Farming Is One Of The Oldest Practices Known To Humanity, And It Started 7,500 Years Ago
Farming is one of the oldest practices known to humanity. Agriculture has allowed communities to produce a more reliable and consistent food supply, leading to population growth and the rise of complex societies.
Today, agriculture continues to play a vital role in sustaining human populations all over the world. A new analysis has shown that farming started in North Africa after the arrival of immigrants thousands of years ago.
Agriculture and the domestication of livestock were adopted during the Neolithic age, marking a significant transition in human history.
Recent research has pointed to rapid farming developments in the Middle East in a region known as the Fertile Crescent.
From there, agricultural developments spread and were adopted by hunter-gatherer societies in the Anatolian peninsula, which is now Turkey.
Around 8,500 years ago, people from those farming communities traveled across the Aegean Sea to Greece and the Balkans, where they introduced practices similar to those used in Anatolia. Five centuries later, they made it over to Italy.
The first appearance of agriculture on the Iberian Peninsula occurred around 7,600 years ago. Signs of it showed up on the islands of Corsica and Sardinia and throughout Europe. As a result, populations expanded and intermixed, merging genetics and cultures together.
The farming practices on the Iberian Peninsula resembled the methods that had emerged in Italy. For instance, they decorated pottery with impressed motifs using seashells.
Throughout the Mediterranean, this type of pottery has been uncovered in coastal areas, indicating that Neolithic people sailed near the shoreline in simply built boats. It wasn’t long before their presence took over the Iberian Peninsula.
rh2010 – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only, not the actual person
As Europe was undergoing cultural shifts, North African communities were also participating in hunting and gathering. Back then, the Sahara wasn’t the desert we know of today. Instead, the region was filled with forests, lakes, and rivers.
Around 7,500 years ago, evidence of agriculture and animal husbandry began to pop up in Northern Morocco, along with imprinted pottery that was similar to the ones found in Mediterranean Iberia.
In Africa, farming practices involved the cultivation of cereal crops, such as wheat and barley, and legumes, such as beans, lentils, and peas. Additionally, people raised sheep and goats. Furthermore, there were beads made out of ostrich shells and beads that decorated small marine gastropods.
After analyzing the ancient DNA of four individuals, scientists discovered that innovations from Africa spread to other parts of the world.
The individuals dated back sometime between 7,400 and 7,100 years ago. Their remains were excavated in Kaf Taht el-Ghar in Morocco.
The individuals were genetically similar to Neolithic European people, with mostly Anatolian heritage. This population can be defined as “Creole.”
In a cave south of where the four individuals had been located, an entire group of farmers was discovered.
Their genetic profile showed that they were indigenous to the region, suggesting that they had adopted Neolithic farming practices without assimilating into new societies.
A thousand years later, new types of ceramics arose in Neolithic sites on the Atlantic coast of Morocco.
Three individuals linked to the pottery were discovered at a necropolis in Skhirat-Rouazi. They seemed to be descendants of Neolithic populations from the Mediterranean instead of Anatolia. These individuals were believed to have crossed the Sahara with herds of animals.
Toward the end of the Neolithic era, which was 5,700 years ago, human DNA from the site Kelif el Baroud revealed interbreeding between all the above-mentioned groups.
There was a mix of DNA from indigenous North African hunter-gatherers, Anatolian farmers mixed with European hunter-gatherers, and farming groups from the Mediterranean.
The variation within the gene pool in North Africa highlights the role of migration over millions of years in spreading agricultural techniques during the Neolithic period.
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