Granary / grain silo

What it is

Circular structures with a floor raised on beams to keep grain isolated from damp and rodents. The first communal-scale storage infrastructure, predating full domestication.

What it led to

• A food surplus that made it possible to survive winter and poor harvests
• Unequal accumulation of wealth and the emergence of hierarchies and debt
• Mice, rats and cats drawn to the settlement, and new diseases
• The need for accounting and control of stored grain

Built on

• Basketryc. 27 ka
• Composite flint sicklec. 9500 BCE
• Cereal cultivation (pre-domestication)c. 9400 BCE
• Pre-domestication cereal cultivation
• Composite flint sickle

Made possible

• Wheat domestication (einkorn and emmer)c. 9000 BCE
• Clay accounting tokensc. 8000 BCE
• Cat domesticationc. 7500 BCE
• Stamp seal and clay sealingsc. 6000 BCE
• Barley beerc. 3500 BCE
• Storage pottery

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