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Dump Heaps

or origins of agriculture

Cultivation of plants may have arisen accidentally. According to the “dump heap hypothesis,” wandering peoples discarded remains of plant foods in piles in cleared areas, then returned to the sites and discovered that the same types of plants they had eaten the year before grew again. Eventually, people connected the leaving of seed one season to finding of edible plants the next. Farming began when people intentionally saved and planted seeds of their favorite plants.