EU Dailies: Iran's Ancient Civilization Founder Of World Agriculture

Vienna, July 24, IRNA – An Austrian and a Swiss daily praising ancient Iranian culture, wrote in their Tuesday editions that Iranians have been the founders of agricultural activities in the world; agricultural crops produced in ancient Iran are still basic food of world nations. The Austrian daily Standard wrote that planting wheat was a common practice in ancient Iran some 2,200 years ago, adding, Signs of planting wheat are found in Iran’s Zagross Mountain that date back to ancient Iran. This highly circulated Austrian daily added, Founding these signs means that planting wheat by the residents of these regions dates back to 2,200 years ago. Standard added, The residents of these regions were hunters and had wheat farms 12,000 years ago, which means right after the Ice Age. The daily wrote, “At that time the people constantly changed the place of their residence, and were in other words mobile tribes.” The Austrian dailys article is based on an article by the archeologists of Tubingen University. The Standard added, The agricultural facilities at that time were made of stone and animal bones and there are also signs of burnt wood and different types of weeds by the human beings who initiated agricultural activities in the world, showing that in the course of the years they were improving their agricultural methods. The Austrian daily concluded that the first crops of wheat, lentil, and barley, which are major food items of the world nations today, were produced by the ancient Iranians. The Swiss daily Minuten 20, too, in a report referred to finding the first signs of agricultural activities in the world, writing, “Taking earth samples aimed at tracing the first signs of agricultural activities have led us to Chooqagolan city in Iran, near Iraq boarder.” The daily added, “The archeologists who were working in that city found agricultural facilities made of bones and iron and the more interesting point was finding the remainders of some 30,000 types of different types of agricultural products which date back to 2,200 years ago.” The Swiss daily wrote, “For archeologist Simon Rihl from Tubingen University who found these traces of agricultural products in ancient Iran this finding was quite exciting.” The findings show how the human beings conducted their agricultural activities some 12 thousand years ago and how they developed their new techniques in the course of time and became more and more professional with the passage of time, matching their agricultural activities with the everyday needs of their lives. Minuten 20 reiterated that in accordance with the research works, the human beings who had up to then been hunters, in order to provide food for the increased population of their society developed agricultural skills and kept on improving them, including producing new types of agricultural crops. The Swiss daily added, “After the passage of 2,000 years from the beginning of the first agricultural activities, the human beings of those days began efforts aimed at becoming professional farmers.” Quoting Nicholas Conrad, one of the archeologists of the team that discovered these facts, the Swiss daily wrote that this was a revolution in social and economic developments at that time. According to this daily, the head of the archeology team, Simon Rihl, too, emphasized, “The efforts made by the word’s first farmers have had influence that is still seen in our times, because more of the plants that discovers comprise the major part of the food for the people around the globe today.”/end