2006/06/02 by Mordechai E. Kislev, Anat Hartmann, Ofer Bar‐Yosef · 7 citations
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · #Phytochemistry and biological activities of Ficus species #Cassava research and cyanide #Banana Cultivation and Research
paper · doi:10.1126/science.1125910
openalex publication_date 2006/06/02 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
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.