[HN Gopher] Ancient Mesopotamian discovery transforms knowledge ...
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Ancient Mesopotamian discovery transforms knowledge of early
farming
Author : rustoo
Score : 49 points
Date : 2022-01-12 13:18 UTC (9 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.rutgers.edu)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.rutgers.edu)
| h2odragon wrote:
| Doesn't the presence of uniform "bullhide" copper ingots at
| prehistoric sites testify to widespread trade already? Folks
| running metals all over the world were likely not _just_ carrying
| the ingots.
| ebe1e95d8942 wrote:
| Regional and wider exchange networks had existed in that region
| for several thousand years before millet is now believed to
| have been cultivated. The transformational nature of this
| discovery has more to do with our understanding of farming
| practices. As stated in the article, this site precedes the
| earliest known site where millet was presumably cultivated in
| that region by 500-1000 years.
|
| If you read the publication linked there is a lot of textual
| evidence for millet production that goes back into the 3rd
| millenium B.C.E. The transformation here has largely to do with
| new methods of discovering what crops were grown where, and a
| shift in our understanding.
| someone7x wrote:
| None of those words (bullhide, copper, and ingot) even appear
| in the article. What do they have to with growing millet in the
| Sumerian summers?
| nescioquid wrote:
| The date range given for the discovery (1500-1100 BCE) is
| fairly late, coming after the Old Babylonian era (1900-1600).
| Probably by around the time of the first extant writing (3200 -
| 3000) from Sumer, there were trade networks importing
| carnelian, lapis lazuli, and other materials not found in the
| region.
|
| I don't think the interest here is the implication of developed
| trade networks at that time, but rather that the millet was
| found at all and what that says about the agricultural
| practices. For thousands of years, people wrote on clay tables
| with styli made from reeds, yet we've never actually found such
| a stylus or know precisely how they were made.
| jtbayly wrote:
| Meaning, the grain could have been imported?
| thaumasiotes wrote:
| Land transport of grain is unlikely. Marine or riverine
| transport was common in history; you'd have to make some kind
| of evaluation as to how likely it was in the prehistoric
| region in question. But assuming it was happening, you still
| have some sharp restrictions on where it could have come
| from.
| jessaustin wrote:
| Nobody got from China to Mesopotamia by canoe. Lots of
| goods were transported by caravan overland, and that
| certainly included seeds that could be planted to grow
| useful crops.
| ozten wrote:
| To go deeper into a reexamination of the archeological record and
| challenging our Euro-centric and agro-civilization centric
| narratives, check out The Dawn of Everything: A New History of
| Humanity by David Graeber[1]
|
| [1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56269264-the-dawn-of-
| eve...
| culi wrote:
| David Graeber and David Wengrow*
|
| In particular, their theory of "play farming", that many
| societies around the world experimented with going in and out
| of agricultural societies, is relevant.
| stellcorn wrote:
| I was taken aback by the photo that I have seen on the page, and
| it seems that it looks so wonderful to take a good look at the
| crops at the aerial view.
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(page generated 2022-01-12 23:02 UTC)