Books & Archaeology
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Books & Archaeology
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Seeds from the Beyond. Domesticating Plants in the Near East.
NISSIM AMZALLAG Gérard, preface by Jean Guilaine.

Seeds from the Beyond. Domesticating Plants in the Near East.

Editions of the House of Human Sciences.
€25,00 €0,00
N° d'inventaire 30363
Format 15 x 23
Détails 345 pages, illustrations, paperback.
Publication Paris, 2023
Etat Nine
ISBN 9782735129522
Why did humans begin cultivating plants that grew in abundance around them? And how did the idea of transforming wild plants into domesticated plants first arise? This book provides a new answer to these old questions. It shows that the cultivation of plants in the Near East was not a response to food security concerns. It reflected a desire to transfer the vital forces of the deceased to plants sprouting on graves. More than 12,000 years ago, such a stimulus led to the formation of lines of ancestor seeds from which the first domesticated plants gradually emerged. At the same time, the relationship between the mortuary world and domesticated plants initiated a revolution in mentalities, the memory of which has been preserved in the religions and mythologies of the Near East, Egypt, and Greece. Drawing on the latest discoveries in archaeology and biology, this book invites us to discover a mental universe as subtle as it is far removed from purely pragmatic motivations, and the foundation of the first civilizations. It reveals why man positioned himself at the center of a new world shaped by his ancestors, a place he would never abandon.
Why did humans begin cultivating plants that grew in abundance around them? And how did the idea of transforming wild plants into domesticated plants first arise? This book provides a new answer to these old questions. It shows that the cultivation of plants in the Near East was not a response to food security concerns. It reflected a desire to transfer the vital forces of the deceased to plants sprouting on graves. More than 12,000 years ago, such a stimulus led to the formation of lines of ancestor seeds from which the first domesticated plants gradually emerged. At the same time, the relationship between the mortuary world and domesticated plants initiated a revolution in mentalities, the memory of which has been preserved in the religions and mythologies of the Near East, Egypt, and Greece. Drawing on the latest discoveries in archaeology and biology, this book invites us to discover a mental universe as subtle as it is far removed from purely pragmatic motivations, and the foundation of the first civilizations. It reveals why man positioned himself at the center of a new world shaped by his ancestors, a place he would never abandon.