einkorn from anatolia

Einkorn Wheat (Triticum monococcum ssp. Monococcum)

Wheat is a grain crop that takes many forms in the world today. The two most common are common wheat, Triticum aestivum, also known as bread wheat and accounting for some 95% of all the consumed wheat in the world today; and durum wheat T. turgidum ssp. durum, which is that used in pasta and semolina products.

Origins of Wheat

The origins of our modern wheat, according to genetics and archaeological studies, are found in the Karacadag mountain region of southeastern Turkey. There, some 10,000 years ago or so, two types of wheat were domesticated: einkorn or Triticum monococcum and emmer (reported both as T. araraticum and T. turgidum ssp. dicoccoides). Spelt, T. spelta, and T. timopheevii were ancient forms of wheat developed by the late Neolithic, neither of which have much of a market today.

The main differences between the wild forms of wheat and domesticated wheat are that domesticated forms have larger seeds and a non-shattering rachis. When wild wheat is ripe, the rachis--the stem that keeps the wheat shafts together--shatters so that the seeds can disperse themselves. But that naturally useful brittleness doesn't suit humans, who prefer to wait until the wheat is ripe to harvest it. Of course, if farmers harvest wheat when they believe it is ready, they only get the wheat that remains on the rachis: that wheat is what the farmers plant and in the process selected wheats with rachis that didn't become brittle at harvest time.

How Long Did Domestication Take?

One of the ongoing arguments about wheat is the length of time it took for this process to occur. Some scholars argue for a fairly rapid process, of a few centuries; while others argue that the process from cultivation to domestication took up to 5,000 years. These scholars are debating the date of the earliest domestication: all of them agree, and the evidence is abundant, that by ca 10,400 years ago, domesticated wheat was in widespread use throughout the Levant region.

The earliest evidence for both domesticate einkorn and emmer wheats found to date was at the Syrian site of Abu Hureyra, in occupation layers dated to the Late Epipaleolithic period, the beginning of the Younger Dryas, ca 13,000-12,000 cal BP; some scholars (Colledge and Conolly 2010) have argued that the evidence does not show cultivation at this time, although it does indicate a broadening of the diet base to include a reliance on wild grains including the wheats.

Another recent study (Haldorsen and collagues) focusing on one-grained Einkorn (Triticum monococcum ssp. monococcum) agrees with this later timeline and suggests that one-grained einkorn was domesticated in southeastern Turkey after the end of the Younger Dryas (~11,600-10,400 cal BP).

Domesticated one-grained Einkorn wheat has been recovered from the earliest layers at the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B ( generally considered the first farmers) sites of Nevali Cori and Cafer Hoyuk about 11,600 cal BP, at the end of the Younger Dryas and at the same time as the establishment of the ritual site of Göbekli Tepe. By 10,400 cal BP, Eincorn was widespread throughout the region.

Einkorn Wheat Domestication Identified by DNA Fingerprinting

Abstract

The emergence of agriculture in the Near East also involved the domestication of einkorn wheat. Phylogenetic analysis that was based on the allelic frequency at 288 amplified fragment length polymorphism molecular marker loci indicates that a wild group of Triticum monococcum boeoticum lines from the Karacadağ mountains (southeast Turkey) is the likely progenitor of cultivated einkorn varieties. Evidence from archeological excavations of early agricultural settlements nearby supports the conclusion that domestication of einkorn wheat began near the Karacadağmountains.

Taxon Page

Family	:	Poaceae
Genus	:	Triticum L.
Taxon	:	Triticum monococcum L. var.

Taxonomic Hierarchy

Kingdom Plantae Subkingdom Tracheobionta Division Magnoliophyta Class Liliopsida Subclass Commelinidae Order Cyperales Family Poaceae Genus Triticum Species Triticum monococcum L. The wild progenitor of einkorn wheat, one of the first crops to be domesticated (ca. 9000 B.C.), has been identified genetically in southeastern Turkey, according to a report in the journal Science. Manfred Heun of the Agricultural University of Norway, along with Norwegian, German, and Italian colleagues, examined the DNA of 68 lines of cultivated einkorn (Triticum monococcum monococcum), 194 lines of wild einkorn (T. m. boeoticum) from nine geographical regions within the Fertile Crescent, and nine lines of a weedy einkorn (T. m. aegilopoides) found in the Balkans. Cultivated einkorns proved closely related to one another and to weedy einkorn. Significantly, both cultivated and weedy varieties are closely related to wild einkorn found in one region, the Karacadag Mountains of southeastern Turkey. The wild einkorn from that area proved to be distinct from other wild types and may be the forebear of the domestic variety. Eleven of 19 lines of wild einkorn from the Karacadag Mountains are particularly close to cultivated einkorn but have clear wild characteristics, including a brittle stalk yielding a few small grains. In cultivated einkorn the stalk is tougher (which makes the grain easier to harvest), and the seeds are larger and more numerous. The weedy einkorn, closely related to both wild and cultivated types, appears to be an intermediate form with some characteristics of cultivation (the stem is somewhat tougher than in wild plants, the seeds are intermediate in weight, and there are comparable numbers of seeds as in cultivated plants). Wild or cultivated einkorn grains have been found at several early Neolithic sites in Turkey near the Karacadag Mountains, including Cafer Höyük, Cayönü, and Nevali Cori. Wild and cultivated seeds have also been found at Abu Hureya to the south in Syria.