Early Domesticated Fig in the Jordan Valley

• DOI: 10.1126/science.1125910
• Publication Date: 2006-06-02T02:26:13Z
• Authors: Mordechai E. Kislev; Anat Hartmann; Ofer Bar-Yosef
• Keywords: Heterozygote; Middle East; 0303 health sciences; 03 medical and health sciences; Fruit; Homozygote; Humans; Agriculture; Israel; Ficus; History, Ancient

It is generally accepted that the fig tree was domesticated in the Near East some 6500 years ago. Here we report the discovery of nine carbonized fig fruits and hundreds of drupelets stored in Gilgal I, an early Neolithic village, located in the Lower Jordan Valley, which dates to 11,400 to 11,200 years ago. We suggest that these edible fruits were gathered from parthenocarpic trees grown from intentionally planted branches. Hence, fig trees could have been the first domesticated plant of the Neolithic Revolution, which preceded cereal domestication by about a thousand years.