title: 14,000-year-old seeds indicate the Levantine origin of the lost progenitor of faba bean.
abstract: The understanding of crop domestication is dependent on tracking the original geographical distribution of wild relatives. The faba bean (Vicia faba L.) is economically important in many countries around the world; nevertheless, its origin has been debated because its ancestor could not be securely identified. Recent investigations in the site of el-Wad (Mount Carmel, Israel), provide the first and, so far, only remains of the lost ancestor of faba bean. X-ray CT scan analysis of the faba beans provides the first set of measurements of the biometry of this species before its domestication. The presence of wild specimens in Mount Carmel, 14,000 years ago, supports that the wild variety grew nearby in the Lower Galilee where the first domestication was documented for Neolithic farmers 10,200 years ago.
authors.affiliation: Max Planck-Weizmann Center for Integrative Archaeology and Anthropology, 76100 Rehovot, Israel.|D-REAMS Radiocarbon Laboratory, 76100 Rehovot, Israel.
authors.forename: Valentina
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Caracuta
authors.affiliation: Zinman Institute of Archaeology, University of Haifa, Haifa 3498838, Israel.
authors.forename: Mina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Weinstein-Evron
authors.affiliation: Zinman Institute of Archaeology, University of Haifa, Haifa 3498838, Israel.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kaufman
authors.affiliation: Zinman Institute of Archaeology, University of Haifa, Haifa 3498838, Israel.
authors.forename: Reuven
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Yeshurun
authors.affiliation: Department of Structural Biology, Weizmann Institute of Science, 76100 Rehovot, Israel.
authors.forename: Jeremie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Silvent
authors.affiliation: Max Planck-Weizmann Center for Integrative Archaeology and Anthropology, 76100 Rehovot, Israel.|D-REAMS Radiocarbon Laboratory, 76100 Rehovot, Israel.
authors.forename: Elisabetta
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Boaretto
mesh_terms: D018556:Crops, Agricultural / Q000235:genetics* / Q000266:history; D000071278:Domestication; D049690:History, Ancient; D006801:Humans; D007557:Israel; D012639:Seeds / Q000235:genetics*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D031307:Vicia faba / Q000235:genetics*