News 2012 July-August
News
Zohary Daniel, Hopf Maria & Weiss Ehud, 2012. Domestication of plants in the Old World. The origin and spread of cultivated plants in south-west Asia, Europe and the Mediterranean Basin. Oxford, Oxford Univ. Press. ed. 4. XVI-243 p. (ed. 1 : 1988 ; ed. 2 : 1994 ; ed. 3 : 2000).
This is the fourth edition of this book, which shows that it has become a major reference for all those interested by the origin of cultivated plants in Europe and the Mediterranean. It combines solid and up-to-date data on archeology on one side, botany and genetics on the other. It deals above all about the assemblage of plants domesticated in the Fertile Crescent, one of the big centers of origin of agriculture worldwide.
In brief, this book is unavoidable. We can only dream to have equivalent books for other parts of the world, which have unfortunately been less studied than south-west Asia.
11 July 2012
