Crops of the first farming communities in the Iberian Peninsula

• DOI: 10.1016/j.quaint.2017.06.002
• Publication Date: 2017-06-19T18:30:44Z
• Authors: Leonor Peña-Chocarro; Guillem Pérez-Jordà; Jacob Morales
• Keywords: 2. Zero hunger; 510201 Agricultura; Agriculture; 550405 Prehistoria; 15. Life on land; Iberian peninsula; 01 natural sciences; Crop diversity; Archaeobotany; Neolithic; Iberian Peninsula; 0105 earth and related environmental sciences

Agriculture was introduced in the Iberian Peninsula in the mid-6th millennium cal BC. The first Iberian farmer communities grew seven different cereal species (hulled and free-threshing wheats and hulled and naked barley), seven legumes (broad beans, lentils, peas, grass/red pea, common vetch and bitter vetch) and two oil crops (flax and poppy). The distinct agricultural diversity from area to area gave way to a complex mosaic of regional variability. This paper aims at exploring not only the main features characterising Neolithic agriculture in Iberia, but also at delineating its variability and the underlying causes linked to numerous factors including environmental constraints, economic and social issues, and cultural traditions and their demographic movements.<br/>Peer Reviewed<br/>The current research was carried out in the framework of both the AGRIWESTMED project ERC-AdG-230561 funded by the European Research Council, and the Orígenes y expansion de la agri- cultura en el sur peninsular y norte de Marruecos: aportaciones desde la arqueobotanica y la gen etica (HAR, 2008-01920/HIST) project funded by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion . The work of G. Perez-Jord a was undertaken within the post-doctoral con- tracts FPDI-2013-16034 and IJCI-2015-25082 funded by the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad. J. Morales is beneficiary of a Ramon y Cajal research fellowship (RYC-2015-18072) funded by the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad.<br/>