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      Between domestication and civilization: the role of agriculture and arboriculture in the emergence of the first urban societies

      Vegetation History and Archaeobotany
      Springer
      arboriculture, near east, ficus, olea, phoenix, vitis, china, ziziphus, amygdalus, armeniaca

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          Abstract

          The transition to urbanism has long focused on annual staple crops (cereals and legumes), perhaps at the expense of understanding other changes within agricultural practices that occurred between the end of the initial domestication period and urbanisation. This paper examines the domestication and role of fruit tree crops within urbanisation in both Western Asia and China, using a combination of evidence for morphological change and a database that documents both the earliest occurrence of tree fruit crops and their spread beyond their wild range. In Western Asia the domestication of perennial fruit crops likely occurs between 6500 bc and 3500 bc, although it accompanies a shift in location from that of the earliest domestications within the Fertile Crescent to Mesopotamia, where the earliest urban societies arose. For China, fruit-tree domestication dates between ca 4000 and 2500 bc, commencing after millet domestication and rice domestication in Northern and Southern China, respectively, but within the period that led up to the urban societies that characterised the Longshan period in the Yellow River basin and the Liangzhu Culture in the Lower Yangtze. These results place the domestication of major fruit trees between the end of the domestication of staple annual crops and the rise of urbanism. On this basis it is argued that arboriculture played a fundamental role within the re-organisation of existing land use, shifting the emphasis from short-term returns of cereal crops into longer term investment in the developing agricultural landscape in both Western and East Asia. In this respect perennial tree crops can be placed alongside craft specialisation, such as metallurgy and textiles, in the formation of urban centres and the shaping the organisational administration that accompanied the rise of urbanism. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1007/s00334-019-00727-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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          The domestication process and domestication rate in rice: spikelet bases from the Lower Yangtze.

          The process of rice domestication occurred in the Lower Yangtze region of Zhejiang, China, between 6900 and 6600 years ago. Archaeobotanical evidence from the site of Tianluoshan shows that the proportion of nonshattering domesticated rice (Oryza sativa) spikelet bases increased over this period from 27% to 39%. Over the same period, rice remains increased from 8% to 24% of all plant remains, which suggests an increased consumption relative to wild gathered foods. In addition, an assemblage of annual grasses, sedges, and other herbaceous plants indicates the presence of arable weeds, typical of cultivated rice, that also increased over this period.
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            The Evolution of Animal Domestication

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              From forest to field: perennial fruit crop domestication.

              Archaeological and genetic analyses of seed-propagated annual crops have greatly advanced our understanding of plant domestication and evolution. Comparatively little is known about perennial plant domestication, a relevant topic for understanding how genes and genomes evolve in long-lived species, and how perennials respond to selection pressures operating on a relatively short time scale. Here, we focus on long-lived perennial crops (mainly trees and other woody plants) grown for their fruits. We reviewed (1) the basic biology of long-lived perennials, setting the stage for perennial domestication by considering how these species evolve in nature; (2) the suite of morphological features associated with perennial fruit crops undergoing domestication; (3) the origins and evolution of domesticated perennials grown for their fruits; and (4) the genetic basis of domestication in perennial fruit crops. Long-lived perennials have lengthy juvenile phases, extensive outcrossing, widespread hybridization, and limited population structure. Under domestication, these features, combined with clonal propagation, multiple origins, and ongoing crop-wild gene flow, contribute to mild domestication bottlenecks in perennial fruit crops. Morphological changes under domestication have many parallels to annual crops, but with key differences for mating system evolution and mode of reproduction. Quantitative trait loci associated with domestication traits in perennials are mainly of minor effect and may not be stable across years. Future studies that take advantage of genomic approaches and consider demographic history will elucidate the genetics of agriculturally and ecologically important traits in perennial fruit crops and their wild relatives.
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                Author and article information

                Journal
                6499764
                10.1007/s00334-019-00727-4
                http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

                Plant science & Botany
                arboriculture,near east,ficus,olea,phoenix,vitis,china,ziziphus,amygdalus,armeniaca
                Plant science & Botany
                arboriculture, near east, ficus, olea, phoenix, vitis, china, ziziphus, amygdalus, armeniaca

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