11,000-Year-Old Grain Shakes Up Beliefs On Beginnings Of Agriculture

Jerusalem Post ^ | 6-18-2006 | Judy Siegel-Itzkovich

[blam]

Jun. 18, 2006 0:24 | Updated Jun. 18, 2006 10:45

11,000-year-old grain shakes up beliefs on beginnings of agriculture

By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH

Bar-Ilan University researchers have found a cache of 120,000 wild oat and 260,000 wild barley grains at the Gilgal archaeological site near Jericho that date back 11,000 years - providing evidence of cultivation during the Neolithic Period.

The research, performed by Drs. Ehud Weiss and Anat Hartmann of BIU's department of Land of Israel studies and Prof. Mordechai Kislev of the faculty of life sciences, appears in the June 16 edition of the prestigious journal Science.

It is the second time in two weeks that Kislev and Hartmann have had an article in Science. They recently wrote about their discovery of 10,000-year-old cultivated figs at the same Jordan Valley site.

According to the researchers, the newest find shows that the transition from nomadic food gathering and the beginning of agriculture were quite different than previously thought. Until now, the general assumption has been that agriculture was begun by a single line of human efforts in one specific area. But the BIU researchers found a much more complicated effort undertaken by different human populations in different regions, drawing a completely new picture of the origins of agriculture.

Agriculture, the BIU researchers suggest, originated through human manipulations of wild plants - sometimes involving the same species - that took place in various spatially and temporally distinct communities. Moreover, some of these occasions were found to be much earlier than previously thought possible.

[blam]

GGG Ping

[SamAdams_Lite]

That would also push back the discovery of beer.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

They've discovered the container of Quaker Oats cereal I've had in my cupboard all this time.

[frogjerk]

That would also push back the discovery of beer.

When I saw the word grain I immediately thought..."Mmmm, beer"

[toddlintown]

"That would also push back the discovery of beer."

First thing I thought too.

[frogjerk]

That would also push back the discovery of beer.

The research, performed by Drs. Ehud Weiss

Coincidence?...I think not!

[Red Badger]

I wonder if they'll try and germinate them?.............

[Lady Jag]

The have to try to germinate them. This is a good find.

[Red Badger]

How does one "discover" beer? Wine I can see. Grape juice, sits in storage till it ferments and viola, you've got wine. Beer, on the other hand, requires a scientific approach to brewing ingredients, cooking, fermenting, etc. One does not accidentally come upon beer, it must be planned and researched.........

[Red Badger]

I've heard that wheat grains from Egyptian tombs will germinate after 5,000 or so years. This would double that!........

[Atlas Sneezed]

Consider that a common way to prepare whole grains for cooking is to soak them for at least a day. Also consider that sprouting is a way to enhance the nutrition of grains.

[rahbert]

I didn't think they had violas that long ago..

[Wonder Warthog]

"That would also push back the discovery of beer."

Ah, yes---beer---"Proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy." Benjamin Franklin

[ncountylee]

That would also push back the discovery of beer.

Indicates that beer predates wine. Take that frogs!

[dljordan]

"How does one "discover" beer? Wine I can see. Grape juice, sits in storage till it ferments and viola, you've got wine. Beer, on the other hand, requires a scientific approach to brewing ingredients, cooking, fermenting, etc. One does not accidentally come upon beer, it must be planned and researched........."

I always thought making wine and mead was much more complicated. I've made beer for years but when I read a book on wine making I thought it was pretty fussy.

[Red Badger]

Thanks to weiss,

I have a vice.

And one I love so dear.

It's really nice

To have a vice.

And all thanks to weissen beer...........

[Red Badger]

They had to have something to play "How Dry I Am" on...........

[Red Badger]

But then someone would have to have let them sit for a long time in order to ferment, and add yeast to the mix. Maybe it was an offshoot of breadmaking. Someone smelled the alcohol coming from the yeast in the bread and said, "Hmmmm, I wonder if..........."

[frogjerk]

Ah, yes---beer---"Proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy." Benjamin Franklin

Saint Brigid

"I would like the angels of Heaven to be among us. I would like an abundance of peace. I would like full vessels of charity. I would like rich treasures of mercy. I would like cheerfulness to preside over all. I would like Jesus to be present. I would like the three Marys of illustrious renown to be with us. I would like the friends of Heaven to be gathered around us from all parts. I would like myself to be a rent payer to the Lord; that I should suffer distress, that he would bestow a good blessing upon me. I would like a great lake of beer for the King of Kings. I would like to be watching Heaven's family drinking it through all eternity."

From http://www.catholic-forum.com/Saints/saintb03.htm

She worked in a leper colony which found itself without beer, "For when the lepers she nursed implored her for beer, and there was none to be had, she changed the water, which was used for the bath, into an excellent beer, by the sheer strength of her blessing and dealt it out to the thirsty in plenty." Brigid is said to have changed her dirty bathwater into beer so that visiting clerics would have something to drink. Obviously this trait would endear her to many a beer lover. She also is reputed to have supplied beer out of one barrel to eighteen churches, which sufficed from Maundy Thursday to the end of paschal time.

From http://www.beerhistory.com/library/holdings/patron_saints.shtml