Agricultural Changes at Euphrates and Steppe Sites in the Mid-8th to the 6th Millennium B.C.

This study investigates questions about the nature and extent of early agriculture, by examining plant remains recovered from several sites. Chapters look at evidence, or lack of evidence for intensification of food gathering, reconstruction of the past environment of the study region, and the archaeobotanical data from the three main sites investigated: Cafer Hoyuek in southeast Turkey, Abu Hureya in noethern Syria, both on the Euphrates, and a steppe site in the El Kowm basin in Syria. Moulin concludes that the data can only offer tentative evidence for intensification of agricultural activity, but regional differences were clearly visible.