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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060602/ap_on_sc/ancient_figs_2
Probably domesticated (since seedless mutant) figs found from 11,400 years ago, north of Jericho. Oldest evidence of plant domestication, predating cereals and legumes by 1000 years.
Expanding on the diptych thread: we think of the classical Greeks and Romans as the ancients, thanks to the Renaissance and lack of competition. The classicals in turn were awed by the antiquity of Egypt, and for that matter the Jews: we're 2000 AD, classical Greece was 500 BC, Egyptian records go back to 3000 BC. But domestication goes back to 9000 BC, and the oldest cities might as well. People as we know them are at least 50,000 years old (Australia being settled and cut off about 40,000 years ago) with art and musical instruments and beads to match.
So "Ancient history" (Egyptians, Sumerians) only covers the last 10%, at most, of the real history of Homo sapiens. There's 45,000 (maybe 70,000, maybe more) years of technological, cultural, and religious development behind us, with no more traces than tools, food middens, art, and maybe tally sticks -- which last might suggest astronomy was going on.
Probably domesticated (since seedless mutant) figs found from 11,400 years ago, north of Jericho. Oldest evidence of plant domestication, predating cereals and legumes by 1000 years.
Expanding on the diptych thread: we think of the classical Greeks and Romans as the ancients, thanks to the Renaissance and lack of competition. The classicals in turn were awed by the antiquity of Egypt, and for that matter the Jews: we're 2000 AD, classical Greece was 500 BC, Egyptian records go back to 3000 BC. But domestication goes back to 9000 BC, and the oldest cities might as well. People as we know them are at least 50,000 years old (Australia being settled and cut off about 40,000 years ago) with art and musical instruments and beads to match.
So "Ancient history" (Egyptians, Sumerians) only covers the last 10%, at most, of the real history of Homo sapiens. There's 45,000 (maybe 70,000, maybe more) years of technological, cultural, and religious development behind us, with no more traces than tools, food middens, art, and maybe tally sticks -- which last might suggest astronomy was going on.