JERUSALEM, April 22 (Xinhua) -- A recent Israeli study has linked humanity's shift to farming about 8,000 years ago in the Southern Levant to climate-driven wildfires and soil erosion, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HU) said Tuesday in a statement.

According to the study published in the Journal of Soils and Sediments, analysis of charcoal, soil, and climate data revealed that orbital shifts in solar radiation around 8,200 years ago triggered lightning storms, burning vegetation and degrading hillside soils, the HU said.

Subsequent fertile sediment was washed into valleys, pushing nomadic hunting groups in the Southern Levant, a geographical region that corresponds approximately to present-day Israel, Palestine, and Jordan, to settle and farm, the HU added.

The study challenged the idea of a purely cultural transition from nomadic hunting and gathering to settled farming, suggesting instead that climate-induced environmental collapse was a key driver, and that agriculture and settlement patterns were likely shaped by necessity, not just innovation. Enditem

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