Archaeological Evidence of the Domestication of Lentil ( Lens culinaris ) and Its Distribution in Europe

Lentil originated in the Near Eastern centre of diversity. The oldest archaeological remains of lentil in Europe are from the Franchthi cave in Greece, dated to 11,000 BC. Together with pea, vetches and vetchlings, lentil was a part of the everyday diet of the hunter-gatherers at the end of the last Ice Age in Europe and the very early Holocene. It is not possible to differentiate the wild lentils from the cultivated small-seeded lentil, while it is not until the fifth millennium BC that lentil seeds larger than the wild lentils are found, which were unequivocally domesticated. Among the earliest findings of cultivated grain legumes is the site of Tell ElKerkh in Syria, from 10th millennium BP. Lentil was one of the first crops that entered Europe from Asia Minor after it become a more suitable place for living following the end of the last Ice Age. Along with pea and several cereal species, lentil ultimately became associated with the beginning of the ‘agricultural revolution’ in the Old World. Lentil roughly progressed from the south-eastern parts of Europe into its interior via Danube, and from Syria to Armenia and Georgia, leaving rich archaeological evidence.

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