This article discusses the slow process of change from hunting-and gathering to systematic agriculture which took place in the Zagros Mountains region c. 11,000 to 6,000 B.C. Study of the distribution of wild cereals and a look into the origin of domesticated cereals is aided by pollen studies. Certain wild grains were fire selected through slash-and-burn agricultural methods. It is proposed that the change in life styles was brought on by the population pressure caused by reduction of the marginal cereal zone at the end of the Last Glaciation; although agriculture takes more work than hunting-and-gathering, the food yield is higher. -- AATA