Domestication, agriculture and horticulture in the Levant
Trade presumedly drove much of the movement of domesticated animals and plants.
Era | Time | Overview |
|---|---|---|
Paleolithic Period | Many goat bones have been found in Paleolithic strata of Syria and Lebanon. Sheep and goats spread from the Zagros to the Levantine interior first (modern=day Syria, Lebanon, Transjordan and Israel) and then to Anatolia. | |
Pre-Pottery Neolithic B | Sheep bones are extremely rare in the Epipaleolithic; thus, the sudden appearance in PPNB of sheep bones must have been of a domesticated breed brought from elsewhere. This elsewhere is likely the BCE - BCE Zagros and Taurus zones, where many bones of young sheep have been found. | |
Pre-Pottery Neolithic B | ~ BCE | Goat and sheep bones exceed 50% of all bones after BCE at 'Ain Ghazal and Jericho. |
Pre-Pottery Neolithic B | 7th MILL BCE | Domesticated pigs are first found in the 7th MILL BCE Pottery Neolithic layers at Jarmo (in northern Mesopotamia). |
Pre-Pottery Neolithic B | ~ BCE - ~ BCE | The first evidence of domesticated cattle is in Anatolia, and they may have followed a similar path as sheep and goats. |
Pottery Neolithic | Domesticated pigs existed at Sha'ar Ha-Golan in the Pottery Neolithic, although this is an isolated case. | |
Chalcolithic Period | ~ BCE | Domestic cattle had made their way into the Near East by the end of the 5th MILL BCE, based on finds from Anatolia and Khuzistan. The first Levantine orchards finally develop. |
Chalcolithic Period | 4th MILL BCE | Cattle only were involved with the secondary products revolution in Mesopotamia and Egypt no earlier than the 4th MILL BCE. |
Chalcolithic Period | Domesticated pigs are common in sedentary villages. |