Grain legumes technology transfer in Old Europe - archaecological evidence
2008
Ljuština, M., Faculty of Philosophy, Belgrade (Serbia) | Mikić, A., Institute of Field and Vegetable Crops, Novi Sad (Serbia)
Majority of the grain legume crops cultivated in Europe today originate from the Mediterranean, Near Eastern and Central Asian mega gene centers. It is generally considered that the process of domestication led to certain morphological changes in all crops, being essentially similar to the methods of contemporary plant breeding. There are three major criteria used to determine the possible domestication of grain legumes: non-dehiscent pods, larger seed size and smooth seed testa. All three characteristics are often hard to interpret and that remains the main obstacle in bringing forth the evidence that the domestication of grain legumes could predate cereals. Among the earliest findings of cultivated grain legumes is the site of Tell El-Kerkh, Syria, from 10th millenium BC, with the seeds of lentil, pea, bitter vetch, chickpea (Cicer arietinum), grass pea (Lathyrus sativus) and faba bean (Vicia faba). The spread of cultivated grain legumes in Europe was associated with the start of the agricultural revolution in the Old World, via Danube and from the Mediterranean coasts. Pea, lentil and bitter vetch were found together at numerous sites from early Neolithic, that is about 6000 BC, all over Europe. Faba bean was introduced later but became the main pulse in the Mediterranean areas. Grass pea and other vetchlings seem to have been cultivated in the Iberian Peninsula since 7500 BC. Common vetch (Vicia sativa) has been present in the Balkan agriculture at least since Eneolithic (3650-3350 BC) and subsequently, mostly by Roman conquests, was transferred northwards. Lentil was the firs grain legume that reached Armenia and Georgia, in 6th or 5th millenium BC.
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