Note:  The portion of the Mediterranean-Aegean area that is considered by some to be a food production hearth is southeast Europe, including Greece, Crete and Aegean islands, and the Balkans.  Food production spread through the Mediterranean and through rest of Europe from here.
 

GENERAL TRENDS

1.  food production was an indigenous development (in some places) coupled with some influence from the Near East

2.  animals and plants were domesticated at about the same time

3.  possible indigenous development of plow, or it spread from the Near East

4.  there were three phases of development in shift from food collection to food production:

• experimentation with wheat and barley as these plants became more abundant by natural processes

• wider use of cereal grasses and animals as humans impacted the sequence of forest succession

• permanent agricultural settlements based on wheat cultivation, especially varieties introduced from the Near East

ANIMAL DOMESTICATES

most important were cattle, sheep, goats, pig; also dog

earliest evidence of domesticated cattle, sheep and pigs is about 7000 B.C. from Argissa-Maghula in Greece

earliest evidence of domesticated goats is about 6000 BC from Franchti Cave in Greece

Domesticated cattle, domesticated pig, and clay effigy of pig from Greece.

PLANT DOMESTICATES

most important were wheat and barley, olive, grape

also fig (fruit), flax and millet (cereal grains), lentils and fava beans (legumes)

earliest evidence of domesticated wheat and barley is about 7000 B.C. from Argissa-Maghula in Greece

earliest evidence of domesticated lentils is 7000 BC at Franchti Cave and 6000-5800 BC from Grotta dell’Uzzo in Sicily

earliest evidence of domesticated millet is about 3500 BC

olive and grape were used to make oil and wine, respectively, which were stored in pottery vessels called amphorae (singular is amphora); amphorae had two handles and often had tapering bases, which required storage by hanging or using a stand

Olives, grapes, and mphora in stand.

FOOD PRODUCTION

may be as early as 6000 BC

if this early date is correct, may be quickest rate of change in Old World from food collection to food production (from the time the first domesticates are evidenced to the time people became reliant on domesticates)

spreads from southeast Europe into rest of Europe:

clear evidence that farming and herding are well established in Greece by 6000-5500 BC

Mediterranean coast by 5000 BC

central and eastern Europe by 5300-4000 BC

to northwest Europe by 3500 BC

Diffusion of food production from Aegean
into rest of Europe.

some archaeologists have suggested that wheat use spreads from southeast Europe into Indus Valley
 

REFERENCES

Price and Feinman (2001), Feder (2000), Fagan (2002), Dennell (1983)