For example, peas belong to the genus 

 Pisiim, which consists of two wild species: 

 P. sativum, the one that became domesti- 

 cated to yield our garden peas, and the 

 common and widespread P.fiilvum. which 

 was never domesticated. Yet the latter 

 taste good, either fresh or dried. Similarly, 

 domesticated wheat, barley, lentils, chick- 

 peas, beans, and flax all have numerous 

 wild relatives. Some of those related beans 

 and barleys were indeed domesticated in- 

 dependently in the Americas or China, but 

 in the Near East only one of several poten- 

 tially useful wild species of a given plant 

 was domesticated — probably because it 

 spread so quickly that people soon 

 stopped gathering the other wild relatives 

 and ate only the crop. As Zohary and Hopf 

 emphasize, the crop's rapid spread pre- 

 empted any possible further attempts to 

 domesticate its relatives or to redomesti- 

 cate its ancestor. 



Why was the spread of crops from the 

 Fertile Crescent so rapid? The answer has 

 to do with that east-west axis of Eurasia. 

 Localities east and west of one another at 

 the same latitude share exactly the same 

 seasonal variations in day length. To a 

 lesser extent, they also tend to share simi- 

 lar diseases, temperature, and rainfall. For 

 example, southern Italy, northem fran, and 



Japan, all located at about the same lati- 

 tude but lying thousands of miles apart, 

 are more similai^ to one another in climate 

 than each is to a location lying a mere 

 1,000 miles due south. And the germina- 

 tion, growth, and disease resistance of 

 plants there are adapted to precisely those 

 features of climate. As a consequence, 

 most of the Fertile Crescent crops grow 

 well in southern Europe and Japan, but 

 grow poorly at the equator. 



In other words. Fertile Crescent domes- 

 ticates spread west and east so rapidly be- 

 cause they were already well adapted to 

 the climates of the regions to which they 

 were spreading. Once farming crossed 

 from the plains of Hungary into central 

 Europe about 5400 B.C., it spread so 

 quickly that the sites of the first farmers in 

 the vast areas from Poland west to Holland 

 (marked by their characteristic pottery 

 with linear decorations) were nearly con- 

 temporary. By the time of Christ, cereals 

 of Fertile Crescent origin were growing 

 over the 10,000-mile expanse from the At- 

 lantic coast of Ireland to the Pacific coast 

 of Japan. That west-east expanse of Eura- 

 sia is the largest land distance on earth. 



Thus, Eurasia's west-east axis allowed 

 Fertile Crecent agriculture to spread over 

 the band of temperate latitudes from Ire- 



land to the Indus Valley and to enrich the 

 agriculture that arose independently in 

 eastern Asia. Conversely, Eurasian crops 

 that were first domesticated far from the 

 Fertile Crescent but at the same latitudes 

 were able to spread back to the Near East. 

 Today, when seeds are transported over 

 the whole globe by ship and plane, we take 

 for granted that our meals are a geographic 

 mishmash. A typical American fast-food 

 restaurant meal would include chicken 

 (first domesticated in Southeast Asia) and 

 potatoes (from the Andes) or com (from 

 Mexico), seasoned with pepper (from 

 India), and washed down with a cup of 

 coffee (of Ethiopian origin). But 2,000 

 years ago, Romans were already nourish- 

 ing themselves with a range of foods that 

 Zohary and Hopf show to have mostly 

 originated elsewhere. Of Roman crops, 

 only oats and poppies were native to Italy. 

 Roman staples were still the Fertile Cres- 

 cent founder package, supplemented by 

 quince (originating from the Caucasus); 

 millet and cumin (domesticated in central 

 Asia); cucumber, sesame, and citrus fruit 

 (from India); and chicken, rice, apricots, 

 peaches, and foxtail millet (originally 

 from China). 



Contrast this easy east-west diffusion in 

 Eurasia with the difficulties of diffusion 



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21 



