title: The onset of faba bean farming in the Southern Levant.
abstract: Even though the faba bean (Vicia faba L.) is among the most ubiquitously cultivated crops, very little is known about its origins. Here, we report discoveries of charred faba beans from three adjacent Neolithic sites in the lower Galilee region, in the southern Levant, that offer new insights into the early history of this species. Biometric measurements, radiocarbon dating and stable carbon isotope analyses of the archaeological remains, supported by experiments on modern material, date the earliest farming of this crop to ~10,200 cal BP. The large quantity of faba beans found in these adjacent sites indicates intensive production of faba beans in the region that can only have been achieved by planting non-dormant seeds. Selection of mutant-non-dormant stock suggests that the domestication of the crop occurred as early as the 11(th) millennium cal BP. Plant domestication| Vicia faba L.| Pre-Pottery Neolithic B| radiocarbon dating| Δ(13)C analysis.
authors.affiliation: Max Planck-Weizmann Center for Integrative Archaeology and Anthropology, 76100, Rehovot, Israel.|D-REAMS Radiocarbon Laboratory, Weizmann Institute of Science, 76100, Rehovot, Israel.
authors.forename: Valentina
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Caracuta
authors.affiliation: Max Planck-Weizmann Center for Integrative Archaeology and Anthropology, 76100, Rehovot, Israel.|Israel Antiquities Authority, POB 586, 91400 Jerusalem, Israel.
authors.forename: Omry
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Barzilai
authors.affiliation: Israel Antiquities Authority, POB 586, 91400 Jerusalem, Israel.
authors.forename: Hamudi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Khalaily
authors.affiliation: Israel Antiquities Authority, POB 586, 91400 Jerusalem, Israel.
authors.forename: Ianir
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Milevski
authors.affiliation: Israel Antiquities Authority, POB 586, 91400 Jerusalem, Israel.
authors.forename: Yitzhak
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Paz
authors.affiliation: Israel Antiquities Authority, POB 586, 91400 Jerusalem, Israel.
authors.forename: Jacob
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Vardi
authors.affiliation: Max Planck-Weizmann Center for Integrative Archaeology and Anthropology, 76100, Rehovot, Israel.|D-REAMS Radiocarbon Laboratory, Weizmann Institute of Science, 76100, Rehovot, Israel.
authors.forename: Lior
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Regev
authors.affiliation: Max Planck-Weizmann Center for Integrative Archaeology and Anthropology, 76100, Rehovot, Israel.|D-REAMS Radiocarbon Laboratory, Weizmann Institute of Science, 76100, Rehovot, Israel.
authors.forename: Elisabetta
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Boaretto
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture; D001106:Archaeology; D001499:Bayes Theorem; D005843:Geography; D006801:Humans; D031307:Vicia faba