European Agriculture

Zirantun

Banned
If modern humans were to enter Eurasia via the Strait of Gibraltar as opposed to the Levant, which would be blocked by a denser population of neanderthals, and agriculture got started in Western Europe (specifically Spain or Italy) instead of the Fertile Crescent, what kind of crops would we be looking at until wheat/rye/barley/oats are domesticated? The only thing native to Western Europe that I can find that remotely resembles a grain is clovers, which are lower in calories than other cereals but come with a variety of other health benefits.


Thoughts anyone?
 

Zirantun

Banned
Hmmmm... nobody interested? Is this like when I asked about Aurignacian and Mousterian tools?


Personally, I think the idea of modern humans entering Eurasia across the Strait of Gibraltar instead of the Levant to be extremely interesting. I guess most people on the forum like to stick with POD's in historical times though...
 
Perhaps more horticulture than agriculture; not so much grain as leaf and root crops? I think the Mesolithic people were heading that way.
 
Maybe europe would eat more nuts, peas, bulbs, Cabbage, Broccoli,
Typha latifolia. The British native REEDMACE is potentially one of the most productive rootcrops that can be grown. Not only that, its native habitat is marshy ground and shallow water where it makes a superb wildlife habitat. Reedmace might therefore be a productive crop in areas prone to flooding which would otherwise be difficult and expensive to protect.

The root can be eaten raw or cooked. It can be boiled and eaten like potatoes or macerated and boiled to yield sweet syrup. The root can also be dried, ground into flour and then used as a thickener in soups etc or added to cereal flours. Rich in protein, this flour is used to make biscuits etc. Yields of 3 tonnes of flour per acre are possible, which compares very favourably with wheat. The plant also has many other edible and non-edible uses that we will not enumerate here. T. angustifolia is a closely related British native plant with the same uses.
http://www.pfaf.org/user/cmspage.aspx?pageid=36
 
Last edited:

Zirantun

Banned
I hadn't thought of cattails in both Eurasia and North America. That's also a very interesting article, Belfast, thank you.


Chr92, I was able to find a number of potential leaf crops in this article, if you speak Spanish...


http://delokos.files.wordpress.com/...lvestres-comestibles-dr-cesar-lema-costas.pdf


Different varieties of wild carrots also occur in Europe, particularly in highland areas of Spain, France, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, and Germany. The carrots we have today are descended from carrots that were domesticated in Pakistan/Afghanistan. Maybe carrots get started in Europe instead?
 
There's some evidence of cattails being eaten in Europe during prehistoric times, I've thought a few times about starting a thread asking about them being cultivated or domesticated.

One interesting thing is cattails are already world wide, European explorers would find recognizable food and any domesticated versions they introduce could easily go wild.

Another advantage is it can regrow on its own if you leave some of the tubers, maybe they won't get trapped into using plants you have to replant. Less work for the farmer, but it'd probable be replaced with a different kind of tending work.
 
Last edited:
I hadn't thought of cattails in both Eurasia and North America. That's also a very interesting article, Belfast, thank you.


Chr92, I was able to find a number of potential leaf crops in this article, if you speak Spanish...


http://delokos.files.wordpress.com/...lvestres-comestibles-dr-cesar-lema-costas.pdf


Different varieties of wild carrots also occur in Europe, particularly in highland areas of Spain, France, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, and Germany. The carrots we have today are descended from carrots that were domesticated in Pakistan/Afghanistan. Maybe carrots get started in Europe instead?

I'm afraid I don't speak Spanish; but I think the carrot idea a good one.

Belfast's excellent suggestion might lead to a complex utilising fish and/or waterfowl farming?
 

Zirantun

Banned
I'm afraid I don't speak Spanish; but I think the carrot idea a good one.


Well, even as someone who does, I didn't know ANY of the names of the plants in question, so I had to run around searching them by their scientific names.


The domestication of the cattail in Europe leading to the domestication of some kind of duck/goose sounds pretty feasible as well. Chickens were first domesticated in India, so... who knows? As neanderthals will be taking up aquaculture in my timeline, I was thinking that modern humans might be confined to highland areas for a significant portion of their early history in Europe though. I had had this idea to get the chamois into the barnyard, but I'm not sure they'd go for the chamois over the ibex/mouflon. That Spanish pdf mentioned that asphodel (gamon blanco) roots can be used to make bread. Also in the article, Amaranthus blitum (Bledo), goosefoot (Cenizo), edible varieties of nightshade, purple dragon (ortiga muerta), and water pepper (pimienta acuatica). Purple dragon seeds can germinate anywhere year round, and water peppers are apparently cultivated in Japan. Of course these crops may get drowned out when the Fertile Crescent agricultural package hits, or the latter just might get integrated in. It would be interesting to see.
 
Top