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1972 Cont.
The Agriculture Revolution When and
Where?, By L.M. Young F.R.A.I.
(A brief summary)
Young points out that although the pre-dynastic cultures of Egypt at
Bardia, and Naqada go back to a period or appear to extend before 4,000 BC, and
the Mesopotamia locations of Al-Ubaid and Jamdat Nasr seem to be of a similar
period they do not explain the gap between their period and the Wall of
Jericho’s. At
"The old conception that archaeologists were insisting upon right
up until the close of the last war, of the hiatus between this epoch and the
rise of ancient civilization can be conclusively shown to have no basis of
reality. The remains of another site called Catal Huyuk dated to the last part
of the sixth millenium BC with possible extensions to an even earlier period,
can not only be shown as having been founded on an agricultural economy, but
also had an organized religion and possibly a mythology and may reflect as at
Jericho the beginnings of an Urban type civilization."
He goes on to say that most know that in order to plant safely a
calender system was usually established, but says: "As far as
archaeological evidence is concerned there is no indications of any calendrical
system of any kind beyond the limits of the ancient civilizations of Egypt,
Akkad and Sumeria. It is quite possible of course that the foundations of these
systems may extend to an earlier period of which the latter are sophisticated
versions. The circumstances that all the ancient systems of calendrical
calculation that are known to have been used, the so-called Sothic Cycle, those
of Assyria and Babylonia, all extend back to the same period, namely 11,000
BC."
"Progress has been made however and recent excavations at Chateau
neuf les Martigas (Bou ches du Rhone) and at other sites indicate that by 5,570
BC, +, - 240 years (carbon 14 dating) farming communities were fringing the
French Mediterranean coast and are distinguished by varieties of decorated and
undecorated pottery. One type, sherds impressed by the cardium technique
appears to have been particularly obtrusive. Assemblages in Brittany appear to
be according to the carbon dating nearly a millenium later but it must be
assumed as indeed the foregoing archaeological evidence testifies that its
antecedents are a great deal older in time. Substantiating this conclusion is
the circumstances that farming in Brittany was apparently contemporary with the
appearance of the megalithic monuments whose erection Renfrew contends and
certainly many carbon 14 dating supports this assertion, was commenced in the
area by at least 4,000 BC and possibly as the evidence suggests even much
earlier. Furthermore as Professor Thom and Hawkins have clearly demonstrated
these architectural remains were in many instances designed for the calendrical
though possibly also of ancillary religious purposes." He goes on to say
that it would have taken a considerable amount of time for calculations to be
reached in regards to monuments before being conceived to be layed out.
"It would seem that as far as Europe and the Middle East are
concerned, Mellaart’s remarks that ideas concerning the incidences of
agriculture will have to be revised has justification and chronological
boundaries as the result of further studies will be found to stretch well into
prehistory. But though the period at present established for the domestication
of plants in the Middle East which it is suggested took place somewhere within
the periphery of the mountains area of Anatolia, has a much greater antiquity
than was considered even probable in the early part of this century. It no
longer can be regarded without challenge, as being the region possessing the
oldest indications of agricultural process." He then points out the
prehistory of South East Asia is measured differently to that of the Middle
East: "Two sites which have been excavated in the lower basin of the
Mekong River situated in Northern Thailand, one a prehistoric mound called Non
Tok Thu, and the other in the Northeast corner of Thailand called Spirit cave
have yielded results indicating that the cultivation of plants in then area has
an extremely long history. The uppermost strata of Non Tok Thu contained a few
iron implements and numerous remains of individuals cremated before burial.
Below this level were earlier graves whose occupants had not been cremated
including various articles of funerary objects. Amongst them were stone molds
for casting, bronze axes and ax blades and other bronze objects and polished
stone tools. There was also some pottery but apparently undecorated. In the
lowest levels of the site we found still more polished stone tools and a few
specimens of decorated pottery which bore the imprint of cereal grains which
eventually were proved to have been ‘oryza sativ’ the common species of rice
that is grown throughout Asia. Subsequent carbon 14 dates have yielded
indications that these lowest levels were at least over 3,000 BC. A burial
dated to 4,000 BC containing a copper socketed implement demonstrated that a
people using domesticated animals together with agriculture and metallurgy had
flourished as early as fifth century BC. Excavations at the other site Spirit
Cave which was found to be last occupied about 5,600 BC and the levels underlying
this exceeding another 4,000 years, would suggest that the earliest strata was
formed in 10,000 BC. The artifacts from all these occupation levels (except for
the last 1200 years or so) proved to be very much the same, simple stone tools
representative of a South Asian hunter culture called Hoabinhian, first found
in caves in North Vietnam." He goes onto say that this is not the complete
picture because this culture it was also found to have rectangular stone Adzes
with partially polished surfaces and knives made by grinding both sides of a
flat piece of slate to form a wedge shaped cutting edge first make their
appearance. "Tools such as these are unknown at present anywhere on the
mainland of Southeast Asia at such an early period for this culture reckoned by
the excavators to have reached Spirit Cave at about 7,000 BC. Such exceptional
fashioned artifacts must be conceived as having its origin in one distinct
center and consisting an industry that had made considerable technological
advances towards civilization. It is very probable that the site of Non Tok and
Spirit Cave are peripheral sites and only received the foregoing in a
adulterated form. From the excavation trench were recovered the fragmentary
remains of 10 separate plant genera all of which are edible, including the
betel, and other nuts, a species of cucumber, a bottle gourd and certain kinds
of legumes, the pea and soya beans. Some of the remains were present at all
levels of the site and if cultivated, a question that still is undecided until
after the analytical report and if not picked wild, it presents an endeavor in
farming dating 12000 years before present. Agriculture in America prior to the
Spanish Conquest was centered on maize (Zea mays) though plant cultivation
extended to some other cereals and legumes, especially among the advanced
civilizations of Meso-America and South America. But it is corn which
constituted the stable diet and had the same role as the wheat’s in Europe and
Middle East, and rice in India and the Far East." He goes onto say great
debates as to corn origin has been leveled, and says: "This proved to be a
complex problem since it w soon recognized that the plant was a hybrid, which
cannot propagate without human intervention which must warrant a conclusion, that
at some point this important cereal must have wild ancestors. Therefore it was
suggested that corn resulted from a cross between two grasses and two species
resembling corn namely Tripsacum, and Teosinte which are both native to
Meso-America and more particularly to Mexico. Because of this circumstance and
that this area and the one adjoining it, was one of the principle centers of
pre-Columbian aboriginal culture, the Americanist H. J. Spinden, postulated
that this was the area where the corn had been derived and first cultivated.
Much later in time two other botanists Weatherwax and Mangelsdorf showed that
teosinte itself was a hybrid, a cross of tripsacum (a weed) with the cultivated
plant. The prevalence of teosinte is in itself a significant factor generally
overlooked. Did at some stage in Mexico or Central America, agriculture
languish, the tripsacum invading the cultivated areas, amalgamate with the corn
ensuring its survival in a degenerate form? There is still remained the
possibility that maize had originated outside of the American continent as some
Asiatic areas had a limited distribution. Had the plant been brought across the
Pacific or the knowledge of agriculture that enabled it to be cultivated in the
Americas," "Mangelsdorf considered only archaeology could provide the
answer. Unusual as this might appear this was in fact carried out and botanists
were attached to archaeological expeditions." "Finally this measure
yielded results amid the lowest layer at a site called Bat Cave, situated on
the fringe of Middle America in a remote area of New Mexico, corn cobs
possessing the characteristics of what wild corn should possess. Details of
that human occupation as at Spirit Cave extend back at least 12000 years,
though the cobs mentioned in the above paragraph are dated to 7,500 BC. There
are indications though more evidence will have to be evaluated that from the
beginning, a kind of intermittent agriculture was practiced, perhaps by the
womenfolk while the hunters sought their game. The possibility that these were
peripheral cultures as in the instance of Spirit Cave has not yet been
considered though the foregoing cannot be overlooked. But one circumstance is
to be discerned quite clearly. The beginning of agriculture in three areas of
continental dimensions appears to have commenced at the same period, namely
around 7,000 BC with blurred extensions into a remoter time. It is to be
assumed that through ecological circumstances humanity in three different areas
of the Earth’s surface, suddenly and spontaneously turned towards the
cultivation of edible plants for sources food after for thousands of years
subsisting on meat and fish. Or is it to be proposed that there is a connection
which has not yet emerged, two coincidences can be accepted as probable, can
three?" He basically concludes that more evidence needs to come in.
Wemaster Notes- This above shows the gap still in science that needs
to be asserted as to be overly low in their speculation of in the years as to
the distribution of agriculture. I would think that the starting point or
average will end up being at least 10,000 BC and that this means climatic
changes and the depletion of larger animals by 15,000 BC had caused more
attention to fishing as another source for the replacement of the larger mammal
extinction’s. It may also be contended that around this period a warming trend
was occurring and droughts were also occurring. This caused the game to go
along the coasts of Africa, and then the worst imaginable thing happened a
great flood caused a disaster on a scale that decimated what large game was
left for man to hunt. This left no alternative depending where one lived i.e.
dead fish floating on to the shores after the great tragedy was safer in some
cases to eat then dead drowned mammals. And since the fish was lighter to float
easier to access. The grain eating was a by product of a drought condition when
a dog grazing on grass seemed healthy enough for man to consider to eat grass
just the same. But this takes away the very unusual occurrence that had
occurred at this time of an agriculture deity, Alien or Foreign Scientist who
upon arriving decides to help man out by his exemplifying the reason for flood.
Who orders that man was to move away from meat as a stable of diet since it could
not procure all the dietary needs of mammals due to their post flood depletion.
It would seem at this time waterfowl and chickens arrive into domesticated use,
as a backup food source for many boats with humans surviving the flood would
have some fowl onboard. On these Argo Noah ships it would have in a similar
fashion some edible doves or quail on board for the eggs or the bird itself.
This has one correlative point found only in looking at the Chippewa Indian
practices where Wild Rice is gathered in a kind of cultivated seasonal form,
and that it is placed in a marshy region of the Lakes in the USA. So, in many
places we find the experiment first occurs in marshy regions of coastal
countries where wild and domesticated waterfowl occur eating these said various
grasses. They then move inward and usually with exceptions of Noah off of an
Arrat Mountain bringing some grain to sow. Even then he had to plant it down in
the valley near the nearest river plain. This means that all three regions of
the grain starting points are either near major mountains, or coastal marshes
and not of the plains immediately in grain cultivation. This would seem to
contradict the Fertile Crescent notion, which was a after thought of marsh reed
grass grain like plants which were cultivated earlier. This means that Atlantis
would be in a perfect position to explore such cultivation’s a good example is
Wild Sea Oats along the coast of Florida considered endangered botanical yet
not directly oat plant edible grain itself. Or like asparagus as having plant
of marshy aquatic dimensions or like marsh rice a miniaturized cattail reed
plant. The Egyptians have even stated that certain Papyrus plants were edible.
We could say the whole of the Atlantis food source would be a cross between Japanese
interest in kelp or algae all the way up to marsh cultivation of rice or reed
plants in Spain and Southern France. They were near the end of Atlantis
interested in the interactions of birds and fish with the interaction of what
dogs or cats did in regards to these environments. We have evidence of this in
Egyptian religion, and in Western Europe cult practices. The region of Atlantis
must have had many deltas and marshy regions judging by the degree of interest
in marine life and its interactions with the marshy botanical regions. We may
want to speculate that the first cultivators of the moving of palm trees into
different regions of different varieties may come in the end from an Atlantean
idea which explains why the Phoenicians identified with it symbolically like
the Egyptians. Outside of this I could no further speculate, but I do know that
I am probably one of the first to put forward some of these associations
brought in this all together in one theory.
Atlanteans according to Cayce practiced hybridization of plants which
looks to be very plausible considering cross-breeding of bottle gourds and what
the difference is between Maize of France and true corn of Meso-America either
way the idea crossed at a very remote antiquity whether our Atlantis even
existed or not? Is the Cuba underwater find a grain moving system of Maize to
pre-Phoenician France, or is it a way point for the meeting of the Far East
with the last visage of Western Europe’s post Atlanteans? In which case the
Basque would be the next to fit in, and a date of around 6,000 BC would well
fit in when this cross breeding occurred in the Americas. It is clear it
probably happened much earlier in the form of escaping colonists from Atlantis
into South America and Central America as well as North America at different
periods. In this case as far as agriculture goes the idea is in this regard set
perfectly before 6,000 BC since we have already proven agriculture is a
pre-7,000 BC event! So, we may want to look at the information in this light, a
series of satellite stations of grain development was established and brought
with temples and the calendars by 10,000-7,000 BC which marks out why major
grain bearing Delta’s were chosen for civilization. And why the first sacred
mounds were placed because they were the first agriculture universities as
noted by centered agriculture points on each major continent. This could only
be procured in one cultural dynamic i.e. Basque-Atlanteans experts in
navigation i.e. the pre-Phoenician’s of the sea.
I hope you all of the scientists and readers enjoyed this conclusion
because Tartessos as map makers were not a joke, and I am so proposing so do
note where you got this information to my credit, as that is only fair. Sinc.
Webmaster-D. Clarke
c. Aug. 15th 2002
A Letter from Donnelly, By L.M. Young 1972 cont.
