A tale of two agricultural revolutions: crop introductions in the long 1st millennium ce southern Levant

This paper aims to provide a robust regional synthesis of crop diffusion in the southern Levant, with the objective of ascertaining the significance of 1st millennium ce introductions, including those associated with Roman Agricultural Diffusion (RAD) and the Islamic Green Revolution (IGR). It does so by integrating published archaeobotanical data and written evidence from multiple periods to identify the earliest attestations of crop taxa. We present the earliest evidence for 80 crops in the region from the Neolithic until the Late Medieval period, focusing on 'the long 1st millennium ce'. We will not only consider first finds, but also, where possible, the qualitative evidence for adoption and entrenchment of these crop plants in this region. Our findings indicate that RAD crops are numerically more significant than IGR crops, although the difference is greater in the archaeobotanical record compared with the textual evidence. Nearly half of the surveyed crops for which we have reliable data were introduced to the southern Levant in the 1st millennium ce, indicating the unprecedented extent of crop introductions during this period.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00334-025-01060-9.