Whereas agriculture is considered as one of the main driver for the emergence of the first cities in Mesopotamia, direct evidence (e.g plant remains) are scarce. Instead, most of the information we have derive from cuneiform texts, recovered on few archaeological sites in Lowland Iraq, often out of context, which report on the type of crops being grown and delivered to the palaces and temples. Despite the long evolution of farming that began in Southwest Asia ca. 10th mill. BCE, and was accompanied by the numerous technical innovations, feeding the world’s population remains a challenge. Continuing population growth tends to be concentrated in urban centres and requires the construction of new infrastructures. Cities expand horizontally mostly, contributing to the reduction of the countryside, where most of the staple food is produced. In addition, climate change and socio-cultural contexts are important factors impacting crop production. Farmers have to adapt and as such, various innovative strategies and experiments are developed. But this problem is not new. The exact same phenomenon occurred five to three millennia ago in Mesopotamia. At the end of the 5th mill. BCE, proto-urban centres emerged. While their population was growing, settlements extended and were re-organised, with a specialisation and spatialisation of activities. Inequalities increased and upper classes progressively took control of social, economic and political decisions. To sustain urban populations the city-state model emerged, connecting large settlements to their hinterland that provided agricultural surplus. Mesopotamian farmers also had to face climate changes, with the 4th mill. BCE marking the beginning of the aridification process. To maintain the yield inhabitants had to adapt and in the south, irrigation systems developed. But this caused the salinisation of soils that became unsuitable for wheat cultivation. In this context, the Gramadif project aimed at 1) reconstructing the plant economy of the site and to compare it to adjacent areas, 2) evaluating the impact of social interactions on plant exploitation and consumption and 3) characterising the beginning of irrigation practice and its evolution. By including various sites, distributed in distinct ecosystems in Iraq and encompassing a wide chronological frame, our dataset aimed at being as much as representative as possible.
