Early domesticated fig in the Jordan Valley

  • Mordechai E. Kislev
  • , Anat Hartmann
  • , Ofer Bar-Yosef

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

316 Scopus citations

Abstract

It is generally accepted that the fig tree was domesticated in the Near East some 6500 years ago. Here we report the discovery of nine carbonized fig fruits and hundreds of drupelets stored in Gilgal I, an early Neolithic village, located in the Lower Jordan Valley, which dates to 11,400 to 11,200 years ago. We suggest that these edible fruits were gathered from parthenocarpic trees grown from intentionally planted branches. Hence, fig trees could have been the first domesticated plant of the Neolithic Revolution, which preceded cereal domestication by about a thousand years.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1372-1374
Number of pages3
JournalScience
Volume312
Issue number5778
DOIs
StatePublished - 2 Jun 2006

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