<P> The Middle East served as the source for many animals that could be domesticated, such as sheep, goats and pigs . This area was also the first region to domesticate the dromedary . Henri Fleisch discovered and termed the Shepherd Neolithic flint industry from the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon and suggested that it could have been used by the earliest nomadic shepherds . He dated this industry to the Epipaleolithic or Pre-Pottery Neolithic as it is evidently not Paleolithic, Mesolithic or even Pottery Neolithic . The presence of these animals gave the region a large advantage in cultural and economic development . As the climate in the Middle East changed and became drier, many of the farmers were forced to leave, taking their domesticated animals with them . It was this massive emigration from the Middle East that would later help distribute these animals to the rest of Afroeurasia . This emigration was mainly on an east - west axis of similar climates, as crops usually have a narrow optimal climatic range outside of which they cannot grow for reasons of light or rain changes . For instance, wheat does not normally grow in tropical climates, just like tropical crops such as bananas do not grow in colder climates . Some authors, like Jared Diamond, have postulated that this East - West axis is the main reason why plant and animal domestication spread so quickly from the Fertile Crescent to the rest of Eurasia and North Africa, while it did not reach through the North - South axis of Africa to reach the Mediterranean climates of South Africa, where temperate crops were successfully imported by ships in the last 500 years . Similarly, the African Zebu of central Africa and the domesticated bovines of the fertile - crescent--separated by the dry sahara desert--were not introduced into each other's region . </P> <P> Despite the significant technological advance, the Neolithic revolution did not lead immediately to a rapid growth of population . Its benefits appear to have been offset by various adverse effects, mostly diseases and warfare . </P> <P> It has long been taken for granted that the introduction of agriculture had been an unequivocal progress . This is now questioned in view of findings by archaeologists and paleopathologists showing that nutritional standards of Neolithic populations were generally inferior to that of hunter - gatherers, and that their life expectancy may well have been shorter too, in part due to diseases and harder work . Hunter - gatherers must have covered their food needs with about 20 hours work a week, while agriculture required much more and was at least as uncertain . The hunter - gatherers' diet was more varied and balanced than what agriculture later allowed . Average height went down from 5'10" (178 cm) for men and 5'6" (168 cm) for women to 5'5" (165 cm) and 5'1" (155 cm), respectively, and it took until the twentieth century for average human height to come back to the pre-Neolithic Revolution levels . Agriculturalists had more anaemias and vitamin deficiencies, more spinal deformations and more dental pathologies . </P> <P> However, the decrease in individual nutrition was accompanied by an increase in population . </P>

Africa is associated with all of the following types of domesticated crops except