ANCIENT WHEAT AND BARLEY FROM KISH, MESOPOTAMIA

Abstract

IN VIEW of the interest in the more or less recent discovery of several samples of grain from the excavations at Kish, it seemed desirable to place on record the conclusions of various botanical experts on these specimens. The date of the jars in which the grains were found was accurately determined by inscriptions, tomb-groups, pottery, and other objects which were found in the same stratigraphical level. These grains are therefore the oldest examples of cultivated cereals in Mesopotamia. The site of the ancient city of Kish is located sixty-five miles south of Baghdad and about eight miles east of Babylon. In Sumerian times Kish was divided by the river Euphrates into an eastern and western metropolis. From the epigraphical records, it was the "first city founded after the Flood." In this connection it is interesting to note that Mr. L. C. Watelin, field director, discovered evidence of two local floods which swept over the eastern portion of the city about 3200 B.C. and 4000 B.c., respectively. The former may well be the traces of the Biblical deluge. The alluvial plain upon which Kish was built is even today extremely fertile when water is available. There are several large canals which bring water from the river Euphrates and by the most primitive methods of irrigation neither the noria or Persian water-wheel, nor the sakieh is used-the soil is intensely cultivated. The crops are not heavy, which is to be expected after six thousand years of almost continual cultivation where the principle of rotation of crops is unknown and the nitrogen content of the soil never replaced. During the spring of 1928 the writer observed a peculiar scarecrow in the middle of a large cultivated area near Kish. This consisted of the vertebrae of a camel piled on top of each other and held in place by a stick on which each vertebrae was threaded. The local Arabs insisted that not only was this an efficient method for keeping away birds, but that its magical properties increased the quality and quantity of the crop. From an archaeological and anthropological point of view the Kish area is of considerable importance since the excavations conducted by the Field Museum-Oxford University Joint Expedition during the past eight seasons at Kish and Jemdet Nasr (eighteen miles northeast) have revealed not only the cultural attainments of the Sumerians (possibly preceded by a proto-Semitic neolithic phase), Babylonians, and Sassanians, but also the interesting fact that the physical characters of these Arabs have remained little changed during the past six thousand years. Thus the region with which we 303