Flax cultivation in the southern Levant and its development during the Bronze and Iron Age

摘要

Linum usitatissimum L., known as flax, is one of the oldest crops of the Fertile Crescent. Yet, the investigations into the cultivation of this plant has still not been comprehensively examined, as the archaeobotanical data have never been investigated in detail. The developments of flax cultivation are reflected in the archaeobotanical dataset namely the linseed finds. This paper presents for the first time a complete compilation of published linseed finds from southern Levantine Bronze and Iron Age sites. The comparative investigation shows that the cultivation of flax underwent fluctuations between the mid -4th to mid -1st millennium BC. The presented ar- chaeobotanical material shows a decline in linseed finds from the Early Bronze to the Middle Bronze Age and an increase of archaeobotanical flax finds in the Iron Age. The supposed reduction of flax cultivation during the Middle and Late Bronze Age could have been caused by multiple factors (including environmental). Moreover, the analysis of the archaeobotanical record shows that the Jordan Valley and the area around Beth Shean as well as the Dead Sea played a prominent role in the cultivation of Linum usitatissimum L. throughout time.