Graeber / Wengrow 232: "Harvesting by sickle yields straw as well as grain. Today we consider straw a by-product of cereal farming, the primary purpose being to produce food. But archaeological evidence suggests things started the other way round. [...] [P]opulations in the Middle East began settling in permanent villages long before cereals became a major component of their diets. In doing so, they found new uses for the stalks of wild grasses; these included fuel for lighting fires, and the temper that transformed mud and clay from so much friable matter into a vital tectonic resource, used to build houses, ovens, storage bins, and other fixed structures. Straw could also be used to make baskets, clothing, matting and thatch."