Domestication

Wild grains were collected and eaten from at least 105,000 years ago.

However, domestication did not occur until much later.

Pigs were domesticated in Mesopotamia around 11,000 BC, followed by sheep between 11,000 BC and 9000 BC. Cattle were domesticated from the wild aurochs in the areas of modern Turkey and Pakistan (near Oxus) around 8500 BC.

Starting from around 9500 BC, the eight Neolithic founder crops – emmer wheat, einkorn wheat, hulled barley, peas, lentils, bitter vetch, chick peas, and flax – were cultivated in the Levant. Rye

Rice was domesticated in China by 6200 BC with earliest known cultivation from 5700 BC, followed by mung, soy and azuki beans.

Sugarcane and some root vegetables were domesticated in New Guinea around 7000 BC.

In the Andes of South America, the potato was domesticated between 8000 BC and 5000 BC, along with beans, coca, llamas, alpacas, and guinea pigs, proving that the tendency for farming was already present 14,000 years ago when the American indigenous split from the Asians or that it was introduced by seafaring Neolithic explorers.

Bananas were cultivated and hybridized in the same period in Papua New Guinea.

In Mesoamerica, wild teosinte was domesticated to maize by 4000 BC. Cotton was domesticated in Peru by 3600 BC. Camels were domesticated late, perhaps around 3000 BC.

The Bronze Age, from c. 3300 BC, witnessed the intensification of agriculture in civilizations such as Mesopotamian Sumer, ancient Egypt, the Indus Valley Civilisation of the Indian subcontinent, ancient China, and ancient Greece.

Throughout Egyptian history Domestication was still a relatively new invention and very prominently displayed in images of the Tamer of Beasts

Egyptians went wild with domestication and even tried to domesticate hippos, elephants and crocodiles.