SSS 2009-06-25

（单词翻译）

This is Scientific American's 60-second Science. I'm Adam Hinterthuer. Got a minute?

A team of archeologists working in Jordan has made a discovery that represents a new chapter in the story of our ancestors' move from foraging¹ to farming. The researchers unearthed² an ancient granary. The round, mud hut dates back more than 11,000 years. A raised floor was key for keeping grain dry and out of reach of hungry rats. But what makes the find so special is that the granary was built a thousand years before people ate domesticated³ crops. The report appears in the Proceedings⁴ of the National Academy of Sciences.

The researchers found caches of wild barley⁵ and oats inside the structure. Such evidence of a dedicated⁶ food-storage edifice⁷ has never been recorded from the pre-pottery Neolithic⁸ age. The investigators⁹ say this selective cultivation¹⁰ and management of wild plants shows behaviors that led to agriculture. What’s more, the granaries were built in-between houses and buildings used for food processing, which led to the establishment of more permanent settlements. By stockpiling a food surplus, our predecessors¹¹ produced a new societal structure and curbed¹² their wandering ways. Which then led to today’s foraging for junk food in supermarket aisles¹³.

This is Scientific American's 60-second Science. I'm Adam Hinterthuer.