How the First Farmers Changed History

A fossilized skeleton of a human who was buried beneath a floor in a family home in Ain Ghazal, a 10,000-year-old farming village in Jordan. Credit C. Blair/The Ain Ghazal Archaeological Project

Beneath a rocky slope in central Jordan lie the remains of a 10,000-year-old village called Ain Ghazal, whose inhabitants lived in stone houses with timber roof beams, the walls and floors gleaming with white plaster.

Hundreds of people living there worshiped in circular shrines and made haunting, wide-eyed sculptures that stood three feet high. They buried their cherished dead under the floors of their houses, decapitating the bodies in order to decorate the skulls.

But as fascinating as this culture was, something else about Ain Ghazal intrigues archaeologists more: It was one of the first farming villages to have emerged after the dawn of agriculture.

Around the settlement, Ain Ghazal farmers raised barley, wheat, chickpeas and lentils. Other villagers would leave for months at a time to herd sheep and goats in the surrounding hills.

Sites like Ain Ghazal provide a glimpse of one of the most important transitions in human history: the moment that people domesticated plants and animals, settled down, and began to produce the kind of society in which most of us live today.

But for all that sites like Ain Ghazal have taught archaeologists, they are still grappling with enormous questions. Who exactly were the first farmers? How did agriculture, a cornerstone of civilization itself, spread to other parts of the world? [...] The New York Times


Actualización: Cómo los primeros agricultores cambiaron la historia  / Link 2 
Detrás de una pendiente rocosa en el centro de Jordania yacen los restos de un poblado de 10.000 años de antigüedad llamado Ain Ghazal, cuyos habitantes vivieron en casas de piedra con vigas de madera como techo, con paredes y pisos relucientes por el yeso blanco. 

Cientos de personas que residieron ahí acudían a rezar en santuarios circulares y elaboraban evocadoras esculturas con ojos enormes de 91 centímetros de alto. Enterraban los restos de sus seres queridos bajo el piso de sus casas y decapitaban los cuerpos para decorar el cráneo.

Pero hay otro elemento sobre Ain Ghazal que intriga aún más a los arqueólogos: fue una de las primeras poblaciones campesinas que surgieron después de los albores de la agricultura...


Actualización: vídeo relacionado. Five Statues form Ain Ghazal, Jordan
Ver en PaleoVídeos > L.R.1.12 nº 6.