On Wed, 30 Oct 2002 19:45:10 -0500, Craig Smith <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

> Or am I mistaken, that grains don't grow wild
>and without human cultivation, at least not in any abundance?

There are some areas (particularly in the near east) where *wild* grass
stands provide wild grains in abundance , with a great caloric investment to
payback ratio (hours of collecting for weeks of nutrition).

There have been some very good discussions on paleodiet.
I list some below.

Regards, Amadeus S.

http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?A2=ind9808&L=paleodiet&P=R393
<<.. described an African wild-grass harvest and stated that one
 adult could easily gather 10 kg in a mornings effort. In an experiment with
 wild einkorn wheat in Turkey Harlan himself yielded almost 1 kg of
 pure-grain equivalent per hour of work, and the grains were far more
 nutritious than domesticated wheat. This wild wheat harvest returned 40-50
 kcal of energy for every kcal expended.>>

A cave painting of paleolithic wild grass harvesting:
http://www.paleologos.com/graminées.JPG

http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?A2=ind9705&L=paleodiet&P=R2214
<<*Wild*
 grains were in fact beginning to be gathered by 17,000 B.C. by people in
 the Levant (Middle East) and being ground into flour with mortar-and-pestle
 at this time, though cultivation did not begin until considerably later as
 Andy states. The Natufians were the successors to the very earliest
 grain-gatherers, and were themselves also gathering wild grains intensively
 (also using grindstones) around 13,000 B.C. prior to the introduction of
 agricultural cultivation. >>

http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?A2=ind9706&L=paleodiet&P=R889
<<There is very good ethnobotanical, ecological, experimental and
 archaeobotanical evidence which can be used to support a hypothesis of
 pre-agrarian grass seed use ('cereal' usually being confined to the seeds
 of domesticated forms). As both Loren Cordain and Jennie Brand Miller have
 already suggested, ethnoecological data, especially from Australia, western
 North America, and Africa suggest that wild grass seeds can potentially
 contribute significantly to diet (see Harris, D. 1984. Ethnohistorical
 evidence for the exploitation of wild grasses and forbs: its scope and
 archaeological implications. In Plants and Ancient Man. W. van Zeist & W.A.
 Casparie (ed.), 63-69. Rotterdam: Balkema; Harlan, J.R. 1989. Wild
 grass-seed harvesting in the Sahara and Sub-Sahara of Africa. In Foraging
 and Farming: The Evolution of Plant Exploitation. D.R. Harris & G.C.
 Hillman (ed.), 79-98. One World Archaeology. London: Unwin Hyman). Harlan's
 classic experiments demonstrated that wild grass seed harvesting can be
 extremely productive (Harlan, J.R. 1967. A wild wheat harvest in Turkey.
 Archaeology 20: 197-201).>>