Prehistoric Agriculture Among the Tsalal

Prehistoric Agriculture Among the Tsalal

Agriculture, in the sense activities deliberately undertaken to encourage the spread and growth of certain desirable plant species at the expense of competing species, appears to date back to roughly 18,000 years ago, or 16,000 BCE in Tsalal lands, in several sites, primarily in Tsalmoth, but also apparently independently in Yag.

Early agricultural plants were indistinguishable from wild varieties, but are marked by statistically anomalous spikes of pollen and seeds in specific areas that are not consistent with natural distribution and proliferation.

It is believed that agriculture among the Tsalal was a function of a steady accumulation of knowledge and lore relating to plant growth, life cycles and habitat, among Tsalal cultures. Inevitably, this knowledge reached a critical mass, and cultures which were already effective tool users and oriented to seasonal harvesting and hoarding for winters, simply applied existing technologies and techniques.

As a result, Agriculture may well have been independent loosely simultaneous inventions in several locations in Tsalmoth. On the other hand, it may be that the idea of agriculture spread faster than the practice, prompting widely distributed populations to try their hand independently.

Whatever the truth, we have archeological and genetic evidence for the systematic cultivation of a half dozen different plant species during the initial period.

Agriculture spread unevenly and erratically through the Tsalmoth regions over the next few thousand years. Archeological evidence shows it proliferating dramatically in a region, only to literally disappear within a generation. There were undoubtedly a number of causes, including soil depletion, raids and slaughter by non-agricultural neighbors, crop blights and so forth.

The independent agricultural site in Yag, in contrast, grew slowly, but with significant stability, eventually coming to encompass its primary regions of fertility, but not spreading much beyond that.

Though fitful, with many stops, starts and reversals, plant domestication continued in Tsalmoth, expanding to more founder and supplement crops. The Tsalal seemed to have a tendency to overconsume, and knowledge of plant breeding came slowly. Many crop species initially tended to become smaller and less nutritious than their wild forebears, before breeding back and up to their current domesticated forms.

Over a period of four thousand years, the Tsalal evolved a remarkably diverse portfolio of domesticated and semi-domesticated plants, as well as sophisticated gardening and crop management techniques, which encompassed irrigation, pond gardens, fertilization, pest control and crop rotation.

Tsalmoth agriculture spread out to Azul, to the Islands, being adapted along the way, and even to Yag, encountering the Yag agricultural complex. At this time, around 15,000 or 13,000 BCE there was a further agricultural revolution as Yag crops and techniques rippled outward, reaching to Tsalmoth, and even apparently triggering further domestications of marginal Yag plants which proliferated, particularly in the Islands.

This said, Agriculture was hardly an unmitigated success for the Tsalal, even by 14,000 years ago or 12,000 BCE. The principle effect was to provide for larger populations, but frequently, larger populations simply lead to periods of greater desperation.