Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

ARCHAEOLOGY

A model of agricultural origins

Agriculture is one of the key innovations of human societies, yet the nature of and reasons for its emergence are debated. A new model that hindcasts past global population suggests that an improving climate increased plant productivity and human population density, facilitating domestication.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Known or likely centres of plant domestication.

References

  1. Larson, G. et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 111, 6139–6146 (2014).

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Richerson, P. J., Boyd, R. & Bettinger, R. L. Am. Antiq. 66, 387–411 (2001).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Cohen, M. N. Food Crisis in Prehistory: Overpopulation and the Origins of Agriculture (Yale Univ. Press, New Haven, CT, 1977).

  4. Piperno, D. R. Curr. Anthropol. 52, S453–S470 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Zeder, M. A. & Smith, B. D. Curr. Anthropol. 50, 681–691 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Kavanagh, P. H. et al. Nat. Hum. Behav. https://doi.org/10.1038/018-0358-8 (2018).

  7. Climate models. Climate.gov https://www.climate.gov/maps-data/primer/climate-models (2018).

  8. Weitzel, E. L. & Codding, B. F. R. Soc. Open Sci. 3, 160319–16030 (2016).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  9. Cunniff, J., Charles, M., Jones, G. & Osborne, C. P. Environ. Archaeol. 15, 113–123 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Piperno, D. R., Holst, I., Winter, K. & McMillan, O. Quat. Int. 363, 65–77 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Dolores R. Piperno.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The author declares no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Piperno, D.R. A model of agricultural origins. Nat Hum Behav 2, 446–447 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-018-0390-8

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-018-0390-8

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing Anthropocene

Sign up for the Nature Briefing: Anthropocene newsletter — what matters in anthropocene research, free to your inbox weekly.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing: Anthropocene