The World’s Oldest Fertilizer?

Europe’s first farmers spread across the continent, bringing with them the benefits of having
food sources readily available, at least most of the time.  But farming drains nutrients from the
soil, and without some means of replenishing those nutrients, eventually the soil wears out and
must be abandoned.


Up till now, the use of manure as fertilizer was thought to have begun about 3,000 years ago.
Now a new discovery indicates that farmers were using manure to fertilize their crops about
8,000 years ago. 

A team led by University of Oxford archaeobotanist Amy Bogaard sampled grains and pulses
such as peas and lentils from sites all over Europe and ranging in age from 7900 to 4400 years
old.  They were looking for the rare isotope nitrogen-15, which occurs in significantly higher
than normal quantities in manure.

The team studied 124 crop samples from 13 farming sites ranging in age from approximately
4400 to 7900 years and located in areas across Europe, such as Greece in the southeast and
Denmark in the northwest.  The team analyzed 124 crop samples and found that nitrogen levels
in all those samples were unusually high for wild grains, but consistent with results found in
plants which had been treated with animal fertilizer. 

There are at least two plausible theories to explain how the ancient farmers learned to fertilize
their fields.  One is based on the idea that observant farmers realized that seeds spread in areas
where a relatively heavy presence of animal fertilizer grew faster and stronger.  From those
observations, the farmers might originally have practiced a sort of “crop rotation,” moving their
animals and gardens every few years.  In other cases, once they discovered that manure
improved their crops, farmers might have deliberately saved the manure and worked it into their
garden soils.

No matter how they discovered the use of fertilizer, early farmers were able to extend the life of
their land, which allowed them to remain on the same land for a longer time.  This new
sedentary lifestyle permitted the development of larger families and social groups.  New
technologies, such as the expanded use of grain storage, seed development, and even cooking
techniques were made possible as farming lifestyles spread and became more sophisticated. 

Fertilizer is more important than many people may think it is.  Without it, farmers could not
produce the prolific crops that keep us all fed.  The need to periodically abandon unproductive
fields would limit the size of farms, and in areas all around the world, the abandoned land would
be subject to the devastating effects of windstorms and floods which create deserts and
unproductive badlands.  We should be grateful to those innovative farmers who discovered
fertilizer all those years ago.

There’s more information on the first fertilizers here:

The World’s Oldest Noodles

It has long been argued that noodles originated in Arabia, or maybe Italy, or maybe even China.  So the discovery of the world’s oldest noodles in China certainly tilts the argument in favor of that ancient country.

Something really bad happened at Lajia on the Yellow River about 4,000 years ago.  Archaeologists excavating the ancient site discovered skeletons in abnormal positions which indicated they were attempting to flee some sort of disaster. Some experts believe there was a catastrophic earthquake followed by a massive flood, possibly caused by a change in a nearby river’s course.

Archaeologists investigating the site found an earthenware bowl filled with a brownish-yellow, fine clay.  They turned it over and found the noodles sitting on top of the sediment.

The noodles resemble the traditional Chinese noodle made by repeatedly pulling and stretching the dough by hand.  But unlike modern noodles, which are made of wheat flour, these noodles appear to have been made with millet, a grain native to China.

The oldest written record mentioning noodles has been traced to a book written between 25 and 220 AD during the East Han Dynasty.

There’s more information and a photo of the ancient noodles here: 

The World's Oldest Rice

At the age of 15,000 years, a few grains of burned rice in Korea are now recognized as the
world’s oldest rice. Since scientists have long believed they would find the oldest rice in China,
this discovery came as a bit of a surprise.

Prior to this discovery, experts believed that rice cultivation began about 12,000 years ago in
China. The Korean discovery pushes back the earliest date for rice cultivation by at least 3,000
years.

A total of 59 grains of carbonized rice was found during excavations at Sorori in the Chungbuk
Province. Their age alone was enough to generate a great deal of excitement, but there was
more. The ancient grains are generally different from modern rice.  This will allow researchers
to trace its evolution.  Results of this research may provide insight not into the history of rice,
but may provide clues to the diet and lifestyles of the people who grew and harvested it.

Rice is one of the most valuable foods in the world. More than half the world’s population depends heavily on rice for their primary caloric intake.  More than 575 million tons were grown in 2002.

For more on this story, go here

The World’s Oldest Man-Made Wells

here    Six Neolithic wells on the island of Cyprus has changed our view of life on the island and eclipsed the
previous oldest wells by hundreds, or perhaps thousands of years.     

    The wells were found inside and around a new hotel complex being built at Mylouthkia.  They appeared as circles of dark soil, or in some cases as long columns of soil where their stone sidewalls were quarried away. Researchers originally thought they were the remains of shallow pits dated only to the Bronze Age.
   
    Archaeologist Paul Croft described how the shafts had been cut with antler picks and that hand- and foot-
holds still survived in their walls for climbing up and down.  (101)

    Excavators found that the wells had been dug more than 30 feet into the soft rock using deer antler picks.
Hand- and footholds used for climbing up and down were discovered in each well.  The wells had been deliberately filled in, and the debris contained Neolithic artifacts, but no pottery.  Charred grains of domestic wheat and barley were found and radiocarbon dating confirmed their early Neolithic age.  Those early dates also pushed back the age of the first farming practices in Cyprus by at least 2,000 years.

    One of the wells contained fragments of stone vessels,  hammer-stones and flint flakes that may have come from a trash dump located a short distance from the well.  Yet another, however, appeared to have been ceremonially covered.  A carefully positioned human skull, along with a mace head made of polished pink stone was accompanied by 23 complete goat carcasses. 

    Some experts believe that crops and cultivation techniques used on the island may indicate that they were
originally brought there from the Levantine mainland.  Other settlers may have brought farming to other areas around the Mediterranean and it continued to spread from there throughout southern Europe and eastern regions. 

    Mylouthkia may well prove to be an important stop on the route to spreading farming techniques and crops throughout Europe. 


If you’re interested in more technical information, go here: