News Anthropology

Agriculture’s roots spread east to Iran

Finds at ancient village extend early crop cultivation across the Fertile Crescent

ANIMAL FARM  As well as cultivating and domesticating one form of wheat by 9,800  years ago, inhabitants of a newly excavated village in western Iran left behind  artifacts such as this clay animal figurine. 

TISARP/U. of Tübingen

By Bruce Bower

- More than 2 years ago

Agriculture originated across a broader swath of southwestern Asia’s Fertile Crescent, and over a longer time period, than many scientists have thought, excavations in western Iran suggest.