Oldest Mediterranean island farm uncovered

KLIMONAS, Cyprus, May 15 (UPI) -- Researchers say the remains of the oldest known agricultural settlement in the Mediterranean islands have been found on Cypress.

Previously, the team of French archaeologists said, it was believed that due to the island's geographic isolation the first Neolithic farming societies did not reach Cyprus until a thousand years after the birth of agriculture in the Middle East around 9500 to 9400 B.C.

The discovery of Klimonas, a village that dates to around 9000 B.C., proves early cultivators migrated to Cyprus from the Middle Eastern continent just shortly after the emergence of agriculture there, bringing with them wheat as well as dogs and cats.

Archaeological excavations at Klimonas yielded the remnants of a half-buried mud brick communal building, 100 feet in diameter and surrounded by dwellings, that must have been used to store the village's harvests, researchers said.

The findings were reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.