Very nice. You can't conjur up an equivalent map for Asia - or even just South Asia - can you?

Based on the spread of agriculture to the coasts of the western Mediterranean, it looks like Mediterranean trade was in full swing by 5000 BC. I'd have assumed it got going much later.

Raz,

One minor quibble with the excellent map - Jordan shouldn't be blue?!

The spreading pattern of agriculture is the same spreading pattern of civilization. Again, this implicates economical basis for well-known civilizations.

What's interesting to me is that the spread of agriculture down one side of Italy, exactly mirrors the languages later extent in the region.

Also, there is a jump to today's Catalan coast of Spain and Southern Provence area of France - with no land connection to the other agriculture areas. Perhaps this branch of farming was achieved by boat from the Southern Balkans or Anatolia or elsewhere. It's tempting to think - following Oppehheimer's work - that this was the genesis of the proto-Celtic language, which later expanded into Iberia and Gaul...

Thanks for a nice post, which I linked to here http://agro.biodiver.se/2007/10/...re-into-europe/ . There's also a follow up here http://agro.biodiver.se/2007/10/...y-and-genetics/ .