ABSTRACT

In the Middle East, the domestication of plants and animals took place within the context of large villages. This chapter discusses the emergence of settled villages in the Middle East, the domestication of plants and animals in the Middle East, and the relationship among domestication, villages, and technology in the development of agriculture in the Middle East. The tower of Jericho is only one of a string of discoveries that have shed dramatic light on the origins of agriculture in the Middle East. The chapter examines the shift from hunter-gatherer to agricultural societies in the Middle East. The Middle East includes a wide range of climates. A ribbon of Mediterranean climate extends today from Israel and Jordan in the south, up into Turkey, Syria, and Lebanon in the north, and into northern Iraq and western Iran to the east.