  In Hesiod's calendar, circa 8th century BCE, the harvest times of cereals
were indicated by the heliacal rising of Pleiades (harvest) and by that of
Orion (thresh). We tried to verify which risings and settings of the brightest
stars could have been used as indicators in the previous millennia, taking into
account the precession and the dependence of the heliacal dates on the
latitude. In the second half of the 9th millennium BCE there was essentially
one bright star that could have been used both for the harvest (heliacal
setting of the star) and for the thresh (heliacal rising of the star): Spica,
i.e. ear (in Latin) of cereals. According to archaeologists, the domestication
of barley and wheat occurred in Near East at the end of the 9th millennium BCE.
Given the importance of the bright stars and asterisms for ancient farming
activities, we have therefore proposed that the identification of the star
alpha Virginis with an ear should date back to the beginning of Neolithic,
possibly well before the identification of the constellation (Virgo) with a
maiden.
