Jarmo: what counts as evidence of domestication

The explanations distinguish finds, interpretations and open questions. Sources appear at the end of the page.

What the source says

In the Met's timeline for Mesopotamia, under the key events of about 8000-7000 BCE, the text states that "the first evidence of domesticated grains (wheat and barley) and animals (sheep, goat, pig, and cattle)" is found at Jarmo. The overview on the same page says that by 8000 BCE agricultural communities were already established in northern Mesopotamia, the eastern end of the Fertile Crescent. Source 1.

Two claims in one sentence

The sentence joins two kinds of evidence: an identification of domesticated plants and an identification of domesticated animals. Each rests on different finds and a different kind of analysis, and the source does not say which finds from Jarmo support each part, which level they came from, or whether all six species appear in the same phase of the settlement. The sentence is therefore best read as a summary of research conclusions, not as the description of a single find. Source 1.

"First" according to whom

The word "first" is the source's own claim, and the site gives it as such. The same page speaks of agricultural communities already established by 8000 BCE, and in an event dated 8000-7000 BCE it places the first evidence of domestication at Jarmo. The page does not explain how the two statements fit together, so it should not be read as saying that farming began at Jarmo. Source 1.

Its place on the timeline

In the same source the Pre-Pottery Neolithic is dated about 10,000-7000 BCE and the Pottery Neolithic about 7000-5500 BCE. The Jarmo event therefore falls in the Pre-Pottery phase, and the beginning of pottery appears in the next event, of 7000-6000 BCE. On this site the article is placed in the Neolithic in Mesopotamia and kept separate from the article on the Hassuna pottery style. Source 1.

Scope of reading: the Met timeline page for Mesopotamia, 8000-2000 BCE, was read on 24 October 2026. The Jarmo excavation reports were not read, so this page gives no levels, dates from the site itself, quantities or names of excavators.