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The rise of agriculture is a complex topic but from what we do know the earliest region to witness the domestication of plants and animals was in the Fertile Crescent region of the Near East, spanning modern day Iraq, Syria, western Iran, southern Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, and Israel (Figure 1). <ref>For a discussion on the regions that witness the rise of agriculture see: Wengrow, D. 2010. ''What Makes Civilization?: The Ancient Near East and the Future of the West''. Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press.</ref>The rise of agriculture is so significant that the earliest cereal crops and animals domesticate still form the basis of agriculture in many countries today. This includes the domestication of sheep, goats, pigs, cattle, dogs, donkeys, onager, wheat, barley, oats, and others. Many of these varieties of plants and animals were domesticated between 12,000-9000 years ago.<ref>For a discussion on domestication characteristics see: Zeder, Melinda A., ed. 2006. ''Documenting Domestication: New Genetic and Archaeological Paradigms''. Berkeley, Calif: University of California Press.</ref>

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