They have discovered in Israel, in the Jordan Valley, one of the first examples of fruit tree cultivation on the planet, which shows that the horticulture of the olive tree ( Olea europaea ) and the common fig (Ficus carica ) has been practiced for many thousands of years.
Analysis of a charred wood assemblage from an archaeological site at Tel Tsaf in the Jordan Valley (Tel Tsaf is located in the central Jordan Valley, 32.5 km south of the Sea of Galilee, on the edge of the western shore of the Jordan River), has revealed the presence of burned wood from 16 different species of trees , including olive and fig trees. Researchers have proposed that since the olive tree did not grow naturally in the Jordan Valley, the inhabitants must have intentionally planted the trees around 7,000 years ago. This would represent the oldest example of olive tree domestication in the Mediterranean and in the world.
“Tel Tsaf was a large prehistoric village in the middle of the Jordan Valley south of Beit She’an, inhabited between 7,200 and 6,700 years ago ,” Professor Garfinkel said.
The earliest evidence for the domestication of a fruit tree
The charcoal remains were found in the archaeological excavation led by Prof. Yosef Garfinkel of the Hebrew University Institute of Archaeology. The remains of the stone settlements include patios, houses and large silos that could have stored 20 to 30 tons of products. The great capacity of these silos would have exceeded the needs of the inhabitants, and would indicate a successful agriculture and a complex economic system of accumulation of surpluses and wealth. Since the olive tree did not grow naturally in the Jordan Valley, this means that the inhabitants intentionally planted the tree. The study findings have been published in the journal Scientific Reports.
“I am the head of the Archaeobotany and Ancient Environments Laboratory, which specializes in the microscopic identification of plant remains. Trees, even when burned to charcoal, can be identified by their anatomical structure. Wood was the “plastic” of the ancient world,” explains Dafna Langgut of the Jacob M. Alkow Department of Archeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures and Tel Aviv University’s Steinhardt Museum of Natural History and co-author of the paper. “It was used for construction, to make tools and furniture, and as a source of energy. This is why identifying tree remains found at archaeological sites, such as charcoal from homes, is key to understanding what types of trees were growing in the natural environment at the time and when humans began to grow fruit trees.”
possible applications
The researchers hypothesize that established horticulture contributed to more elaborate social contracts and institutions , as olive oil, table olives, and dried figs were well suited for long-distance trade and taxation.
In total, 662 charred wood samples were analyzed, most of which were found to be Quercus ithaburensis (Mt. Tabor oak, 39.8 percent) and Tamarix spp. (22.3 percent). The researchers identified the species by microscopic investigation of anatomical features of the wood (eg, vessels and their arrangement, size and arrangement of rays, and parenchyma and fiber patterns).
“The domestication of fruit trees is a process that takes many years and therefore suits a society of abundance, rather than one struggling to survive,” Langgut said. “Trees bear fruit only 3 or 4 years after planting. Since fruit tree groves require a substantial initial investment and then live for a long time, they are of great economic and social importance in terms of land ownership and legacy to future generations, procedures that suggest the beginnings of a complex society. .
Referencia: D. Langgut & Y. Garfinkel. 2022. 7,000-year-old evidence of fruit tree cultivation in the Jordan Valley, Israel. Sci Rep 12, 7463; doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-10743-6
