The Evolution of Wheat - Cultivated Emmer |
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Wild Emmer was harvested by the hunter-gatherers of
the Stone Age for many millennia. Then, around 10,000 BP, some of
the Neolithic Age tribes began to cultivate Wild Emmer, instead of
relying on the wild supplies. Initially the plants would have had
ears with a brittle stalk or rachis, similar to the wild form, each
fragmenting into separate spikelets when ripe. The tribes-people,
probably the women, would have naturally selected the larger intact
ears when they harvested the grain. This subconscious selection led
to the rachis gradually evolving from the brittle wild form into a
non-brittle form. By about 9,500 BP a new Cultivated Emmer had been
created, no longer fragmenting into individual spikelets when ripe
but dependant upon man for continued propagation. Although Cultivated Emmer was still a hulled wheat, it became one of the most important crops for 7,000 years, spreading throughout most of the Near East. It reached Egypt about 6,000 BP and became the principal cereal until replaced by free-threshing Macaroni or Durum Wheat around 2,500 to 2,000 BP. |