The Dawn of Civilization: The Origins of Agriculture Extend Far Beyond the Fertile Crescent, According to New Finds
A recent and significant archaeological discovery in Uzbekistan is prompting scientists to reconsider one of humanity's most important stories: the birth of agriculture. For decades, the prevailing view was that the cultivation of cereals such as wheat and barley originated in the Fertile Crescent, a region of the Middle East, around 10,000 years ago, thanks to a people known as the Natufians.
New research, published in Science , offers a different perspective .
The Impact of Chinese Discovery
The research, led by an international team with the support of Xinying Zhou of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing, has uncovered crucial finds that change our understanding of human origins. The discovery, made in the Toda Cave in the Surkhandarya Valley in southern Uzbekistan, demonstrates that as early as 9,200 years ago, communities so far away were harvesting wild barley with stone sickles, an activity previously thought to be exclusive to early farmers in the Middle East.
Location, distribution of cultural layers, and chronostratigraphy of Toda-1 Cave. (A) Location of Toda-1 Cave and topography of the Amu Darya Valley. (B) Exterior photo of Toda-1 Cave (by Xinying Zhou). (C) Cross-section and stratigraphic layers of Toda-1 Cave. (D) The cultural layer group and radiocarbon substratum of Section-1 of T5, Toda-1 Cave.
"This discovery should change the way scientists think about the transition from foraging to agriculture, as it demonstrates how widespread these transitional behaviors were," said Xinying Zhou. Her research suggests that the behaviors that led to agriculture were not an exception, but a widespread practice, present in different regions of the world.
The dispersal path and chronology of cereal foragers from West to East Asia. (A) Near East, Iran, Central Asia, South Asia: distribution of Neolithic sites and the Toda-1 Cave site. (B) Chronology of forager dispersal indicated by the bar reporting the age range of the numbered sites; the dotted bar represents the estimated ages, marked by the presence of wild/domesticated cereals and domestic animals in the regions.
Thus the first agriculture, which was still largely mixed with harvesting, did not originate in just one place, but also in regions that are now arid, but which at the time offered interesting agricultural resources: in fact, the findings do not only concern barley and its seeds, found in the cave, but also seeds of plums and various varieties of wild apples which, at the time, evidently grew in the area.
Agricultural knowledge obviously spread and moved, for example from the Caucasus to Central Asia, but each area had its own unique characteristics. For example, what Chinese archaeologists found in these caves demonstrates a civilization that made extensive use of microlithic tools, but had not yet mastered ceramics.
Time to review old theories in a new light
This discovery is of fundamental importance for at least two reasons:
- Reexamining old theories: The discovery challenges the idea that agriculture emerged at a single "ground zero" and then spread. Instead, it suggests that agricultural behaviors (such as intensive wild plant gathering) were more common and spontaneous in different communities, unrelated to a single cause such as climate change or a population boom.
- A new evolutionary framework: The research strengthens the hypothesis that plant domestication was not a deliberate and conscious act, but the involuntary result of repeated behaviors. The ancient hunter-gatherers of Central Asia were already laying the groundwork for the agricultural revolution, demonstrating that cultural evolution was a broader and more nuanced process than previously believed.
Still much to understand and research
The research team will continue to investigate how common these behaviors were in Central Asia. The goal is to understand whether the discovered cereals represent an early experiment in cultivation or whether the Fertile Crescent tradition spread eastward much earlier than previously thought. Regardless of the answer, this Chinese research promises to help fill many gaps in our understanding of human history .
The article The Dawn of Civilization: The Origins of Agriculture Extend Far Beyond the Fertile Crescent, According to New Findings comes from Scenari Economici .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/gli-albori-della-civilta-le-orgini-dellagricoltura-di-allargano-ben-oltre-la-mezzaluna-fertile-seconod-nuovi-ritrovamenti/ on Sun, 07 Sep 2025 16:50:27 +0000.