Its been fascinating over the past few years working on this Homage to the Seed project how many times I've seen disputed the origins of agriculture. Perhaps its fair to say that new data is being found all the time and also methods of checking data have become profoundly more accurate ... plus the global sharing of information is also likely to contribute significantly.
wheat
Despite the fact that this Wiki information below comes with a disclaimer suggesting they are quite aware of flaws in their documentation of this material I am nevertheless posting it here as a considerably worthwhile way to look into this subject ... a subject now constantly in the news.
Threshing; Tacuinum Sanitatis, 14th century.
Use of winnowing forks
Wiki: Overview map of the ancient Near East
.... early sites for domestication of grain.
Timeline of agriculture and food technology
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| Threshing; Tacuinum Sanitatis, 14th century. |
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| Use of winnowing forks |
.... early sites for domestication of grain.
Neolithic Revolution
- 12,000 BC – Neolithic Revolution, the first agricultural revolution, begins in the ancient Near East
- 12,000 BC – Natufians in the Levant begin harvesting wild grasses.
- 9800 BC – Earliest evidence for domesticated wheat at PPNA sites in the Levant.
- 8500 BC – PPNB sites across the Fertile Crescent growing domestic wheat, barley, chickpeas, peas, beans, flax and bitter vetch. Sheep and goatdomesticated.
- 7000 BC – agriculture had reached southern Europe with evidence of emmer and einkorn wheat, barley, sheep, goats, and pigs suggest that a food producing economy is adopted in Greece and the Aegean.
- 7000 BC – Cultivation of wheat, sesame, barley, and eggplant in Mehrgarh (Pakistan÷÷÷).
- 7000 BC – Domestication of cattle and chicken in Mehrgarh, Pakistan.
- 6800 BC – Rice domesticated in southeast Asia.
- 6500 BC – Evidence of cattle domestication in Turkey.[citation needed] Some sources say this happened earlier in other parts of the world.
- 6000 BC Archaeological evidence from various sites on the Iberian peninsula suggest the domestication of plants and animals.
- 6000 BC – Granary built in Mehrgarh for storage of excess food.
- 5500 BC[citation needed] Céide Fields in Ireland are the oldest known field systems in the world, this landscape consists of extensive tracts of land enclosed by brick walls.[1]
- 5000 BC – Domestication of the horse in Ukraine.[citation needed]
- 4000 BC – In Mehrgarh, the domestication of numerous crops, including peas, sesame seeds, dates, and cotton, as well as a wide range of domestic animals, including the Domestic Asian Water Buffalo, an animal that remains essential to intensive agricultural production throughout Asia today.
- 4000 BC – Egyptians discover how to make bread using yeast
- 4000 BC – Evidence for rice domestication in the Korat plateau area of northwestern Thailand.[citation needed]
- 4000 BC – First use of light wooden ploughs in Mesopotamia (Modern day Iraq)
- 3500 BC – Irrigation was being used in Mesopotamia (Modern day Iraq)
- 3500 BC – First agriculture in the Americas, around Central Amazonia or Ecuador
- 3000 BC – Turmeric, cardamom, pepper and mustard are harvested in the Indus Valley Civilization.
- 3000 BC – Fermentation of dough, grain, and fruit juices is in practice.
- 3000 BC – Sugar produced in India
[edit]Antiquity
- 2600 BC – Large scale commercial timbering of cedars in Phoenicia (Lebanon) for export to Egypt and Sumeria. Similar commercial timbering in South India.
- 1700 BC – Wind powered machine developed by Babylonians
- 1300 BC – Creation of canal linking the Nile delta to the Red Sea
- 691 BC – First aqueduct (approx. 50 miles long) constructed to bring water to Nineveh.
- 530 BC – Tunnel of Eupalinos first underground aqueduct
- 500 BC – The moldboard iron plough is invented in China
- 500 BC – Row cultivation of crops using intensive hoeing to weed and conserve moisture practised in China
- 300 BC – Efficient trace harness for plowing invented in China
- 200 BC – Efficient collar harness for plowing invented in China
- 100 BC – Rotary winnowing fan invented in China
- 100 BC – The multi-tube seed drill is invented in China
- AD 200 – The fishing reel invented in China
- 600 – The distillation of alcohol in China
- 607 – The Chinese begin constructing a massive canal system to connect the Yellow and Yangtze rivers
[edit]Arab Agricultural Revolution
 | This section's factual accuracy is disputed. (June 2010) |
- 644 – Muslim inventors develop a windmill, used to pump water for irrigation;[2][3] this is a more advanced wind powered machine than that developed by theBabylonians
- 8th century – Arab Agricultural Revolution begins in the rapidly-expanding Arab Empire
- 800 – Arabic chemists produce purified water[4]
- 800 – Alcohol (ethanol) as a pure compound is distilled by Arabic chemists such as Jābir ibn Hayyān and Alkindus[5]
- 850 – Use of coffee is known in Arabia
- 900 – First wind powered gristmills built in present-day Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran[6]
- 900 – Geared gristmills with trip hammers developed in the Arab Empire[7]
- 900 – First sugar refineries, driven by both water mills and windmills, invented in present-day Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran[6]
- 1000 – Sherbet, the first juiced and carbonated soft drink, is developed by Arabic chemists.[8][9]
- 1000 – Cash cropping[10] and a crop rotation system in which land was cropped four or more times in a two-year period is introduced in the Arab Empire[11]
- 1000 – The Arab Empire introduced agricultural innovations such as new forms of land tenure, improvements in irrigation, a variety of sophisticated irrigation methods,[12] the introduction of fertilizers and widespread artificial irrigation systems, the development of gravity-flow irrigation systems from rivers andsprings,[13] the use of noria and chain pumps for irrigation purposes[citation needed], the establishment of the sugar cane industry in the Mediterranean, andexperimentation in sugar cultivation[14]
- 1000 – Earliest factory milling installations built in Baghdad, Iraq[15]
- 1000 – Milling dam (Pul-i-Bulaiti), used to provide additional power for milling, built at Karun, Iran[16]
- 1050 – Flywheel-driven saqiya chain pump and noria developed by Ibn Bassal (fl. 1038-1075) of Al-Andalus[17]
- 1100 – Bridge mill (water mill built as part of the superstructure of a bridge) developed in Cordoba, Al-Andalus[18]
- 1100 – Spiral scoop waterwheel, a device which efficiently raises large quantities of water to ground level invented in Baghdad, Iraq[19]
- 1100 – Finery forge invented in Al-Andalus[6]
- 1100 – First European factory milling installations built in Al-Andalus[6]
- 1206 – Al-Jazari employs the crankshaft and connecting rod in a piston pump which, for the first time, demonstrates the use of a suction pipe.[20]
- 1250 – Crank-driven screw and screwpump developed in the Arab world using Al-Jazari's crankshaft[21]
- 1282 − First paper mill in the Spanish Xàtiva (Kingdom of Aragon)[22]
- 1559 – Taqi al-Din invents a six-cylinder 'Monobloc' pump, a hydropowered water-raising machine incorporating valves, suction and delivery pipes, pistonrods with lead weights, trip levers with pin joints, and cams on the axle of a water-driven scoop-wheel[23]
[edit]British Agricultural Revolution
- 1700 – British Agricultural Revolution begins in the United Kingdom
- 1809 – French confectioner Nicolas Appert invents canning
- 1837 – John Deere invents steel plough
- 1863 – International "Corn Show" in Paris with corn varieties from different countries
- 1866 – Gregor Mendel publishes his paper describing Mendelian inheritance
- 1871 – Louis Pasteur invents pasteurization
- 1895 – Refrigeration for domestic and commercial food preservation introduced in the United States and the United Kingdom, respectively.
- 1930 – First use of aerial photos in Earth sciences and agriculture.
[edit]Green Revolution
- 1944 – Green Revolution begins in Mexico
- 1974 – China creates the first hybrid rice,[24] thus starting a food revolution that has benefited tens of millions around the world. See Yuan Longping.
- 2000 – Genetically modified plants cultivated around the world.
- 2005 – Lasers used to replace stickers by writing on food to "track and trace" and identify individual pieces of fresh fruit.[25]
[edit]See also
- Agricultural revolutions
- Agriculture
- Broad spectrum revolution
- Electrical energy efficiency on United States farms
- Fertile Crescent
- History of agriculture
- Neolithic founder crops
- New World Crops
- Timeline of genetically modified organisms
- Timeline of historic inventions
