14,000-year-old seeds indicate the Levantine origin of the lost progenitor of faba bean

Valentina Caracuta (1) , Mina Weinstein-Evron (2) , Daniel Kaufman (2) , Reuven Yeshurun (2) , Jeremie Silvent (3, 4) , Elisabetta Boaretto (1, 5)

1 WPWC - Max Planck Weizmann Center for Integrative Archaeology and Anthropology
2 Zinman Institute of Archaeology [Haifa]
3 Evolution Paris Seine
4 Department of Structural Biology
5 D-REAMS Radiocarbon Laboratory [Rehovot]

The understanding of crop domestication is dependent on tracking the original geographical distribution of wild relatives. The faba bean (Vicia faba L.) is economically important in many countries around the world; nevertheless, its origin has been debated because its ancestor could not be securely identified. Recent investigations in the site of el-Wad (Mount Carmel, Israel), provide the first and, so far, only remains of the lost ancestor of faba bean. X-ray CT scan analysis of the faba beans provides the first set of measurements of the biometry of this species before its domestication. The presence of wild specimens in Mount Carmel, 14,000 years ago, supports that the wild variety grew nearby in the Lower Galilee where the first domestication was documented for Neolithic farmers 10,200 years ago.

Mots clés: biodiversity; Evolution

Domaines: Archéologie et Préhistoire; Evolution [q-bio.PE]

Valentina Caracuta, Mina Weinstein-Evron, Daniel Kaufman, Reuven Yeshurun, Jeremie Silvent, et al.. 14,000-year-old seeds indicate the Levantine origin of the lost progenitor of faba bean. Scientific Reports, 2016, 6, pp.37399. ⟨10.1038/srep37399⟩. ⟨hal-01417973⟩