Regions colored in brown represent centers of origin of food production. Question marks (?) indicate some uncertainty about the independent nature of the origin in a particular region.

Domestication of plants and animals began in the Fertile Crescent of Southwestern Asia (today northern Iraq and parts of Syria, Lebanon, Israel, the West Bank, Jordan and Turkey) some 10,000 - 11,000 years ago (perhaps 8,500 BCE).

Reference

• Map based generally on Figure 5.1 of Jared Diamond,Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1997.

Map is a Mercator projection that exaggerates the size of areas far from the equator.

---

Global Maps of Human Technological Development

World Stem Cell Map	Stem Cell Research Centers Map	Global Biotch & Biosecurity Map	Global Competitiveness / Stem Cell Research Map	Stem Cell Science
Biotechnology Clusters Map	Global Biotech Crops Map	Digital Innovation Map 2000	Industrialization Map 1850	Electrification - Earth at Night Mayhew & Simmon (NASA/GSFC)

Maps created with GMT software

William Hoffman - hoffm003@umn.edu

Disclaimer: This work is a communications project of William Hoffman, a non-faculty employee of the University of Minnesota, and not the University of Minnesota. It is meant to help inform public discussion of stem cell research and human development.

MBBNet

---