Free Republic

Archeologists excavating at the Chalcolithic site of Tel Tsaf in the Jordan Valley, Israel, have discovered one of the earliest examples of fruit tree cultivation worldwide, demonstrating that olive (Olea europaea) and common fig (Ficus carica) horticulture was practiced as early as 7,000 years ago.Today, the olive is considered the most prominent and probably the economically most important fruit tree of the Mediterranean Basin.Cultivation caused its distribution to expand into areas otherwise beyond its natural habitats...The charcoal assemblage of Tel Tsaf provides the earliest evidence of olive cultivation outside its natural distribution.It also offers evidence for early cultivation of common...

Round and rectangular buildings with grain silos at a Copper Age site in Israel suggested social stratification to the excavators. Using micromorphology, the author demonstrates that while the rectangular building was occupied by people, the round ones had contained animals, perhaps as providers of milk, and dung for fuel. While this removes the direct indication of social variance, it strengthens the argument that animals, as well as grain, formed the basis for the creation of surplus.