and annual growth. Unlike protein-poor 

 com and rice, which became the leading 

 cereals of the Americas and eastern Asia 

 respectively, the wheats of the Fertile 

 Crescent had a substantial protein content 

 of 8 to 14 percent. 



During or soon after the onset of farm- 

 ing in Mesopotamia, these starchy cereals 

 were complemented by two types of food 

 with an even higher protein content: 

 legumes, especially peas and lentils, 

 which have 20 to 25 percent protein, and 

 domestic animals (sheep, goats, cattle, and 

 pigs). The animals yielded wool and 

 leather as well. One other crop, flax, not 

 only filled out the dietary trinity of carbo- 

 hydrate, protein, and fat with its very oily 

 seeds but also provided the oldest culti- 

 vated source of plant fiber for making 

 clothes. Linen from flax reigned supreme 

 as Europe's preferred plant textile material 

 until it was finally replaced by cotton and 

 synthetics during and after the Industrial 

 Revolution. Thus, the Fertile Crescent's 

 first farmers assembled a balanced pack- 

 age for intensive food production, based 

 on eight main crops and four animals that 

 filled humanity's basic economic needs: 

 carbohydrate, protein, fat, clothing, and, 

 eventually, milk products and animal 

 transport. 



Soon after food production arose in the 

 Fertile Crescent, it radiated into other parts 

 of western Eurasia and North Africa, 

 spreading progressively farther west and 

 east. In a striking map, Zohary and Hopf 

 illustrate how agriculture reached Greece 

 and Cyprus by 7000 B.C., Egypt and India 

 soon after 6000 B.C., central Europe by 

 5400 B.C., and Britain about 4000 B.C. 

 (These are so-called caUbrated radiocar- 

 bon dates — dates based on the regular 

 decay of the radioactive isotope carbon- 14 

 and corrected for slight fluctuations in at- 

 mospheric isotope with time.) Food pro- 

 duction in the new areas was launched by 

 the crucial package of the same domesti- 

 cated plant and animal species that 

 launched it in the Fertile Crescent. 



Of course, not all pieces of the package 

 spread to all those outlying areas: for ex- 

 ample, Egypt was too warm for einkom 

 wheat to become established. Some inhab- 

 itants of outlying areas went on to domes- 

 ticate a few local crops of their own, such 

 as poppies in western Europe. But most 

 food production in these regions depended 

 at first on the same group of Fertile Cres- 

 cent domesticates. Their spread was soon 

 followed by the spread of other innova- 

 tions originating in or near Mesopotamia, 

 including the wheel, writing, metalwork- 



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