AGRICULTURE wasn’t invented in the Jordan Valley, but 800 kilometres to the
north on the borders of Syria and Turkey, say Israeli scientists. Recent genetic
evidence from wheat and lentils shows that edible plants were first domesticated
somewhere within a 200-kilometre circle on the upper reaches of the Tigris and
Euphrates rivers.
Some researchers have proposed the Jordan Valley and adjacent areas as the
“cradle of agriculture”, says Simcha Lev-Yadun of Israel’s Agriculture Research
Organization. But Lev-Yadun and his colleagues have a different theory.
They say that recent evidence shows that all seven crops important to ancient
civilisations—einkorn wheat, emmer…
