhra,
(143) Beth Shean, (144) Choga Mami, (145/213/251/295) City of David, (146) Dilkaya Höy€
uk, (147/214/253) Emar, (148) En Besor, (149) Gre Virike, (150) Hajji
Ibrahim, (151) Hassek Höy€
uk, (152) Hirbet ez-Zeraqon, (153) Horum H€
uy€
uk, (154) Ikiztepe, (155) Imamoglu, (156) Jawa, (157/215) Jericho, (158/217/255)
Kalopsidha, (159/218/257) Kenan Tepe, (160/259) Korucutepe, (161/220) Kurban Höy€
uk, (162/304) Lachish, (163/261) Malyan, (164/223) Mezraa Hoy€
uk, (165)
Numeira, (166) Sataf, (167) Shahr-i Sokhta, (168) Shiqmim, (169) Sotira Kaminoudhia, (170/315) Tappeh Gijlar, (171) Taskun Mevkii (Aswan), (172) Tel Dalit, (173/
267/318) Tell Abu al-Kharaz, (174/228/268/319) Tell Afis, (175) Tell al-Raqa'i, (176) Tell al-Rawda, (177) Tell Atij, (178/271) Tell Bderi, (179/231) Tell Brak, (180/
233/272/320) Tell el Ifshar, (181) Tell el'Abd, (182) Tell Esh-Shuna, (183) Tell es-Sweyhat, (184) Tell Gezer, (185/275/322) Tell Halif, (186/236) Tell Hammam
et-Turkman, (187) Tell Jerablus Tahtani, (188) Tell Karrana, (189) Tell Kerma, (190) Tell Matsuma, (191/237/277/325) Tell Mishrifeh, (192/238) Tell Mozan, (193) Tell
Nebi Mend (Kadesh), (194/239) Tell Qara Quzaq, (195/326) Tell Qarqur, (196) Tell Qashish, (197) Tell Selenkahiye, (198/281/330) Tell Shiukh Fawqani, (199/240/
282) Tell Taannach, (200) Tell Taya, (201) Tell Zagan, (202/242/284) Tepe Farukhabad, (203/243) Tepe Hissar, (205/244/285) Tepecik, (206/245/286) Tilbeshar, (207)
Titris Höy€
uk, (208/246) Umbashi, (209/247/287) Umm el-Marra, (210)Ur,(211) Wadi Fidan, (216) Kalavasos village, (219/258/303) Kinet Höy€
uk, (221) Manahat,
(222/262) Marki-Alonia, (224/264/308) Pirak, (225/311) Shiloh, (226/265/317) Tel Michal, (227/266) Tel Nami, (229/269) Tell Aphek, (230/270) Tell Atchana, (232)
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The Uruk period (4300–3100 BC), the transition from the late Chalcolithic Ubaid into the Early
Bronze Age period, combines all attributes of increasingly complex societies, such as population
growth and progressive social stratification, including side effects of competition for resources and
the need for institutionalized organs coordinating the more and more complex processes within the
society. The development of writing in form of pictograms supported the increasing complexity of
administration.
These developments were part of the urbanization process which was naturally bound to increas-
ing agricultural yields which were particularly profitable in regions with developed irrigation
systems (Postgate, 1992). Geoarchaeology considerably contributes to our knowledge of how
these systems functioned and could be maintained in the face of changing environments and
increasing food demands from rising populations. Five stages in the development of Mesopotamian
irrigation systems can be discerned from their initial development in prehistoric times to their demise
starting in later Islamic times (Wilkinson, 2003, chap. 5).
With the beginning of the Early Bronze Age, cities of various ranks evolved also in upper
Mesopotamia and Syria, although the type of city-states, based on agricultural surplus, only
becomes evident from 2600 BC onwards. The processes that started in the Chalcolithic period
continued in the following Early Bronze Age Jemdet Nasr (3100–1900 BC) and Early Dynastic
(2900–2334 BC) periods when the plow was developed and agricultural surplus was used for
importing other goods into the south, such as construction wood and mineral resources through
long-distance trade. Trade of agricultural products such as olive oil and grape wine is well
documented in cuneiform sources from the Early Bronze Age (e.g., Ebla/Tell Mardikh 2400 BC)
onwards as well as in later archaeological finds, such as the Late Bronze Age shipwreck of Uluburun
(Haldane, 1993). While single oil presses are known from the Mediterranean region during the
Chalcolithic, they only become more frequent during the Early Bronze Age. Agricultural surplus
production was regionally intensified by focusing on few crop species with reliable yields, such as
barley which was a main crop in many northern Mesopotamian cities (e.g., Emar; Riehl,
Pustovoytov, Dornauer, & Sallaberger, 2012). The broad spectrum of crops observed since the
Neolithic was however still cultivated, but barley became the most abundant cereal crop during the
Early Bronze Age. Free-threshing wheat was cultivated particularly in inland settlements, while
emmer wheat was represented with higher proportions in the coastal regions. Particularly for the
sites in the north (e.g., Urkesh/Tell Mozan), knowledge on ancient agriculture is well founded on
bioarchaeological results (Doll, 2010; Riehl, 2010b). While in the drier south irrigation was
necessary to receive sufficient yields to support large populations, farming was mostly rain-fed in
the north, although the water of the rivers Khabur and Euphrates could have been used occasionally
for irrigation of specific crops, as is evident for later periods at the upper Euphrates (Riehl 2010a).
While potential weed species are already identified in Aceramic Neolithic sites, and in these
contexts interpreted to indicate early cultivation of wild progenitor species of modern crops, they are
much more numerous from the Bronze Age onwards and have been used by archaeobotanists to
investigate local crop husbandry practices at some archaeological sites (van Zeist, 1993).
ä
Fig. 5 (continued) Tell ed-Der, (234/273) Tell Gerisa, (235/274) Tell Hadidi, (241/283) Tell Yoqneam, (243) Tepe
Hissar, (248) Apliki, (250) Ayios Dhimitrios, (252/296) Deir'Alla, (254) Hala Sultan Tekke, (256/301) Kamid el-Loz,
(260) Kusakli, (263/306) Nimrud, (276) Tell Hwes, (278) Tell Munbāqa, (279/329) Tell Schech Hamad, (280) Tell Sera,
(288/334) Zincirli, (290) 'Ain Dara, (292) Bastam, (293) Beer-Sheba, (294) Çadir Höy€
uk, (297) En Rahel, (298) Hirbet
el-Msas (Tel Masos), (299) Horbat Rosh Zayit, (300) Idalion, (302) Khirbet en-Nahas, (305) Moa, (307) Nush-i Jan,
(309) Qal'eh Ismail Aqa, (310) Rifa'at, (312) Susa, Ville Royale, (313) Tahirbaj Tepe, (314) Tamara, (316) Tel 'Ira, (321)
Tell Halaf, (323) Tell Hesban, (324) Tell Keisan, (327) Tell Qasile, (328) Tell Qiri, (332) Tzafit, (333) Udhruh
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Textual evidence suggests that the central organization of the northern Mesopotamian city-state
included the majority of the inhabitants and that agriculture was organized as collective labor
(Sallaberger & Ur, 2004), which would correspond to organizational forms in southern Mesopota-
mia, although irrigation was not a significant part of labor organization in the north. Redistribution of
the communally harvested crops according to status seems to have been the rule. For southern cities
very detailed information on the organization of crop and animal husbandry, including administra-
tive management, is available from textual records (e.g., Hruska, 1990; Powell, 1984). As taxation
could have been a problematic burden particularly in years with crop failures, the economic relations
to the north and other regions for subsidizing were a significant political aspect. Increasing
population pressure particularly in the south is considered to have provoked competition for
resources between different city-states during the Early Dynastic period which was accompanied
by developing dynasties and war.
Shortly before the end of the Early Bronze Age, the Akkadian Empire (2334–2193 BC) becomes
dominant in the whole region of southern and northern Mesopotamia and beyond. In the south the
third dynasty of Ur came into power in the twenty-first century BC for a short time. Involved into
diverse warfare, accompanied by famine, it came to an end around 2004 BC. The collapse of the
Akkadian Empire at the end of the Early Bronze Age has frequently been related with the Holocene
climatic fluctuation of 4200 BP (Staubwasser & Weiss, 2006). It corroborates the geoarchaeological
record in the region, indicating a distinct change in the regime of water streams from relatively
stable, moderately strong water flows to increasingly rare, erratic, and stronger flows, which
suggests increasing aridity (Riehl et al., 2012). As large-scale environmental change is generally
related to bottlenecks in agricultural production and accompanied by migration (e.g., the nomadic
Amorites), upheaval, raids (e.g., invasions of the Gutians), and war may have contributed to the
collapse of the empire, similarly as with Ur III. In fact, archaeobotanical barley from this region
shows increased drought stress in the second half of the Early Bronze Age (Riehl, Pustovoytov,
Weippert, Klett & Hole, 2014). Extended drought may have also strongly affected agricultural
production further south by decreasing yields and increasing soil salinity which has been already
discussed in earlier works on southern Mesopotamian agriculture (Jacobsen & Adams, 1958).
During the Middle Bronze Age (c. 2000–1500 BC), the major empires of Babylonia (c. 1894–539
BC), a foundation of the nomadic Amorite dynasties, located in southern Mesopotamia, the Old
Assyrian Empire (c. 2000–1400 BC) in the area of the upper Tigris river in northern Mesopotamia,
and the Hittites (2000–1200 BC) were controlling the Near East, probably with a certain continuity
of economic interests that already existed during the Early Bronze Age.
The political history of the Middle Bronze Age empires is well documented in ancient texts, and
there is equally comprehensive information on agricultural organization in the middle Euphrates
region (Lafont, 2000) and crop products in the Hittite area of influence in central Anatolia
(Hoffner, 1974).
While the middle and lower Euphrates regions are bare of any archaeobotanical studies, some few
results from Hittite settlements in Anatolia indicate a broad-spectrum plant production with addi-
tional crop species, such as einkorn (Triticum monococcum), spelt (Triticum spelta), or millet
(Setaria italica), that are not cultivated farther south. This supports the importance of cereals in
the Hittite economy as suggested by the cuneiform evidence, indicating a high diversity of names
describing different types of bread. Lentil is the generally preferred pulse crop, as archaeobotanical
studies mostly in northern Mesopotamia and the Levant suggest, although its cultivation slightly
decreases during the Middle Bronze Age. The reduction of some of the pulse crops with higher water
requirements corroborates a general trend in the Middle Bronze Age which has been interpreted as
a shift in agricultural production towards more drought-resistant species as a consequence of
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increasing aridity with the end of the Early Bronze Age (Riehl, 2009). In most of the Syrian
archaeological sites, barley is the main crop. At the middle Euphrates city of Mari, the lack of
man power for cultivating the fields was a problem leading to local underproduction which forced
the palace to acquire barley on the market (Lafont, 2000).
For Babylonia, there is no indication of economic decline in the first three centuries of the second
millennium, although in the north political conflict and continuous change of political regimes and
economic structures seems to have been the rule during the Middle Bronze Age.
The Late Bronze Age saw a number of different competing kingdoms and powers, expanding and
retreating in the different geographic areas of the Fertile Crescent (for details on the political and
cultural history, see Nissen, 1999) which probably had its effects on agricultural economy.
An influential Hurrian state in northern Mesopotamia at the transition from the Middle to the Late
Bronze Age was Mitanni (1500–1300 BC). The end of the Middle Bronze Age is marked by the attack of
the Hittites on Yamkhad, a northwestern Mesopotamian kingdom with its center at modern day Aleppo.
Material culture and the continuation of important empires such as the Hurrians and Hittites
suggest an even transition to the Late Bronze Age (Akkermans & Schwartz, 2003). Some Hurrian
settlements already existed during the Early Bronze Age (e.g., Urkesh/Tell Mozan). Egypt was also
strongly represented, particularly in the area of modern Syria. Overseas trade played an increasing
role and was a sign of, and a means for, the international character of a large number of territorial
states, shaping agricultural production for specific needs, such as olive oil and wine.
Although with the transition from the Middle to the Late Bronze Age, many powerful cities
disappeared, and discontinuation of administrative and scribal practices decreased, in terms of
cultivated crop species, there is no particular difference visible between Middle and Late Bronze
Age agriculture, despite a possible intensification of olive cultivation through extending the
production area into the northern Levant and the upper Euphrates region (Riehl et al., 2012).
The end of the Bronze Age has often been explained as a consequence of the putative invasion of
the Sea Peoples. Aside from political conflicts, economic decline has been proposed as a reason for
the collapse of the Late Bronze Age civilizations as well as a climatic impact (Bond event no. 2).
The global cooling event between 1200 and 700 BC (Bond et al., 2001) corresponds well with the
stable oxygen isotope data from Lake Van (Litt et al., 2009) and thus might have had an impact on
Near Eastern agriculture. A climatic reasoning has also been discussed in the literature before, as the
“1200 BC hypothesis”of increased aridity (Neumann & Parpola, 1987), supported by archaeocli-
matological models (Bryson, Lamb, & Donley, 1974). Similarly Rohling, Hayes, Mayewski, and
Kucera (2009) have suggested that the cooling period at the end of the Late Bronze Age adversely
affected the agricultural quality in the northern and northeastern regions of the Aegean, thus
triggering end-of-Bronze Age migrations.
Most likely complex interactions between political and ecological factors were responsible for
these massive supraregional changes. Complete restructuring of the society must have taken place
due to large-scale nomadization, migration, internal population movements, and technological and
trade network changes. How these changes influenced agricultural organization is still unclear, but
there is also some evidence for the maintenance and restoration of the lower Khabur and middle
Euphrates canals by local rulers (Fales, 2008).
With the beginning of the first millennium BC, the political situation in the Near East had become
more stable, and a new network of states arose, which becomes tangible in the ninth century BC by
written records again. Iron Age Syria has been characterized as a region of numerous small states,
which was absorbed into the provincial systems of vast multiregional empires (Akkermans &
Schwartz, 2003). The generally broadening network of commercial connections doubtlessly had
an influence on agricultural production.
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Agricultural organization during the Neo-Assyrian Empire (934–609 BC), which embraced
practically the whole Near East, was the planned distribution of rural labor forces, the installation
of large-scale irrigation systems, and a centralized program of rural land settlement policy (Bagg,
2000). Agricultural surplus was also possible due to a dense rural population.
New crops appear in the archaeobotanical assemblages, such as cotton (Gossypium sp.), pome-
granate (Punica granatum), and cucumber (Cucumis sativus), most of them requiring irrigation in
areas of irregular and low rainfall. This corroborates the importance of irrigation as is evident from
the texts. Changes in persisting crop species are particularly visible in free-threshing wheat and
grape ubiquities, which occur generally more often in the archaeobotanical record of the Iron Age
(Riehl, 2009) and which are confirmed by the textual evidence of numerous vineyards in northern
Mesopotamia. The larger body of textual evidence from the first millennium also reveals more linen
textiles than in the second millennium. Flax for linen production requires additional irrigation. Still,
the textual evidence is almost exclusively for the import of linen as tribute from Syria to the
Neo-Assyrian Empire. Only later during the Neo-Babylonian period (626–539 BC) do we find
evidence for more frequent linen cultivation. Olive is not frequently mentioned in ancient texts, but
the import of olive oil from the west is attested, corresponding with the archaeobotanical record.
A local increase in the water supply is also visible in the Iron Age d
13
C values (Riehl, Pustovoytov,
Weippert, Klett & Hole, 2014).
Perspectives
Although substantial contributions are available from ancient philology, archaeology, and the
natural sciences on different aspects of ancient Near Eastern agriculture, no systematic overview
has been published yet, which is partly due to the diversity of the sources and the methodological
problems of interpreting these sources within a wider framework.
The rich textual record of cuneiform tablets, which has been estimated to number more than
500,000 texts, covers a broad range of information related to agriculture that has not yet been
systematically analyzed. Archaeobotanical databases (e.g., www.ademnes.de) comprise millions of
seed records from Near Eastern sites. Local geoarchaeological studies, including geographic
information system (GIS)-based analysis of satellite imagery and modeling, have been published
and helped with the identification of settlement and land use patterns as aspects of early economic
systems in some few regions of the Near East. Additional independent methods, such as stable
carbon isotope analysis, which has been used for investigating water stress on crop plants during
their grain-filling period, can help verify these results. Syntheses of these different data sources, after
careful analysis of the methodological problems, will provide more comprehensive results on
ancient agriculture in the near future, which may be also of some relevance to issues of conservation
of genetic resources in the Near East.
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