Oldest known granaries found near Dead Sea

[Jim]

More than 1,000 years before humans began domesticating grains for
food, they were building sophisticated storage buildings to hold the
wild grains they were cultivating, researchers reported Monday.
Collecting large quantities of grains and other foods is a
prerequisite to establishing sizable communities, but such collection
requires a system to store the perishables so they can be kept for
months at least. The new find reported in the Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences represents the oldest known storage
system or granary to date -- about 11,300 years old. The earliest
known domestication of cereal grains was thought to have occurred
about 10,500 years ago.

Read complete article at --
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-sci-granary27-2009jun27,0,7299988.story

Visit Dhra', Jordan Excavation Project website at --
http://www.nd.edu/~ikuijt/dhra/background/index.htm