Trends, stasis and trajectories for plant and animal domestications: possibilistic models alert on resource overexploitation

The transition from hunter-gatherer communities to farming societies is a pivotal shift in human history, hinging on the emergence, selection and diffusion of domestic plants and animals. However, the sequence and order of these steps remain only partially understood. In this study, we used a possibilistic formalism to model the emergence and development of farming. This first attempt, based on an intentionally limited number of qualitative and discrete rules, represents the interactions between domestic and wild plants and animals, and human societies. This initial case study focuses on the emergence of farming in Southwest Asia. We constructed a theoretical model including a minimum number of five components and 18 processes. We explored three models representing increasing exploitation of resources from no overexploitation, to overexploitation of both wild and domestic resources. Our findings revealed possible scenarios for the emergence and development of farming, where animal domestication possibly emerged before plant domestication, contradicting the most accepted temporality. We also generated alternative hypotheses concerning the initiation of plant and animal domestications. The possible ecosystem development with resource overexploitation underscores the importance of wild resources for sustainable societies. This initial attempt at possibilistic modelling can be further developed and expanded to address a broad range of archaeological questions. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Unravelling domestication: multi-disciplinary perspectives on human and non-human relationships in the past, present and future’.