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.

  • Article
  • Published:

Isotope evidence for agricultural extensification reveals how the world's first cities were fed

Nature Plants volume 3, Article number: 17076 (2017) Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

This study sheds light on the agricultural economy that underpinned the emergence of the first urban centres in northern Mesopotamia. Using δ13C and δ15N values of crop remains from the sites of Tell Sabi Abyad, Tell Zeidan, Hamoukar, Tell Brak and Tell Leilan (6500–2000 cal bc), we reveal that labour-intensive practices such as manuring/middening and water management formed an integral part of the agricultural strategy from the seventh millennium bc. Increased agricultural production to support growing urban populations was achieved by cultivation of larger areas of land, entailing lower manure/midden inputs per unit area—extensification. Our findings paint a nuanced picture of the role of agricultural production in new forms of political centralization. The shift towards lower-input farming most plausibly developed gradually at a household level, but the increased importance of land-based wealth constituted a key potential source of political power, providing the possibility for greater bureaucratic control and contributing to the wider societal changes that accompanied urbanization.

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

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

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

Figure 1: Geographical location of the study area.
Figure 2: Modern cereal grain δ15N values plotted against the natural log of mean annual rainfall, colour coded by manuring level.
Figure 3: Archaeological cereal grain sample δ15N values plotted against date.
Figure 4: The probability of an archaeological cereal grain sample having a manuring level m or lower plotted against site size.
Figure 5: Archaeological cereal grain and pulse sample Δ13C values plotted against date.
Figure 6: Human and faunal bone collagen and crop δ13C and δ15N values plotted in relation to ellipses representing the expected distributions (mean ± 2 s.d.) of δ13C and δ15N values of individuals consuming various dietary combinations of cereal grains, pulses and animal products (milk and/or meat).

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Trigger, B. Understanding Early Civilizations: A Comparative Study (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2003).

    Google Scholar 

  2. Wilkinson, T. J. et al. Contextualizing early urbanization: settlement cores, early states and agro-pastoral strategies in the Fertile Crescent during the fourth and third millennia bc. J. World Prehistory 27, 43–109 (2014).

    Google Scholar 

  3. Marcus, J. & Stanish, C. Agricultural Strategies (Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, 2006).

    Google Scholar 

  4. Adams, R. Heartland of Cities: Surveys of Ancient Settlement and Land Use On the Central Floodplain at the Euphrates (Univ. Chicago Press, 1981).

    Google Scholar 

  5. Algaze, G. Initial social complexity in southwestern Asia: the Mesopotamian advantage. Curr. Anthropol. 42, 199–233 (2001).

    Google Scholar 

  6. Sherratt, A. Water, soil and seasonality in early cereal cultivation. World Archaeol. 11, 313–330 (1980).

    Google Scholar 

  7. Ur, J. & Colantoni, C. in Inside Ancient Kitchens: New Directions in the Study of Daily Meals and Feasts (ed. Klarich, E. ) 55–82 (Univ. Press Colorado, 2010).

    Google Scholar 

  8. Wilkinson, T. J. The structure and dynamics of dry-farming states in upper Mesopotamia [and comments and reply]. Curr. Anthropol. 35, 483–520 (1994).

    Google Scholar 

  9. Weiss, H. Excavations at Tell Leilan and the origins of north Mesopotamian cities in the third millennium B.C. Paléorient 9, 39–52 (1983).

    Google Scholar 

  10. Weiss, H. in The Origins of Cities in Dry-Farming Syria and Mesopotamia in the Third Millennium B.C. (ed. Weiss, H. ) 71–108 (Four Quarters Publishing, 1986).

    Google Scholar 

  11. Morrison, K. D. The intensification of production: archaeological approaches. J. Archaeol. Method The. 1, 111–159 (1994).

    Google Scholar 

  12. Boserup, E. The Conditions of Agricultural Growth (Aldine Publishing, 1965).

    Google Scholar 

  13. Halstead, P. Plough and power: the economic and social significance of cultivation with the ox-drawn ard in the Mediterranean. Bull. Sumer. Agric. 8, 11–22 (1995).

    Google Scholar 

  14. Wilkinson, T. J. The definition of ancient manured zones by means of extensive sherd-sampling techniques. J. Field Archaeol. 9, 323–333 (1982).

    Google Scholar 

  15. Wilkinson, T. J. Linear hollows in the Jazira, Upper Mesopotamia. Antiquity 67, 548–562 (1993).

    Google Scholar 

  16. Wilkinson, T. J., French, C., Ur, J. A. & Semple, M. The geoarchaeology of route systems in northern Syria. Geoarchaeology 25, 745–771 (2010).

    Google Scholar 

  17. Peukert, S. et al. Understanding spatial variability of soil properties: a key step in establishing field- to farm-scale agro-ecosystem experiments. Rapid Commun. Mass Spectrom. 26, 2413–2421 (2012).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  18. Fraser, R. A. et al. Manuring and stable nitrogen isotope ratios in cereals and pulses: towards a new archaeobotanical approach to the inference of land use and dietary practices. J. Archaeol. Sci. 38, 2790–2804 (2011).

    Google Scholar 

  19. Styring, A. K. et al. Disentangling the effect of farming practice from aridity on crop stable isotope values: a present-day model from Morocco and its application to early farming sites in the eastern Mediterranean. Anthr. Rev. 3, 2–22 (2016).

    Google Scholar 

  20. Szpak, P. Complexities of nitrogen isotope biogeochemistry in plant-soil systems: implications for the study of ancient agricultural and animal management practices. Plant Physiol. 5, 288 (2014).

    Google Scholar 

  21. Halstead, P. Traditional and ancient rural economy in Mediterranean Europe: plus ça change? J. Hell. Stud. 107, 77–87 (1987).

    Google Scholar 

  22. Farquhar, G. D., Ehleringer, J. R. & Hubick, K. T. Carbon isotope discrimination and photosynthesis. Annu. Rev. Plant Physiol. Plant Mol. Biol. 40, 503–537 (1989).

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  23. Lawrence, D. & Wilkinson, T. J. Hubs and upstarts: pathways to urbanism in the northern Fertile Crescent. Antiquity 89, 328–344 (2015).

    Google Scholar 

  24. Erickson, C. L. in Agricultural Strategies (eds Marcus, J. & Stanish, C. ) 334–363 (Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, 2006).

    Google Scholar 

  25. Handley, L. L. et al. The 15N natural abundance (δ15N) of ecosystem samples reflects measures of water availability. Funct. Plant Biol. 26, 185–199 (1999).

    Google Scholar 

  26. Hartman, G. & Danin, A. Isotopic values of plants in relation to water availability in the Eastern Mediterranean region. Oecologia 162, 837–852 (2010).

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  27. Bogaard, A. et al. Crop manuring and intensive land management by Europe's first farmers. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 110, 12589–12594 (2013).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  28. Bogaard, A. et al. Combining functional weed ecology and crop stable isotope ratios to identify cultivation intensity: a comparison of cereal production regimes in Haute Provence, France and Asturias, Spain. Veg. Hist. Archaeobotany 25, 57–73 (2016).

    Google Scholar 

  29. Hijmans, R. J., Cameron, S. E., Parra, J. L., Jones, P. G. & Jarvis, A. Very high resolution interpolated climate surfaces for global land areas. Int. J. Climatol. 25, 1965–1978 (2005).

    Google Scholar 

  30. Little, R. J. A. & Rubin, D. B. Bayes and Multiple Imputation (John Wiley & Sons, 2002).

    Google Scholar 

  31. Finlay, J. C. & Kendall, C. in Stable Isotopes in Ecology and Environmental Science (eds Michener, R. & Lajtha, K. ) 283–333 (Blackwell Publishing, 2008).

    Google Scholar 

  32. Hald, M. M. A Thousand Years of Farming: Late Chalcolithic Agricultural Practices at Tell Brak in Northern Mesopotamia (Archaeopress, 2008).

    Google Scholar 

  33. Ur, J. A., Karsgaard, P. & Oates, J. The spatial dimensions of early Mesopotamian urbanism: the Tell Brak suburban survey, 2003–2006. Iraq 73, 1–19 (2011).

    Google Scholar 

  34. Sallaberger, W. & Ur, J. A. in Third Millennium Cuneiform Texts from Tell Beydar (eds Milano, L., Sallaberger, W., Talon, P. & Van Lerberghe, K. ) 51–71 (Brepols, 2004).

    Google Scholar 

  35. Forbes, H. A. ‘We have a little of everything’: the ecological basis of some agricultural practices in Methana, Trizinia. Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 268, 236–250 (1976).

    Google Scholar 

  36. Postgate, N. How many Sumerians per hectare? — Probing the anatomy of an early city. Camb. Archaeol. J. 4, 47–65 (1994).

    Google Scholar 

  37. Araus, J. L., Ferrio, J. P., Voltas, J., Aguilera, M. & Buxó, R. Agronomic conditions and crop evolution in ancient Near East agriculture. Nat. Commun. 5, 3953 (2014).

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  38. Bogaard, A. et al. From traditional farming in Morocco to early urban agroecology in northern Mesopotamia: combining present-day arable weed surveys and crop ‘isoscapes’ to reconstruct past agrosystems in (semi-)arid regions. Environ. Archaeol. (in the press).

  39. Smith, A., Dotzel, K., Fountain, J., Proctor, L. & von Baeyer, M. Examining fuel use in antiquity: archaeobotanical and anthracological approaches in southwest Asia. Ethnobiol. Lett. 6, 192–195 (2015).

    Google Scholar 

  40. McCorriston, J. The fiber revolution: textile extensification, alienation, and social stratification in ancient Mesopotamia. Curr. Anthropol. 38, 517–535 (1997).

    Google Scholar 

  41. Bar-Matthews, M. & Ayalon, A. Mid-Holocene climate variations revealed by high-resolution speleothem records from Soreq Cave, Israel and their correlation with cultural changes. Holocene 21, 163–171 (2011).

    Google Scholar 

  42. Wick, L., Lemcke, G. & Sturm, M. Evidence of Lateglacial and Holocene climatic change and human impact in eastern Anatolia: high-resolution pollen, charcoal, isotopic and geochemical records from the laminated sediments of Lake Van, Turkey. Holocene 13, 665–675 (2003).

    Google Scholar 

  43. Riehl, S., Pustovoytov, K. E., Weippert, H., Klett, S. & Hole, F. Drought stress variability in ancient Near Eastern agricultural systems evidenced by δ13C in barley grain. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 111, 12348–12353 (2014).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  44. Wallace, M. P. et al. Stable carbon isotope evidence for Neolithic and Bronze Age crop water management in the eastern Mediterranean and southwest Asia. PLoS ONE 10, e0127085 (2015).

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  45. Ferrio, J. P., Araus, J. L., Buxó, R., Voltas, J. & Bort, J. Water management practices and climate in ancient agriculture: inferences from the stable isotope composition of archaeobotanical remains. Veg. Hist. Archaeobotany 14, 510–517 (2005).

    Google Scholar 

  46. Wallace, M. et al. Stable carbon isotope analysis as a direct means of inferring crop water status and water management practices. World Archaeol. 45, 388–409 (2013).

    Google Scholar 

  47. Styring, A. K. et al. Centralisation and long-term change in farming regimes: comparing agricultural practices in Neolithic and Iron Age south-west Germany. Proc. Prehist. Soc. (in the press).

  48. Vaiglova, P. et al. An integrated stable isotope study of plants and animals from Kouphovouno, southern Greece: a new look at Neolithic farming. J. Archaeol. Sci. 42, 201–215 (2014).

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  49. Riehl, S. Archaeobotanical evidence for the interrelationship of agricultural decision-making and climate change in the ancient Near East. Quat. Int. 197, 93–114 (2009).

    Google Scholar 

  50. Sallaberger, W. in Administrative Documents from Tell Beydar (Seasons 1993-1995) (eds Ismail, F., Sallaberger, W., Talon, P. & Van Lerberghe, K. ) 89–106 (Brepols, 1996).

    Google Scholar 

  51. O'Leary, M. H. Carbon isotopes in photosynthesis. BioScience 38, 328–336 (1988).

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  52. Charles, M. & Bogaard, A. in Excavations at Tell Brak II: Nagar in the Third Millennium bc (eds Oates, D., Oates, J. & McDonald, H. ) 301–326 (McDonald Institute, 2001).

    Google Scholar 

  53. Smith, A. in Seven Generations Since the Fall of Akkad (ed. Weiss, H. ) 225–240 (Harrassowitz, 2012).

    Google Scholar 

  54. Smith, A., Graham, P. J. & Stein, G. J. Ubaid plant use at Tell Zeidan, Syria. Paléorient 41, 51–69 (2015).

    Google Scholar 

  55. Weiss, H. et al. Revising the contours of history at Tell Leilan. Ann. Archéologiques Arab. Syr. 45, 59–74 (2002).

    Google Scholar 

  56. Bettencourt, L. M. A. The origins of scaling in cities. Science 340, 1438–1441 (2013).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  57. Maekawa, K. Cultivation methods in the Ur III period. Bull. Sumer. Agric. 5, 115–145 (1990).

    Google Scholar 

  58. Bogaard, A. ‘Garden agriculture’ and the nature of early farming in Europe and the Near East. World Archaeol. 37, 177–196 (2005).

    Google Scholar 

  59. Mulder, M. B. et al. Intergenerational wealth transmission and the dynamics of inequality in small-scale societies. Science 326, 682–688 (2009).

    CAS  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  60. Scott, J. C. Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed (Yale Univ. Press, 1998).

    Google Scholar 

  61. DeNiro, M. J. Postmortem preservation and alteration of in vivo bone collagen isotope ratios in relation to palaeodietary reconstruction. Nature 317, 806–809 (1985).

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  62. Vaiglova, P., Snoeck, C., Nitsch, E., Bogaard, A. & Lee-Thorp, J. A. Impact of contamination and pre-treatment on stable carbon and nitrogen isotopic composition of charred plant remains. Rapid Commun. Mass Spectrom. 28, 2497–2510 (2014).

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  63. Bronk Ramsey, C. Radiocarbon dating: revolutions in understanding. Archaeometry 50, 249–275 (2008).

    Google Scholar 

  64. Longin, R. New method of collagen extraction for radiocarbon dating. Nature 230, 241–242 (1971).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  65. Kragten, J. Tutorial review. Calculating standard deviations and confidence intervals with a universally applicable spreadsheet technique. Analyst 119, 2161–2165 (1994).

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  66. Nitsch, E. K., Charles, M. & Bogaard, A. Calculating a statistically robust δ13C and δ15N offset for charred cereal and pulse seeds. Sci. Technol. Archaeol. Res. 1, 1–8 (2015).

    Google Scholar 

  67. White, J. W. C. & Vaughn, B. H. Stable isotopic composition of atmospheric carbon dioxide (13C and 18O) from the NOAA ESRL carbon cycle cooperative global air sampling network, 1990-2012 v.2013-04-05 (Univ. Colorado, INSTAAR, 2011); ftp://aftp.cmdl.noaa.gov/data/trace_gases/co2c13/flask/surface/README_surface_flask_co2c13.html

  68. Bar-Matthews, M. & Ayalon, A. in Past Climate Variability through Europe and Africa (eds Battarbee, R., Gasse, F. & Stickley, C. ) 363–391 (Kluwer Academic, 2004).

    Google Scholar 

  69. Aggarwal, P. K. et al. Proportions of convective and stratiform precipitation revealed in water isotope ratios. Nat. Geosci. 9, 624–629 (2016).

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  70. Stevens, L. R., Wright, H. E. & Ito, E. Proposed changes in seasonality of climate during the Lateglacial and Holocene at Lake Zeribar, Iran. Holocene 11, 747–755 (2001).

    Google Scholar 

  71. Stevens, L. R., Ito, E., Schwalb, A. & Wright, H. E. Jr. Timing of atmospheric precipitation in the Zagros Mountains inferred from a multi-proxy record from Lake Mirabad, Iran. Quat. Res. 66, 494–500 (2006).

    Google Scholar 

  72. Clarke, J. et al. Climatic changes and social transformations in the Near East and North Africa during the ‘long’ 4th millennium bc: a comparative study of environmental and archaeological evidence. Quat. Sci. Rev. 136, 96–121 (2016).

    Google Scholar 

  73. Fernandes, R., Nadeau, M.-J. & Grootes, P. M. Macronutrient-based model for dietary carbon routing in bone collagen and bioapatite. Archaeol. Anthropol. Sci. 4, 291–301 (2012).

    Google Scholar 

  74. Steele, K. W. & Daniel, R. M. Fractionation of nitrogen isotopes by animals: a further complication to the use of variations in the natural abundance of 15N for tracer studies. J. Agric. Sci. 90, 7–9 (1978).

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  75. Akkermans, P. M. M. G. Tell Sabi Abyad – The Late Neolithic Settlement: Report on the Excavations of the University of Amsterdam (1998) and the National Museum of Antiquities Leiden (1991–1993) in Syria (Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten, 1996).

    Google Scholar 

  76. Reichel, C. Urbanism and warfare: the 2005 Hamoukar, Syria, excavations. Orient. Inst. News Notes 189, 1–11 (2006).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The work reported here was funded by the European Research Council (AGRICURB project, grant no. 312785, A.B.) and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC standard grant NE/E003761/1, A.B.). A portion of the human isotope data from Tell Brak has been obtained with the financial support by the Polish National Science Centre, grant No. 2012/06/M/HS3/00272. Archaeobotanical analyses at Tell Sabi Abyad were funded by the ‘Consolidating Empire’ project at Leiden University (ERC Starting Grant, no. 282785, PI Düring). Archaeobotanical analyses at Tell Leilan and Tell Zeidan were funded by an NSF Early Faculty CAREER Award (1054938) granted to A.Sm. We are grateful to C. Montrieux and E. Wilman for processing archaeobotanical samples and faunal bone collagen for isotope analysis.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Archaeology, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 2PG, UK

    Amy K. Styring, Michael Charles & Amy Bogaard

  2. Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University, 2333 Leiden, The Netherlands

    Federica Fantone

  3. The National Museum of Denmark, 1471 Copenhagen, Denmark

    Mette Marie Hald

  4. Division of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 3DZ, UK

    Augusta McMahon

  5. Department of Anthropology and Peabody Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, 02138, Massachusetts, USA

    Richard H. Meadow

  6. Department of Statistics, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 3LB, UK

    Geoff K. Nicholls

  7. Peabody Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, 02138, Massachusetts, USA

    Ajita K. Patel

  8. Department of Anthropology, St. Lawrence University, New York, 13617, New York, USA

    Mindy C. Pitre

  9. Department of Anthropology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, 06269, Connecticut, USA

    Alexia Smith

  10. Institute of Archaeology, University of Warsaw, 00-927 Warsaw, Poland

    Arkadiusz Sołtysiak

  11. The Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, 60637, Illinois, USA

    Gil Stein

  12. University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 19104, Pennsylvania, USA

    Jill A. Weber

  13. School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale University, New Haven, 06511, Connecticut, USA

    Harvey Weiss

Authors
  1. Amy K. Styring
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Michael Charles
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Federica Fantone
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Mette Marie Hald
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Augusta McMahon
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Richard H. Meadow
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Geoff K. Nicholls
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Ajita K. Patel
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. Mindy C. Pitre
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  10. Alexia Smith
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  11. Arkadiusz Sołtysiak
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  12. Gil Stein
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  13. Jill A. Weber
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  14. Harvey Weiss
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  15. Amy Bogaard
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

A.B. conceived the study and contributed to data interpretation and the writing of the manuscript; A.K.S. designed the sampling protocol, carried out analyses, analysed the data and wrote the paper with A.B.; M.C., F.F., M.M.H. and A.Sm. contributed botanical material and data; A.M., G.S. and H.W. contributed data and gave permission for analysis of material; R.M., A.K.P. and J.A.W. contributed faunal material and data; G.K.N. led the statistical analysis and developed the statistical models; M.C.P. and A.So. contributed human bone and dentine material and data. All authors discussed the results and implications and commented on the manuscript at all stages.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Amy K. Styring.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Statistical supplement. Describes the statistical analyses carried out on the δ15N values of archaeological cereal grains and refers to data in Supplementary Data 1 and 2 and Supplementary Code 1–16. (PDF 1780 kb)

Supplementary Figure 1

Fourier transform infrared spectra of an archaeological pea seed sample contaminated with 50% carbonate by dry mass (a); an archaeological pea seed sample contaminated with 5% carbonate by dry mass (b); an archaeological six-hulled barley grain sample from Tell Brak (TBR108), showing evidence for approx. 5% carbonate contamination by dry mass (c); and an archaeological hulled barley grain 8 sample from Tell Zeidan (TZD03), showing no evidence of carbonate contamination (d). Peaks at wavelengths of 720 cm−1 and 870 cm−1 are characteristic of carbonates found in soil and are therefore indicative of potential contamination. (PDF 191 kb)

Supplementary Table 1

Carbonized cereal grain and pulse seed δ13C and δ15N values from: Tell Sabi Abyad, Tell Zeidan, Hamoukar, Tell Brak and Tell Leilan. (XLSX 128 kb)

Supplementary Table 2

Faunal and human bone collagen δ13C and δ15N values from: Tell Brak (and nearby Chagar Bazar) and Tell Leilan. (XLSX 64 kb)

Supplementary Data 1

Metadata and δ13C and δ15N values of carbonized cereal grains from archaeological sites used in statistical analyses. The ID of each sample matches the SampleID in SI20. The variables are explained in SI1. (CSV 34 kb)

Supplementary Data 2

Metadata and δ13C and δ15N values of uncarbonized cereal grains from modern farming regimes used in statistical analyses. The variables are explained in SI1 (statistical supplement). (CSV 25 kb)

Supplementary Code 1

SI4_MAIN_FILE_START_HERE. R script used in statistical analysis of archaeological cereal grains. Start statistical analysis here. (TXT 25 kb)

Supplementary Code 2

SI5_LoadData. R script used in statistical analysis of archaeological cereal grains. This is loaded from Supplementary Code 1 (SI4_MAIN_FILE_START_HERE). (TXT 1 kb)

Supplementary Code 3

SI6_PriorsAndLikelihoods. R script used in statistical analysis of archaeological cereal grains. This is loaded from Supplementary Code 1 (SI4_MAIN_FILE_START_HERE). (TXT 6 kb)

Supplementary Code 4

SI7_SimpleImpute. R script used in statistical analysis of archaeological cereal grains. This is referred to in Supplementary Code 1 (SI4_MAIN_FILE_START_HERE). (TXT 8 kb)

Supplementary Code 5

SI8_SingleImputation. R script used in statistical analysis of archaeological cereal grains. This is loaded from Supplementary Code 1 (SI4_MAIN_FILE_START_HERE). (TXT 1 kb)

Supplementary Code 6

SI9_xvalSI. R script used in statistical analysis of archaeological cereal grains. This is loaded from Supplementary Code 1 (SI4_MAIN_FILE_START_HERE). (TXT 2 kb)

Supplementary Code 7

SI10_NLM-NORE-NOM_RESout1. R data used in statistical analysis of archaeological cereal grains. This is loaded from Supplementary Code 1 (SI4_MAIN_FILE_START_HERE). (ZIP 15063 kb)

Supplementary Code 8

SI11_NLM-NORE-PO_RESout1. R data used in statistical analysis of archaeological cereal grains. This is loaded from Supplementary Code 1 (SI4_MAIN_FILE_START_HERE). (ZIP 15083 kb)

Supplementary Code 9

SI12_NLM-RES-PO_RESout3. R data used in statistical analysis of archaeological cereal grains. This is loaded from Supplementary Code 1 (SI4_MAIN_FILE_START_HERE). (ZIP 11646 kb)

Supplementary Code 10

SI13_NLM-RES-NOM_RESout2. R data used in statistical analysis of archaeological cereal grains. This is loaded from Supplementary Code 1 (SI4_MAIN_FILE_START_HERE). (ZIP 11734 kb)

Supplementary Code 11

SI14_CleanMCMCoutput. R script used in statistical analysis of archaeological cereal grains. This is loaded from Supplementary Code 1 (SI4_MAIN_FILE_START_HERE). (TXT 2 kb)

Supplementary Code 12

SI15_NLM-ALLRE-PO-NORES-SYNout. R data used in statistical analysis of archaeological cereal grains. This is loaded from Supplementary Code 1 (SI4_MAIN_FILE_START_HERE). (ZIP 1396 kb)

Supplementary Code 13

SI16_NLM-RES-PO-NORES-SYNout. R data used in statistical analysis of archaeological cereal grains. This is loaded from Supplementary Code 1 (SI4_MAIN_FILE_START_HERE). (ZIP 1296 kb)

Supplementary Code 14

SI17_NLM-NORE-PO-NORES-SYNout. R data used in statistical analysis of archaeological cereal grains. This is loaded from Supplementary Code 1 (SI4_MAIN_FILE_START_HERE). (ZIP 1448 kb)

Supplementary Code 15

SI18_NLM-RES-NOM_RESout1000. R data used in statistical analysis of archaeological cereal grains. This is loaded from Supplementary Code 1 (SI4_MAIN_FILE_START_HERE). (ZIP 11517 kb)

Supplementary Code 16

SI19_NLM-RES-NOM_RESout10. R data used in statistical analysis of archaeological cereal grains. This is loaded from Supplementary Code 1 (SI4_MAIN_FILE_START_HERE). (ZIP 11511 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Styring, A., Charles, M., Fantone, F. et al. Isotope evidence for agricultural extensification reveals how the world's first cities were fed. Nature Plants 3, 17076 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nplants.2017.76

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nplants.2017.76

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing Microbiology

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

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