Fuller, DQ;
(2017)
Long and attenuated: comparative trends in the domestication of tree fruits.
Vegetation History and Archaeobotany
10.1007/s00334-017-0659-2.
(In press).
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Abstract
This paper asks whether we can identify a recurrent domestication syndrome for tree crops (fruits, nuts) and track archaeologically the evolution of domestication of fruits from woody perennials. While archaeobotany has made major contributions to documenting the domestication process in cereals and other annual grains, long-lived perennials have received less comparative attention. Drawing on examples from across Eurasia, comparisons suggest a tendency for the larger domesticated fruits to contain seeds that are proportionally longer, thinner and with more pointed (acute to attenuated) apices. Therefore, although changes in flavour, such as increased sweetness, are not recoverable, seed metrics and shape provide an archaeological basis for tracking domestication episodes in fruits from woody perennials. Where available, metrical data suggest length increases, as well as size diversification over time, with examples drawn from the Jomon of Japan (Castanea crenata), Neolithic China (Prunus persica) and the later Neolithic of the Near East (Olea europaea, Phoenix dactylifera) to estimate rates of change. More limited data allow us to also compare Mesoamerica avocado (Persea americana) and western Pacific Canarium sp. nuts and Spondias sp. fruits. Data from modern Indian jujube (Ziziphus mauritiana) are also considered in relation to seed length:width trends in relation to fruit contents (flesh proportion, sugar content). Despite the long generation time in tree fruits, rates of change in their seeds are generally comparable to rates of phenotypic evolution in annual grain crops, suggesting that gradual evolution via unconscious selection played a key role in initial processes of tree domestication, and that this had begun in the later Neolithic once annual crops had been domesticated, in both west and east Asia.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Long and attenuated: comparative trends in the domestication of tree fruits |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1007/s00334-017-0659-2 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-017-0659-2 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author(s) 2017. Open Access: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. |
| Keywords: | Arboriculture, Nuts, Unconscious selection, Ziziphus, Prunus, Castanea, Olea, Phoenix, Near East, China |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Institute of Archaeology UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Institute of Archaeology > Institute of Archaeology Gordon Square |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10041234 |
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