Re:We should discuss soil as much as coal (2019)
by riffraff on Tuesday August 18, 2020 @12:48AM
(#24195367)
Didn't a lot of things from Asia come to the Mediterranean to become omnipresent things? E.g. oranges, lemons, rice.
Isn't wheat itself something that spread both ways from the middle East?
Re:We should discuss soil as much as coal (2019)
by 29athrowaway on Tuesday August 18, 2020 @03:16AM
(#24196058)
Wheat, barley, lentils, peas, chickpeas.
Goats, sheep, pig...
Most of those come from the fertile crescent.
Re:We should discuss soil as much as coal (2019)
by jcranmer on Tuesday August 18, 2020 @09:49AM
(#24198499)
For all intents and purposes, I equate the Fertile Crescent with the Mediterranean world. The big divide I'm talking about is crossing from China across the variety of deserts to reach Mesopotamia and the Mediterranean.
Re:We should discuss soil as much as coal (2019)
by triceratops on Tuesday August 18, 2020 @03:26PM
(#24203173)
> there is quite little evidence of technology and agriculture actually being shared between the Mediterranean and Chinese origins
You mean apart from (just off the top of my head) gunpowder, paper, the Hindu-Arabic numeral system, stirrups, and pasta/noodles?
It's worth noting that despite the east-west orientation of Eurasia, there is quite little evidence of technology and agriculture actually being shared between the Mediterranean and Chinese origins, especially if you restrict yourself to the traditional origin-of-civilization innovations such as agriculture itself, pottery, metallurgy. By contrast, the Americas show a great deal more transmission along its north-south axis, with maize (from Mesoamerica) almost completely supplanting native North American domesticants, pottery appearing to come from the Amazon rainforest, and metallurgy arriving from the Andes.