Editing Wheat (section)

=== Domestication ===

{{further|Domestication}}

[[Hunter-gatherer]]s in West Asia harvested wild wheats for thousands of years before they were [[domesticated]],<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Richter |first1=Tobias |last2=Maher |first2=Lisa A. |date=2013 |title=Terminology, process and change: reflections on the Epipalaeolithic of South-west Asia |url=https://doi.org/10.1179/0075891413Z.00000000020 |journal=Levant |volume=45 |issue=2 |pages=121–132 |doi=10.1179/0075891413Z.00000000020 |s2cid=161961145}}</ref> perhaps as early as 21,000&nbsp;BC,<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Piperno |first1=Dolores R. |last2=Weiss |first2=Ehud |last3=Holst |first3=Irene |last4=Nadel |first4=Dani |date=August 2004 |title=Processing of wild cereal grains in the Upper Palaeolithic revealed by starch grain analysis |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/nature02734 |journal=Nature |volume=430 |issue=7000 |pages=670–673 |doi=10.1038/nature02734 |pmid=15295598 |bibcode=2004Natur.430..670P |s2cid=4431395}}</ref> but they formed a minor component of their diets.<ref name="Arranz-Otaegui-2018">{{cite journal |last1=Arranz-Otaegui |first1=Amaia |last2=González Carretero |first2=Lara |last3=Roe |first3=Joe |last4=Richter |first4=Tobias |date=2018 |title="Founder crops" v. wild plants: Assessing the plant-based diet of the last hunter-gatherers in southwest Asia |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277379117306145 |journal=Quaternary Science Reviews |volume=186 |pages=263–283 |doi=10.1016/j.quascirev.2018.02.011 |bibcode=2018QSRv..186..263A}}</ref> In this phase of pre-domestication cultivation, early cultivars were spread around the region and slowly developed the traits that came to characterise their domesticated forms.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Fuller |first1=Dorian Q. |last2=Willcox |first2=George |last3=Allaby |first3=Robin G. |date=2011 |title=Cultivation and domestication had multiple origins: arguments against the core area hypothesis for the origins of agriculture in the Near East |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.2011.624747 |journal=World Archaeology |volume=43 |issue=4 |pages=628–652 |doi=10.1080/00438243.2011.624747 |s2cid=56437102}}</ref>

Repeated harvesting and sowing of the grains of [[Grass|wild grasses]] led to the creation of domestic strains, as mutant forms ('sports') of wheat were more amenable to cultivation. In domesticated wheat, grains are larger, and the seeds (inside the [[spikelet]]s) remain attached to the ear by a toughened [[rachis]] during harvesting.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hughes |first1=N. |last2=Oliveira |first2=H.R. |last3=Fradgley |first3=N. |last4=Corke |first4=F. |last5=Cockram |first5=J. |last6=Doonan |first6=J.H. |last7=Nibau |first7=C. |title=μCT trait analysis reveals morphometric differences between domesticated temperate small grain cereals and their wild relatives |journal=[[The Plant Journal]] |volume=99 |issue=1 |pages=98–111 |date=14 March 2019 |doi=10.1111/tpj.14312 |pmid=30868647 |pmc=6618119 }}</ref> In wild strains, a more fragile rachis allows the ear to [[shattering (agriculture)|shatter]] easily, dispersing the spikelets.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Tanno |first1=K. |last2=Willcox |first2=G. |year=2006 |title=How fast was wild wheat domesticated? |journal= [[Science (journal)|Science]] |volume=311 |issue=5769 |page=1886 |doi=10.1126/science.1124635 |pmid=16574859 |s2cid=5738581 }}</ref> Selection for larger grains and non-shattering heads by farmers might not have been deliberately intended, but simply have occurred because these traits made gathering the seeds easier; nevertheless such 'incidental' selection was an important part of crop [[domestication]]. As the traits that improve wheat as a food source involve the loss of the plant's natural [[seed dispersal]] mechanisms, highly domesticated strains of wheat cannot survive in the wild.<ref name="Purugganan-2009">{{cite journal |last1=Purugganan |first1=Michael D. |last2=Fuller |first2=Dorian Q. |title=The nature of selection during plant domestication |journal=Nature |publisher=Springer |volume=457 |issue=7231 |date=1 February 2009 |doi=10.1038/nature07895 |pages=843–848|pmid=19212403 |bibcode=2009Natur.457..843P |s2cid=205216444 }}</ref>

Wild [[einkorn wheat]] (''T. monococcum'' subsp. ''boeoticum'') grows across Southwest Asia in open [[Forest steppe|parkland]] and [[steppe]] environments.<ref name="Zohary-2012">{{cite book |last1=Zohary |first1=Daniel |author1-link=Daniel Zohary |last2=Hopf |first2=Maria |last3=Weiss |first3=Ehud |date=2012 |chapter=Cereals |title=Domestication of Plants in the Old World |edition=4 |place=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199549061.001.0001 |isbn=978-0-19-954906-1 }}</ref> It comprises three distinct [[Race (biology)|races]], only one of which, native to [[Southeast Anatolia]], was domesticated.<ref name="Ozkan-2002">{{cite journal |last1=Ozkan |first1=H. |last2=Brandolini |first2=A. |last3=Schäfer-Pregl |first3=R. |last4=Salamini |first4=F. |date=2002 |title=AFLP analysis of a collection of tetraploid wheats indicates the origin of emmer and hard wheat domestication in southeast Turkey |journal=Molecular Biology and Evolution |volume=19 |issue=10 |pages=1797–1801 |doi=10.1093/oxfordjournals.molbev.a004002 |pmid=12270906 |doi-access=free }}</ref> The main feature that distinguishes domestic einkorn from wild is that its ears do not [[Shattering (agriculture)|shatter]] without pressure, making it dependent on humans for dispersal and reproduction.<ref name="Zohary-2012"/> It also tends to have wider grains.<ref name="Zohary-2012"/> Wild einkorn was collected at sites such as [[Tell Abu Hureyra]] ({{circa|10,700–9000&nbsp;BC}}) and [[Mureybet]] ({{circa|9800–9300&nbsp;BC}}), but the earliest archaeological evidence for the domestic form comes after {{circa| 8800 BC}} in southern Turkey, at [[Çayönü]], [[Cafer Höyük]], and possibly [[Nevalı Çori]].<ref name="Zohary-2012"/> Genetic evidence indicates that it was domesticated in multiple places independently.<ref name="Ozkan-2002"/>

Wild [[emmer wheat]] (''T. turgidum'' subsp. ''dicoccoides'') is less widespread than einkorn, favouring the rocky [[basalt]]ic and [[limestone]] soils found in the [[Hilly Flanks|hilly flanks]] of the Fertile Crescent.<ref name="Zohary-2012"/> It is more diverse, with domesticated varieties falling into two major groups: hulled or non-shattering, in which threshing separates the whole [[spikelet]]; and free-threshing, where the individual grains are separated. Both varieties probably existed in prehistory, but over time free-threshing cultivars became more common.<ref name="Zohary-2012"/> Wild emmer was first cultivated in the southern [[Levant]], as early as 9600&nbsp;BC.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Feldman |first1=Moshe |last2=Kislev |first2=Mordechai E. |date=2007 |title=''Domestication of emmer wheat and evolution of free-threshing tetraploid wheat'' in "A Century of Wheat Research-From Wild Emmer Discovery to Genome Analysis", Published Online: 3 November 2008 |url=http://www.sciencefromisrael.com/app/home/contribution.asp?referrer=parent&backto=issue,2,14;journal,9,41;linkingpublicationresults,1:300170,1 |url-status=dead |journal=Israel Journal of Plant Sciences |volume=55 |pages=207–221 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131206013930/http://www.sciencefromisrael.com/app/home/contribution.asp?referrer=parent&backto=issue,2,14;journal,9,41;linkingpublicationresults,1:300170,1 |archive-date=6 December 2013 |access-date=6 July 2011 |number=3–4|doi=10.1560/IJPS.55.3-4.207 |doi-broken-date=2 November 2024 }}</ref><ref name="Colledge-2007">{{cite book |last=Colledge |first=Sue |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D2nym35k_EcC&pg=PA40 |title=The origins and spread of domestic plants in southwest Asia and Europe |publisher=[[Left Coast Press]] |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-59874-988-5 |pages=40–}}</ref> Genetic studies have found that, like einkorn, it was domesticated in southeastern Anatolia, but only once.<ref name="Ozkan-2002"/><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Luo |first1=M.-C. |last2=Yang |first2=Z.-L. |last3=You |first3=F. M. |last4=Kawahara |first4=T. |last5=Waines |first5=J. G. |last6=Dvorak |first6=J. |date=2007 |title=The structure of wild and domesticated emmer wheat populations, gene flow between them, and the site of emmer domestication |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/s00122-006-0474-0 |journal=Theoretical and Applied Genetics |volume=114 |issue=6 |pages=947–959 |doi=10.1007/s00122-006-0474-0 |pmid=17318496 |s2cid=36096777}}</ref> The earliest secure archaeological evidence for domestic emmer comes from Çayönü, {{circa|8300–7600&nbsp;BC}}, where distinctive scars on the spikelets indicated that they came from a hulled domestic variety.<ref name="Zohary-2012"/> Slightly earlier finds have been reported from [[Tell Aswad]] in Syria, {{circa|8500–8200&nbsp;BC}}, but these were identified using a less reliable method based on grain size.<ref name="Zohary-2012"/>