FARMING ORIGINS
Animals were being farmed for food as early as 13,000 years ago, an analysis of ancient dung suggests. Hunter-gatherers living in Abu Hureyra – the Upper Euphrates valley in Syria – were bringing sheep and other live animals and tending to them outside their huts. This is almost two millennia earlier than what is seen elsewhere. Soil samples were gathered from Abu Hureyra in the 1970s, but have only recently been analysed. The scientists looked at substances present in the soil known as dung spherulites – tiny balls that form in the intestines of plant-eating animals before being excreted from the body as part of dung. These spherulites provided an approximate date for the dung deposits, sometime between 12,800 and 12,300 years ago. The dung is thought to be from sheep – one of the earliest animals to be
