Fig 1.
Map showing locations of archaeological sites with present-day major rainfall isohyets (mm per annum).
Sites: A = Assiros Toumba, C = Çatalhöyük, F = Khirbet Fâris, G = Ain Ghazal, N = TellNebi Mend, H = Abu Hureyra, B = Tell Brak, M = Tell Madhur and S = Abu Salabikh. Shaded reliefbasemap used by permission. Copyright © 2009 Esri. All rights reserved. Rainfall data derived fromBioclim records for ~1950–2000 [79].
Table 1.
Archaeological site information.
Fig 2.
Δ¹³C results for cereal grains.
Dashed lines indicate the suggested 'boundaries' betweenΔ¹³C ranges indicative of crops grown under poorly (low Δ¹³C), moderately, and well (high Δ¹³C) watered conditions, based on the analysis of present-day crops [10]. For wheat, this is based on free-threshing wheat, for barley on the mean values for two‐ and six‐row barley. Bars indicate means and standard deviations. ○ = glume wheat, ● = free threshing wheat, ◇ = two-row barley, ◆ = six-row barley, and ◈ = two/six-row barley.
Table 2.
∆¹³C results.
Fig 3.
∆¹³C results for cereals grains from Tell Brak samples grouped by chronological period.
Bars indicate means and standard deviations. ○ = glume wheat and ◇ = barley.
Fig 4.
Dashed lines indicate the suggested 'boundaries' between ∆¹³C ranges indicative of lentils grown under poorly (low ∆¹³C), moderately, and well (high ∆¹³C) watered conditions, based on the analysis of present-day crops [15]. ● = lentil (Lens culinaris), ◆ = pea (Pisum sativum), ▲ = bitter vetch (Vicia ervilia).
Fig 5.
Difference between mean ∆¹³C for barley grain and mean ∆¹³C for wheat grain at each site.
Dashed lines indicate the ∆¹³C difference predicted if two-row barley (at +1‰) or six-row barley (at +2‰) were grown with the same water availability as wheat, based on the analysis of present-day crops [15].