Five tenth millennium sites under study, and experimental cultivation of wild progenitors at Jalès in southern France.

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Dja'dé (early PPNB 9500 -9000 BP non cal.) Excavator E.Coqueugniot, over 200 samples now under study. For preliminary results see Willcox 1996, for photos of some of the plant remains from  Dja'dé see images and for the archaeology see links Dja'dé web site.

Northern Syria

Tell Qaramel (10200- 9500 BP non cal.) Excavator Ryszard Mazurowski, Warsaw University.

Cyprus

Shillourokambos Late tenth early ninth millennium site. Excavator J. Guilaine. For photos see links Shillourokambos and for preliminary archaeobotanical results Willcox 2000.

Damascus

Aswad. In 2001 D. Stordeur started new area excavations at the site of Aswad where two small stondages were dug by H. de Contenson over thirty years ago. This site is very rich in charred remains and already a considerable quantity of plant remains have been recovered. So far the new results confirm those found by W. van Zeist. Fig and flax appear at the end of the tenth millennium PB.

Wetland plants associated with the ancient lake are very common, these include Phragmites, Scirpus, Typha, Tamarix, Juncus, Fraxinus, Populus and Charophytes such as Nitella and Chara. Ducks, geese, cranes and fish bones were also common, suggesting the lake played an important role in the local economy.

At our centre in southern France we have been growing the wild progenitors of einkorn, emmer and barley since 1986 (for images of wild cereals in their natural habitat see wild progenitors). The aim was to establish how long it would take for morphological domestication to occur. Our conclusions are that if rigorous farming practices are adhered to, then the domestication process could proceed rapidly. However under conditions which more closely mimic early farming, where wild populations and crops were constantly in contact, selection for morphological domestication could take millennia rather than centuries (see Willcox 1999).