The flowering desert: first millennium CE agricultural developments in the Negev reconstructed from dung microbiomes and rubbish-dump plant remains.

The proposed research will employ archaeobotanical and biomolecular techniques to reconstruct ancient agropastoral change over the first millennium CE in two adjacent microregions, the Aravah valley along the southern border of modern Israel-Jordan and the Negev Highlands. The region witnessed unprecedented agricultural developments during this period, alongside major socio-political, climatic and environmental changes. Rich and well-preserved organic remains from rubbish dumps at ten archaeological sites will provide the basis for this study.

Through data on crop plant remains, the study will gauge regional effects of the 'Islamic Green Revolution' thesis, according to which the Early Islamic empires introduced important cultivars from eastern and central Asia to the Mediterranean. New archaeobotanical data collected in this study will yield unprecedented information on local agricultural developments, including contested changes in the average person's diet and seasonal work routine. It will also enable comparison of Early Islamic crop diffusion to that brought about by the Roman Empire, in an unprecedented critical evaluation of first millennium CE crop diffusion based on local empirical evidence.

To identify seasonal effects and rhythms of agropastoral activity, the research will include an extensive study of dung microbiomes in the study region which will also develop multi-proxy methodologies. This is expected to produce: (a) effective screening procedures and protocols for maximizing multi-proxy analysis of dung pellets; (b) data on herbivore diets, local vegetation and seasonality; (c) data on herbivore species and sex; (d) detection of parasites and other microbial components; (e) synthesis reconstructing rhythms of pastoral production, inhabitation, grazing and foddering, variations in vegetation, and agropastoral evolution.

The production of new datasets and the development of innovative methodologies for investigating ancient agricultural regimes will allow engagement with larger themes in Mediterranean history, including: 'connectivity', by illuminating patterns of pastoralism and processes of crop diffusion; 'continuity and change', by assessing long-term agropastoral developments; and 'multi-scalar linkages', wherein analysis of locally consumed and seasonally produced organic remains will provide a window into the effects of global millennial processes. Lessons on agricultural continuity and change from the Negev desert in the face of first millennium CE global climate change and cultural conflict hold great promise for understanding historical effects of environmental stressors. In unearthing such lessons, this research will contribute to long-term environmental risk assessment and the urgent reflection on the future of our own society, offering a model for environmental humanities research.