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14,400-year-old flatbread proves baking predates agriculture by 4,000 years

14,000 year old food practices The excavation at Shubayqa 1 has unearthed 254 examples of food remains. Charred evidence of a flatbread baked 14,400 years ago has caused researchers to confirm that baking predates the advent of agriculture by at least 4,000 years. The findings indicate that bread production encouraged gatherer-hunters to cultivate cereals – therefore contributing to the agricultural revolution in the Neolithic period. The research team was comprised of academics from the University of Copenhagen, University College London and the University of Cambridge. [caption id="attachment_8845" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Dr. Amaia Arranz-Otaegui and Ali Shakaiteer sampling cereals in the Shubayqa area. Credit: Joe Roe[/caption]

From calories to culture: the evolution of eating

Nutritionally speaking, the process of making bread is entirely uneconomic. After harvesting wild cereals, the people of Shubayqa 1 had to separate the seeds, grind them down, make the dough, flatten the dough and cook it. They would have suffered a net loss of calories during the process – which suggests that the bread was not made for survival purposes. That leads us to the idea that this discovery represents a pivot in the history of human eating practices. No longer were people seeking pure nutrition from their food. For the people of Shubayqa 1, eating was now imbued with cultural, social and perhaps ideological significance. To strengthen this theory, the date and location of the flatbread places it close to the erection of the world’s oldest monumental buildings. Inside, ceremonies and rituals took place; perhaps with the first instances of socio-ideological feasting. [caption id="attachment_8846" align="aligncenter" width="500"] One of the stone structures of the Shubayqa 1 site. The fireplace, where the bread was found, is in the middle. Credit: Alexis Pantos[/caption]

Sedentary lifestyles lead to diet changes

The Danish Council for Independent Research has recently approved further funding for research into food production during the transition to the Neolithic period. University of Copenhagen archaeologist Tobias Richter, who led the excavations at Shubayqa 1 in Jordan, comments: “Natufian hunter-gatherers are of particular interest to us because they lived through a transitional period when people became more sedentary and their diet began to change.”

What came first: the chicken or the bread?

Professor Dorian Fuller from the UCL Institute of Archaeology says: “That it was produced before farming methods suggests it was seen as special, and the desire to make more of this special food probably contributed to the decision to begin to cultivate cereals.” Richter continues: “The flat bread found at Shubayqa 1 is the earliest evidence of bread making recovered so far, and it shows that baking was invented before we had plant cultivation. “So this evidence confirms some of our ideas. Indeed, it may be that the early and extremely time-consuming production of bread based on wild cereals may have been one of the key driving forces behind the later agricultural revolution where wild cereals were cultivated to provide more convenient sources of food.” The discovery comes shortly after new research revealed that barley spread across the world via multiple routes – suggesting human choices were made based on nutritional and perhaps cultural needs. Read more here.]]>

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How barley spread across the world & helped culture formation

Different routes – an indicator of different cultures? Due to the fact that there were a number of different eastward routes for the spread of the barley population, the study suggests humans were choosing routes based on particular attributes of acting according to environmental adaptation. Choice and environment, therefore, are crucial factors for the spread of staple foods in prehistory. These different routes include ones to the north and south of the Iranian Plateau; through the Inner Asian Mountain Corridor in Central Asia, possibly connecting up to the Chinese section of the Silk Road; a high altitude spread on the southern edge of the Tibetan Plateau; a high latitude spread through the northern steppe; two distinct spreads into Japan; and a maritime route from South Asia. As previous research has provided radiocarbon dates, we know when the routes were followed. [caption id="attachment_8836" align="aligncenter" width="728"] Map showing proposed routes of spread of six different ancestral populations of barley landraces. Direct radiocarbon dates from archaeological barley grain have enabled the timing of these different routes to be elucidated. Credit: D. Lister[/caption]

Impacting rice-growing in East Asia

Lead author Dr Diane Lister, a researcher at the McDonald Institute for Archological Research at the University of Cambridge, says: “One barley population is widespread, particularly around the coastlines. This population may have travelled eastwards via a maritime route from South Asia, via Southeast Asia. This particular population is made up of winter-sown varieties of barley, which are thought to be important in rice-growing areas of East Asia, where a crop of rice is commonly grown in the summer months, and barley adapted to winter-sowing regimes can be planted after the rice harvest. The development of multi-cropping practices during prehistory is thought to have greatly increased productivity and stability, enabling more complex societies to develop.” [caption id="attachment_8837" align="aligncenter" width="257"] Diane Lister at work in the Glyn Daniel laboratory for archaeogenetics at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge Credit: A. Clarke[/caption]

Moulding Tibetan culture

“Another barley population predominates on the high Tibetan Plateau. This barley has a naked grain, making it a particularly attractive staple, as it doesn’t require the pearling process that hulled barley requires for human consumption. Along with the herding of yak, this naked type of barley is an essential for the Tibetan way of life, and their importance are clearly seen in the offerings of naked barley grains and yak butter in Tibetan Buddhist temples around the region. The staple carbohydrate eaten by the Tibetans is tsampa, made from roasted naked barley flour and mixed with salty Tibetan butter tea.” [caption id="attachment_8835" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Ethnically Tibetan women winnowing naked barley on a road on the edge of the Tibetan Plateau, near Xiahe, Gansu Province, China.
Photo credits Diane Lister[/caption]

New findings contribute to conversation around climate change

So what does this mean for today? Lister concludes: “Barley is an extremely hardy crop, able to grow in regions where other crops are unable to grow, and is an important staple in such environments. Understanding the spread of its cultivation during prehistory, and the various factors that affected its establishment in different regions of Eurasia, will contribute towards our understanding of climate change and its current and future effects on agriculture.” The paper has been published as a part of the Food Globalization in Prehistory project, funded by the European Research Council and awarded to Prof. Martin Jones. Additional funding was provided by a Royal Society International Joint Project grant.]]>

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How intense Ice Age fishing led to the invention of pottery as we know it

Jōmon pottery from the Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. Credit: Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties.[/caption] Examined over a course of three years by researchers from Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden and the University of York’s BioArCh, the findings indicate that ceramics were used by our gatherer-hunter ancestors to initially store and process fish. As fishing techniques evolved and intensified, the range extended to include shellfish, freshwater and marine fish and even mammals. Until recently, ceramic vessels were associated with the arrival of farming. This study, however, debunks that theory. We now know that pottery was a much earlier gatherer-hunter innovation, and was used for the consumption of fish. Professor Oliver Craig, from the Department of Archaeology and Director of the BioArCh research centre at York, who led the study, said: “Our results demonstrate that pottery had a strong association with the processing of fish, irrespective of the ecological setting.” Some of the pottery dates from the end of the Late Pleistocene period: a time when our ancestors were navigating glacial conditions. Other ceramics included in the study are from the post-glacial period, when the climate reached a level close to our current temperature, allowing pottery to be produced in a much greater quantity. Craig continues: “Contrary to expectations, this association remained stable even after the onset of warming, including in more southerly areas, where expanding forests provided new opportunities for hunting and gathering. “The results indicate that a broad array of fish was processed in the pottery after the end of the last Ice Age, corresponding to a period when hunter-gatherers began to settle in one place for longer periods and develop more intensive fishing strategies. [caption id="attachment_8832" align="aligncenter" width="634"] A reconstructed early pottery vessel from Torihama, Japan, dating to the end of the Late Pleistocene (ca 12,000 years old). Chemical analysis revealed that such vessels were used to process fish during the late Glacial period. Credit: Wakasa History and Folklore Museum, Fukui, Japan[/caption] “We suggest this marks a significant change in the role of pottery of hunter-gatherers, corresponding massively increased volume of production, greater variation in forms and sizes and the onset of shellfish exploitation.” Researchers used advanced technologies to recover diagnostic lipids from the charred surface deposits of the vessels. Most of the compounds derive from the processing of freshwater or marine organisms. Because of findings like this, we now know that ceramics played a key role in the ways pre-historic gatherer-hunters consumed fish. Lead author, Dr Alex Lucquin, from BioArCh, Department of Archaeology, University of York, said: “Thanks to the exceptional preservation of traces of animal fat, we now know that pottery changed from a rare and special object to an every-day tool for preparing fish. “I think that our study not only reveals the subsistence of the ancient Jomon people of Japan but also its resilience to a dramatic change in climate.” Dr Simon Kaner, from the University of East Anglia, who was also involved in the study, added: “The research highlights the benefits of this kind of international collaboration for unlocking some of the big questions about the human past, and the potential of engaging with established research networks as created by the Sainsbury Institute over the years.”]]>

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Humans left Africa 270,000 years earlier than we thought

One of the tools from the discovery site in Shangchen, China. Credit: Professor Zhaoyu Zhu[/caption] Prior to this discovery, the earliest evidence of humanity outside Africa was a collection of skeletal remains and stone tools found in Dmanisi, Georgia, which have been dated to 1.85 million years ago – 270,000 years after the new discovery in Shangchen in the southern Chinese Loess Plateau. The research, published in the journal Nature, also suggests that the ancient humans returned to the same site repeatedly, possibly for hunting. The collection includes a notch, scrapers, cobble, hammer stones and pointed pieces. Each item shows sign of human use. The hammer stones, for instance, had been intentionally flaked. Fragments of animal bones that would have been contemporaneous with the items were also found. Most of the artefacts were made of quartzite and quartz, suggesting that the materials were sourced from the foothills and streams of the Qinling Mountains around 5 to 10 kilometres from the site. [caption id="attachment_8815" align="aligncenter" width="425"] The extensive collection of 2.1 million years old artefacts is causing archaeologists to reconsider the overall story of human migration. Credit: Professor Zhaoyu Zhu[/caption] Because the 96 stone artefacts were found in 17 different layers of fossil soils that had developed over a period of one million years, we now know that early humans occupied the Chinese Loess Plateau under varying climatic conditions between 1.2 and 2.12 million years ago. Professor Dennell says: “Our discovery means it is necessary now to reconsider the timing of when early humans left Africa.” The find “may add a new chapter to the story of hominin evolution, suggesting that some of these species left Africa far earlier than once believed and managed to travel over 8,000 miles east of their evolutionary birthplace,” The New York Times reports. The age of the tools “suggests that the hominins who made them were neither tall nor big-brained. Instead, they may have been small bipedal apes, with brains about the size of a chimpanzee’s.” Michael Petraglia, a paleoanthropologist at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History comment:S “The implications of all this are large. We must re-evaluate our understanding of human prehistory in Eurasia.”]]>

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Did the Romans hunt whales?

A gray area Due to centuries of whaling, the North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis) is currently a threatened species, congregating off eastern North America. The Atlantic gray whale (Eschrichtius robustus) has completely disappeared from the North Atlantic and can only be found in the North Pacific. Neither is found in the Mediterranean today. In fact, it has long been assumed that the Mediterranean was outside the historical range for both species. You can read more about the history of whaling here. [caption id="attachment_8733" align="aligncenter" width="536"] Atlantic Northern Right Whale mother and calf. Credit: Wikimedia Commons[/caption]

Calving season in the Med

Due to the migratory nature of both species of whale, their presence east of Gibraltar means that they would have entered calving season in the Mediterranean Sea. Co-author of the study Dr Camilla Speller, from the University of York, says: “Our study shows that these two species were once part of the Mediterranean marine ecosystem and probably used the sheltered basin as a calving ground. “The findings contribute to the debate on whether, alongside catching large fish such as tuna, the Romans had a form of whaling industry.”

Roman scandal

The paper speculates that small rowing boats and hand harpoons could have been used to capture the creatures; similar to the medieval Basque whaling methods used in the following centuries. Lead author of the study Dr Ana Rodrigues, from the French National Centre for Scientific Research, adds: “[The] Romans did not have the necessary technology to capture the types of large whales currently found in the Mediterranean, which are high-seas species. But right and gray whales and their calves would have come very close to shore, making them tempting targets for local fishermen.”

The ripple effect: what this means for other research

If coastal whales were in fact present in the Mediterranean, some previously perplexing sources suddenly make a lot more sense. Anne Charpentier, lecturer at the University of Montpellier and co-author in the study, said: “We can finally understand a 1st-Century description by the famous Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder, of killer whales attacking whales and their new-born calves in the Cadiz bay. “It doesn’t match anything that can be seen there today, but it fits perfectly with the ecology if right and gray whales used to be present.” As a result, the authors of the study are urging historians and archaeologists to re-examine their material in light of the knowledge that coastal whales were once part of the Mediterranean marine ecosystem. [caption id="attachment_8812" align="aligncenter" width="500"] A Roman mosaic with fishing scene, found in Hippolytus House in greater Madrid, Spain. Credit: Alberto Paredes/Alamy Stock Photo[/caption]

The forgotten calving grounds

“It seems incredible that we could have lost and then forgotten two large whale species in a region as well-studied as the Mediterranean. It makes you wonder what else we have forgotten,” concludes Dr Rodriguez.]]>

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17th century barracks discovered at Elizabeth Castle, Jersey

University of York has discovered new evidence confirming that there was an Army Barracks at Jersey’s Elizabeth Castle during the late 17th Century. The excavation also led the team to uncover a rare brass button, which is thought to have been part of an Army officer’s uniform.

The first major excavation of Elizabeth Castle, Jersey

Built on a rocky islet in St Aubin’s Bay, Elizabeth Castle has defended the shores of Jersey for more than 300 years. Archaeologically speaking, it is a complex site, and has never been excavated in this manner before. It was originally a defensive island fortress during the 16th Century, before falling to occupation by German soldiers during the Second World War. The dig has been conducted alongside Jersey Heritage and originally aimed to discover the location of barracks blocks, allowing historians to learn more about the people that used the building. An archives team from the University of York has worked closely with Jersey Archive to use data for the benefit of the archaeologists. They have since been able to identify four key areas where trenches could be created, which has not only framed the search for artefacts, but also detailed potential evidence of the original structure of the site. The excavation has lasted a week so far, with structural evidence of the barracks, including walls, a cobbled floor and a curious door key, coming to light. [caption id="attachment_8808" align="aligncenter" width="505"] The team also found a key at the site, thought to be contemporary to the site. Credit: University of York[/caption]  

A rare Tudor find: the brass Board of Ordnance button

The brass button comes from the uniform of an officer of the Board of Ordnance, dating to the 18th Century. As there would only have been one Board of Ordnance Officer based at the castle, this is a rare find. Dr Catriona Cooper, from the University of York’s Department of Archaeology, said: “The Board of Ordnance was a government body established in the Tudor period to act primarily as custodians to the areas required in defence of the country. “It is exciting to find this button, because there would have only been one officer that wore this uniform at Elizabeth Castle.  He would have had oversight of the castle’s defences and its army supplies, such as weaponry.” [caption id="attachment_8809" align="aligncenter" width="505"] The brass button is from the uniform of an officer of the Board of Ordnance. Credit: University of York[/caption]

Giant haul of findings from nearby hospital block

Archaeologists are also investigating an early 19th Century hospital block, utilising digital visualisation techniques, to produce a better understanding of the make-up of the building.  It is hoped that the completed work will assist Jersey Heritage to enhance the visitor experience to the site. As part of an ongoing partnership between Jersey Heritage and the University of York, the dig has been much more fruitful than the team had first imagined: “We have also uncovered a comb, tokens and coins, as well as lots of clay pipes ceramics and building materials.  The aim will be to open these finds up to the public and reveal more about the life at the hospital and barracks sites to allow for a clearer window into the past of this fascinating castle site.”]]>

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How European colonisation completely wiped out dogs in America

Canines and colonisers: an unhappy tale Colonial devastation bestowed upon native humans of the Americas is well-documented; but evidence about dogs’ lives is less known. However, an international team has started to ask – and answer – those questions. Fifty researchers collaborated on the investigation and together, they conducted the most detailed and thorough study of ancient and modern dog DNA to date. Through biological and archaeological evidence, they examined the remains of 71 ancient dogs from the Americas and Siberia; and put their findings alongside the genomes of modern dogs. [caption id="attachment_8797" align="aligncenter" width="720"] A ritual burial of two dogs at a site in Illinois near St. Louis suggests a special relationship between humans and dogs at this location and time (660 to 1350 years ago).
Credit: Photo courtesy Illinois State Archaeological Survey[/caption]

Lineage losses for man’s best friend

Published in the journal Science, the new evidence gives us reason to conclude that ‘pre-contact’ dogs disappeared to a similar extent to the Neanderthals. One of the authors was Greger Larson from the University of Oxford, who is leading an international effort to investigate how dogs have been domesticated. He says the study solidifies our understanding of the fates of humans and their animals: “The Europeans come through. They knock out the humans. They knock out the dogs… It’s a complete disappearance.” Leading the research was Laurent Frantz, an expert on ancient DNA at the Queen Mary University of London. Until now, there hadn’t been sufficient evidence to tell the story of what happened to dogs after the arrival of European colonists. However, his research proves that pre-contact dogs were identifiable as a group separate to any other, and that their disappearance came about from a combination of disease and European persecution.

Dogs in America: a history

America’s earliest dogs were not domesticated North American wolves, as has been speculated. It’s much more likely that they followed humans over a land bridge that once connected North Asia and the Americas, the study found. You can read more about recent research on human migration into the Americas here. The earliest archaeological evidence for dogs living in North America comes from 10,000 years ago. As humans entered the region 14,000 years ago, it looks like the first wave didn’t bring dogs with them. The first canines to arrive in America were of East Asian descent, but soon evolved into their own group, distinct from both their ancestors and modern dogs. The animals in question are loosely related to Arctic breeds, such as huskies and malamutes, which arrived with later human migrations into North America. [caption id="attachment_8798" align="aligncenter" width="640"] A modern Malamute.[/caption]

“Forced cultural changes”

Humans and dogs coexisted relatively peacefully in both continents for over 9,000 years. But when European colonists arrived, they were gone. “This suggests something catastrophic must have happened, and it’s likely associated with European colonisation,” says Frantz. Clearly, early humans and dogs in the Americas faced many of the same challenges after European contact. University of Illinois Professor of Anthropology, Ripan Malhi, explains: “It is known how Indigenous peoples of the Americas suffered from the genocidal practices of European colonists after contact… What we found is that the dogs of Indigenous peoples experienced an even more devastating history and a near-total loss, possibly as a result of forced cultural changes and disease.”]]>

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3-million-year-old skeleton reveals the story of ancient toddlers’ lifestyles

The 3.32 million-year-old foot from an Australopithecus afarensis toddler shown in different angles. Credit: Jeremy DeSilva & Cody Prang[/caption]

A complete 3-million-year-old skeleton

Discovered in 2002 by Zeresenay Alemseged, a professor of organismal biology and anatomy at the University of Chicago, the foot is about the size of a modern human’s thumb. Astonishingly, it is part of an almost complete skeleton of a young female Australopithecus afarensis living 3.32 million years ago in the Dikika region of Ethiopia. “This is the most complete foot of an ancient juvenile ever discovered,” Desilva says. “For the first time, we have an amazing window into what walking was like for a two-and-a-half-year-old, more than 3 million years ago.”

 “On the cusp of being human”

Alemseged is a world leader in palaeontology, specialising in the study of human origins and our evolution. He contributed to the study as a senior author. “Placed at a critical time and the cusp of being human, Australopithecus afarensis was more derived than Ardipithecus (a facultative biped) but not yet an obligate strider like Homo erectus. The Dikika foot adds to the wealth of knowledge on the mosaic nature of hominin skeletal evolution” explains Alemseged. The fossil record shows that these ancient ancestors were adept at walking upright. Desilva adds: “Walking on two legs is a hallmark of being human. But, walking poorly in a landscape full of predators is a recipe for extinction.” [caption id="attachment_8792" align="aligncenter" width="230"] The child’s foot (bottom) compared with the fossil remains of an adult Australopithecus foot (top). Credit: Jeremy DeSilva & Cody Prang[/caption]

A relative of the Lucy fossil?

The fossil of the toddler’s foot is not only the same species as the famous Lucy fossil, but was also found in the same vicinity in Ethiopia. Unsurprisingly, this led to it being erroneously called ‘Lucy’s baby’ by the popular press – despite this toddler having been around 200,000 years before Lucy.

What we know about the toddler’s lifestyle

With a remarkably preserved anatomy, the fossil foot has given the research time invaluable insight into the daily lifestyle of this toddler. After an examination into how the foot developed and what this tells us about human evolution, it can even start to tell the story of how our ancestors survived. At just two and a half years of age, this Dikika child was already walking on two legs. However, findings also suggest that she was still spending time in the trees, foraging for food while clinging to her mother. “If you were living in Africa 3 million years ago without fire, without structures, and without any means of defence, you’d better be able get up in a tree when the sun goes down,” adds DeSilva. Accordingly, the base of the big toe and the skeletal structure surrounding it suggests that vulnerable children spent more time in the trees than their adult carers. “These findings are critical for understanding the dietary and ecological adaptation of these species and are consistent with our previous research on other parts of the skeleton especially, the shoulder blade,” Alemseged notes.]]>

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Not Western after all: veterinary science originates from Mongolia

Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. A team of scholars, led by William Taylor of the Institute, have analysed ancient horse remains from a Mongolian pastoral culture called the Deer Stone-Khirigsuur Culture. Crucially. their findings challenge the traditional view that veterinary care is a Western science.

Who were the people of the Deer Stone-Khirigsuur Culture?

This pastoral culture roamed the steppes of Mongolia and the eastern parts of Eurasia between 1300 and 700 BC. The nomadic tribe carved beautiful standing stones, known as deer stones, and created burial mounds, or khirigsuurs, across the Mongolian Steppe. As peaceful horsemen, they have been linked to some of the oldest evidence for nomadic herding and the keeping of domestic livestock in that part of the world. [caption id="attachment_8781" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Horses congregate near a deer stone site in Bayankhongor, in central Mongolia’s Khangai mountains.
Credit: William Taylor[/caption] They were the first peoples in eastern Eurasia to utilise horses as livestock, and it has been suggested that they were among the first to ride the animals. At roughly the same time as their inhabitancy, bronze and metal mouthpieces for riding spread throughout the region. These would have given riders more nuanced control over the animals, enabling them to use them for new purposes – including warfare. However, using metal to control horses also saw the rise of new oral issues, including painful interactions with a vestigial tooth that develops in some animals, known as a ‘wolf tooth’. A common problem among the horses, ‘wolf tooth’ would have been alleviated by the use of blunt metal instruments. The practice remains in a similar form today. This dentistry care would have allowed the early riders to control their horses, and further use them to advance their own society. Near each deer stone and khirigsuur, stone mounds symbolise the ritual burials of domestic horses. To contextualise the scale of this culture, the number of horses buried can run up into the hundreds, or even thousands. [caption id="attachment_8782" align="aligncenter" width="500"] A depiction of the classic Mongolian style of deer stone. Credit: Kyarrakun, via Wikimedia Commons[/caption]

“Oldest known practitioners of vet care”

A careful study of the skeletal remains found in these burials has exposed never-before-known information about early veterinary dental procedures. The Deer-Stone Khirigsuur people would have removed any baby teeth causing pain in young horses – making them the world’s oldest known practitioners of veterinary dental care. Throughout the study, Taylor worked closely with colleagues from the National Museum of Mongolia. Jamsranjav Bayarsaikhan and Tumurbaatar Tuvshinjargal were able to provide him with deeper insight about the development of horseback riding and how a horse-based pastoral economy facilitates scientific advancement. “We may think of veterinary care as kind of a Western science,” Taylor comments. “But herders in Mongolia today practice relatively sophisticated procedures using very simple equipment. This results of our study show that a careful understanding of horse anatomy and a tradition of care was first developed, not in the sedentary civilizations of China or the Mediterranean, but centuries earlier, among the nomadic people whose livelihood depended on the well-being of their horses.”

Connecting East and West

Nicole Boivin, Director of the Department of Archaeology at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, concludes: “In many ways, the movements of horses and horse-mounted peoples during the first millennium BCE reshaped the cultural and biological landscapes of Eurasia. “Dr. Taylor’s study shows that veterinary dentistry – developed by Inner Asian herders – may have been a key factor that helped to stimulate the spread of people, ideas, and organisms between East and West.” The research has been published in full here.]]>

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Chewing the fat: gossip culture in early Neolithic food halls

PloS One demonstrates that specialised food production buildings were commonplace in the world’s earliest agricultural villages. The study shows how these buildings played a key role in maintaining and enhancing community cohesion. [caption id="attachment_8777" align="aligncenter" width="500"] View of the early Neolithic communal structure at Beidha, Jordan. Credit: Prof. Cheryl Makarewicz[/caption]

Food production encourages an organised society

Prof. Cheryl Makarewicz of Kiel University and Prof. Bill Finlayson from the University of Reading have posited that the advent of food production sparked profound changes in the ways humans organised their societies. The team undertook excavations at the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B settlement of Beidha, not far from the UNESCO World Heritage site of Petra in Jordan. The very architectural fabric of early farming villages helped to shape human interaction, which was crucial during a period when farming and animal herding were in their first incarnations. Professor Makarewicz comments: “These buildings provided a focal point for the community, a place where everyday mundane activities such as preparing food and making tools could have been undertaken by several people simultaneously.” [caption id="attachment_8778" align="aligncenter" width="377"] The Monastery, Petra, Jordan. Credit: Berthold Werner[/caption]

A place to cook, a place to chat

On top of their immediate functions, these spaces became a platform for conversation and the exchange of ideas. She continues: “These spaces were also important in that they provided a place where community members could drop by and have a chat with their neighbours. “This informal, but highly regular activity may have been all the more important in this context of increasingly large and settled populations. Community members knew information was being passed along and there was a central place to catch up on the news.”

A platform for philosophy?

The buildings have even been linked to the first hints of control and ownership in human society. “What we are also seeing here at Beidha is a really interesting example of how societies deal with managing new issues of how to access and control ownership of plant and animal resources, which might have become more contested within these increasingly populous settlements.”

The early social influence of architecture

“Also interesting is that people at Beidha dealt with these new social tensions very differently from their contemporaries to the west across the Jordan Valley,” Makarewicz adds. The research suggests that in southern Jordan, community daily practice occurred in non-residential buildings, which maintained and strengthened social structures. Conversely, nearby communities would use buildings like this for occasional, dramatic ritual practices. The researchers conclude: “There is a long history of using special-purpose architecture in the south of Jordan to structure the community, and this way of using the built environment for more than just shelter goes right back to the start of the Neolithic here. The continuation of this practice illustrates a strongly local continuity in pathways through the Neolithic revolution.”]]>