The history of raspberry

The history of raspberry consumption and domestication goes back to ancient times. The European raspberry is a native of Europe from Greece and Italy, north into Scandinavia and far eastward into Asia.

It was name for Mount Ida, in Asia Minor and was possibly more or less cultivated in southern Europe in ancient times. Fruits were gathered from the wild by the people of Troy in the foothills of Mount Ida around the time of Christ. Records of domestication were found in 4th century writings of Palladius, a Roman agriculturist and seeds have been discovered at Roman forts in Britain.

It is believed that Roman soldiers spread the cultivation of this plant throughout Europe. Raspberry gradually grew in popularity over the centuries, and by the 1500s, R. idaeus was cultivated all over Europe.

King Edward I is recognized as the first person to call for the cultivation of berries. By the 17th century, British gardens were rich with berries and berry bushes. In 1829, 23 raspberry cultivars were liste0 in the “History of English Gardening”.

It was early brought to America by colonists from Europe and prior to the middle of the nineteenth century was the only raspberry commonly cultivated in USA.
The history of raspberry

History of chickpea

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum) is the only cultivated species belonging to the Cicer genus, which is a member of the Leguminosae family Cicereae Alef tribe.

Chickpea was domesticated in association with other crops of wheat, barley, rye, peas, lentil, flax and vetch and with sheep, goats, pigs and cattle as part of the evolution of agriculture in the Fertile Crescent 12,000 – 10,000 years ago.

The chickpea is known from Bronze Age Lachish, Jericho and Arqd sites in the Near East.

The earliest records of chickpea used as food are:8th millennium BC at Tell el-Kerkh and Tell Abu Hureyra Syria, 7500 – 6800 BC at Cayonu Turkey and 5450 at Hachilar Turkey.

The chickpea remnants found in excavation at Hachilar, Turkey indicating that chickpea was being eaten by man during early Neolithic period.

The chickpea spread from there to the Mediterranean area by 6000 BC and to Indian by 3000 BC.

Greeks knew the chickpea in Homer’s time under the name Erebinthus and the Romans, as Cicer. Romans used to call it as Cicer because of resemblance of its seed to the head of ram.

It was carried to the New World, particularly South America, by the Spaniards and the Portuguese in the 16th century.
History of chickpea

Ancient history domestication of cattle

Cattle were the first domestic animas capable of pulling a plough. The earliest evidence for the domestication of cattle, during the 8,000 BC, points toward the marshland and forest of the Middle Euphrates Basin. 

Humped Zebu (Bos indicus) are believed to have been domesticated around 7000 to 8000 years ago, in the Indus Valley region of modern Pakistan.

Early man used cattle for draft, meat and milk. Cattle were also a measure of wealth.

Several breeds of domesticated cattle were known by 2500 B.C. An interesting frieze from Ur, dating from 3000 B.C, shows that cows were then milked from the rear.

About this same time the fattening of cattle by forced feeding was practiced in Egypt.

In the late nineteenth century, Eduard Hahn has argued that domestication of cattle emerged from religious practices based on awe, fear and admiration of the great bulls, which sometimes stood two meters at the withers.

Modern cattle are descendants of Bos taurus and Bos indicus. Bos taurus are domestic cattle that came from either the Aurochs or the Celtic Shorthorn.
Ancient history domestication of cattle

History of camelids

On the South-American continent, camelids are the largest wild herbivores. Camelids have served the needs of people for thousands of years and have provided them with food, fiber and fuel.

Camelids constitute a more reliable food source than agricultural crops because the herds are less influenced by local bad weather, except during the springtime birth seasons.

If a drought destroys a large portion of crops, camelids can survive because of their mobility and greater endogenous food reserves.

The Camelidae originated in western North American in the late Eocene, 40-45 million years ago and underwent millions of years of evolution before the appearance of the current species.

About two millions years ago camelids invaded the continents from North America over the Panama Bridge.

Domestication of South-American camelids has a history of between 6000 to 7000 years ago in Andes. Llama and alpacas were among the first recorded domesticated animals.

A remarkable increase in the camelids population occurred around this period, suggesting the establishment of predominantly herding economy.

Recent research also indicates that similar development occurred in a parallel in the region of the South-Central Andes of south Peru, northern Chile and northwestern Argentina.
History of camelids

The early history of domestication of animals

The more recent Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans during the last Ice Age, the social hunting of large mammals such as mammoths or bison would have more closely paralleled that of wolf packs, and indeed the first partnership between wolf and humans may have begun from their joint hunting skills at least 30,000 years ago.

Domestication begins with ownership. In order to be domesticated animals have to be incorporated into the special structure of a human community and become of ownership inheritance, purchase and exchange. 

Animal domestication has not only provided a ready supply of food, clothing and companionship but, in many respects, has changed the way people live and view the world.

This was the basis of the so-called Neolithic revolution when the fundamental change in human societies occurred and groups of hunter-gatherers became farmers and stockbreeders.

The human species has evolved what appears to be a unique capacity for wanting to tame, nurture and love with almost all species of vertebrae animals.

The goat came into human lives in the pre-agriculture stage of development, during the Middle Stone Age, between 12,000 and 15,000 years ago at the end of the last glacial period.

The only other pre-agriculture domestic animal was the dog, the reindeer and the sheep. But the goat probably came first, judging from the bones that have been found and their demonstrable age.

Pigs were domesticated separately in Europe and Asia about 9000 years ago.

Domestication of llama and alpaca took place in South America about 6000 years ago at the same time that people of the Sredni Stog culture in the Ukraine began domesticating horses for meat and transportation.
The early history of domestication of animals