Harvest works in Ancient Mesopotamia

Abstract

Human depended on his body strength in hunting and collecting wild plants during the stony ages, he also settled in open areas and close to water springs. He began to cultivate some plants in order to fill his needs in addition to collection of wild crops. He cultivated all plants that were of benefit to him. Excavations revealed stony tools indicating that human has already learned cultivation. Amongst these tools were billhooks that were found in some of the Middle Stony Age locations like Zarzi cave and Zawa Jammi location. Charred grains were not found in the latter location. It is well known that billhooks are used for harvest. The question here is why billhooks were used at a time when agriculture was not yet discovered. The answer, as mentioned by Dr. Taha Baqer, is that the billhooks were used to harvest wild grains and some other plants. From this it is concluded that the harvest process was known by human before starting cultivation, when he was fed on wild plants mainly.