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This study aimed to reconstruct the environmental conditions and the crop management practices and plant characteristics when agriculture appeared in western Europe. We analyzed oak charcoal and a large number of cereal caryopsides recovered from La Draga (Girona, Spain), an early (5300 to 4800 cal. BC) agricultural site from the Iberian Peninsula. The carbon isotope discrimination (Δ 13 C) values of oak, the dominant forest species in the region, indicates prevalence of a wet climate at the site. Further, we reconstructed crop management conditions, achievable yield, and crop characteristics through the analysis of Δ 13 C, nitrogen isotope composition (δ 15 N), nitrogen content, and the reconstructed weight of wheat and barley caryopsides, following protocols developed by our team [Araus et al. , Nat. Commun. , 3953 (2014)] and comparison of these parameters with present-day organic agriculture in the region. In parallel, a regional perspective was achieved through the study of wheat and barley grains of seventeen Neolithic sites from the western Mediterranean. The results suggest that rather than small-garden cultivation, a more extensive agriculture was practiced under good water availability and moderate manuring. Moreover, results from La Draga evidence that grain weight and spike morphology were comparable to contemporary cereals. Growing conditions and the prevalence of improved crop traits indicate that agriculture was fairly consolidated at the time it reached the western edge of Europe.5 , 3953 (2014)] and comparison of these parameters with present-day organic agriculture in the region. In parallel, a regional perspective was achieved through the study of wheat and barley grains of seventeen Neolithic sites from the western Mediterranean. The results suggest that rather than small-garden cultivation, a more extensive agriculture was practiced under good water availability and moderate manuring. Moreover, results from La Draga evidence that grain weight and spike morphology were comparable to contemporary cereals. Growing conditions and the prevalence of improved crop traits indicate that agriculture was fairly consolidated at the time it reached the western edge of Europe., Competing Interests: Competing interests statement:The authors declare no competing interest.

Pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) is the most widely cultivated millet in Africa and India but has not yet been identified in Europe, while the earliest remains of sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) are attested in Italy in the fifth century AD. This paper presents evidence that pearl millet was introduced to Iberia during the 11th–12th centuries AD. This is the first documented evidence for this African crop in Europe. Sorghum, on the other hand, appears as a later introduction (14th century AD) in Iberia. We present archaeobotanical data from eight Andalusi sites in Valencia and Andalucía (southern Iberia) where both crops have been found. We have also examined medieval textual data where references to pearl millet appeared to be absent, and we conclude that the word "dacsa", currently used to refer to sorghum, should be understood as a reference to pearl millet. From the 16th century onwards, this term was given to maize, when the American cereal replaced the African millets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agriculture was introduced in the Iberian Peninsula in the mid-6th millennium cal BC. The first Iberian farmer communities grew seven different cereal species (hulled and free-threshing wheats and hulled and naked barley), seven legumes (broad beans, lentils, peas, grass/red pea, common vetch and bitter vetch) and two oil crops (flax and poppy). The distinct agricultural diversity from area to area gave way to a complex mosaic of regional variability. This paper aims at exploring not only the main features characterising Neolithic agriculture in Iberia, but also at delineating its variability and the underlying causes linked to numerous factors including environmental constraints, economic and social issues, and cultural traditions and their demographic movements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the new macro-botanical evidence of South-Western Asian cultivated plants from northern Moroccan Neolithic sites. Due to the reduced presence of plant remains from previous excavations in the region, archaeological evidence of agriculture is rare and the arrival of domesticated plants and the role of farming in the Early Neolithic of North Africa are still poorly understood. Here we present results of the analysis carried out in three sites recently excavated: Kaf Taht el-Ghar, Khil, and Ifri Oudadane. Charred seeds of domesticated cereals ( Triticum dicoccum , Triticum monococcum/dicoccum , Triticum durum , Triticum aestivum/durum , Hordeum vulgare , Hordeum vulgare var. nudum ) and pulses ( Lens culinaris , Pisum sativum , Vicia faba ) have been recorded in all sites analyzed. Radiocarbon dating of crop seeds indicates that farming, along animal herding and pottery, was most probably introduced in the region at the interval between 5500 and 5000 cal. BC. Absence of evidence for Neolithic farming in other regions of North-Western Africa suggests that the first crops arrived into Morocco through a maritime route, more likely from the Central or Northern Mediterranean shores. Similarities in both radiocarbon dates and crop assemblages from early Neolithic sites in Northern Morocco and the south of the Iberian Peninsula point to an almost simultaneous East to West maritime spread of agriculture along both shores of the Western Mediterranean. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The littoral site of Ifri Oudadane is one of the most important recently excavated sites in the Mediterranean Maghreb. The shelter presents Epipalaeolithic and Neolithic layers and therefore offers the possibility to investigate the Neolithic transition in the region. Besides introducing the archaeological context, this paper focuses on palaeobotanical data in order to reconstruct Holocene environmental change and human use of plant resources for the period c. 11 to 5.7 ka cal. BP. Results show intense landscape transformations resulting from anthropic and climatic factors. First human occupations start at the beginning of the Holocene with favourable conditions in this otherwise harsh semi-arid stretch of land. A wooded environment with evergreen sclerophyllous oaks and riparian forests is documented and exploited by hunter-gatherers. From c. 7.6 ka cal. BP farming activities are well attested together with significant human impact, herding pressure and a progressive decline of arboreal components. After 6.6 ka cal. BP conditions become less favourable and markers for aridity increase. Riparian taxa disappear (Alnus) or decrease (Fraxinus, Populus, Salix); shrubs (Tamarix) and grasses (Artemisia) increase with a degradation of forest into shrubland (macchia). During 6.6 and 6.0 ka cal. BP there is a general occupation gap in arid and semi-arid Morocco and evidence for that change is also found in the alluvial deposits of the Moulouya, NE Morocco. Indicators for food production decrease at the same time and the site is abandoned during the first half of the 6th millennium cal. BP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a refined Mesolithic chronocultural sequence as a result of matching data provided by the set of archaeological research conducted at Cueva de la Cocina (Valencia, Spain) in the 20th and 21st centuries and the new radiocarbon dates record. Because available data are of different quality, we apply a methodological framework based on Bayesian modelling approaches. To do this, we systematically order each one of the archaeological registers and then combine the information in a unitary general chronology. Our novel approach introduces Bayesian modelling from a double analytical procedure: using Bayesian chronological models applied to the stratigraphic sequence of Pericot's excavation in Cocina cave we build a general phase model using data from multiple years of archaeological fieldwork. One the most reliable layers have been defined, we use this information to define the rest of the sequence through a Predictive Bayesian approach. This approach sheds light on evolutionary questions from a macroscale regarding the socioecological dynamics of the last hunter-gatherers and their role for explaining the subsequent agricultural spread. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is an overview of the state of research on the process of neolithisation of the northwestern corner of Morocco. Particularly noteworthy are the recent findings of a Spanish-Moroccan team in the framework of the AGRIWESTMED project carried out between 2011 and 2013 for the most part at the caves of Magharat el-Khil (Tangier), Kaf Taht el-Ghar (Tétouan) and Ifri n'Amr or Moussa (Khemisset). These excavations brought to light occupations from the Moroccan Early Neolithic Impressed-Cardial ware complex, levels that correspond to the earliest horizon of agricultural and animal husbandry practices in the northwestern corner of Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]