Editing Wheat (section)

=== Early farming ===

[[File:NHM - Jungsteinzeit Sichel 2.jpg|thumb|right|Sickles with [[Microblade technology|stone microblade]]s were used to harvest wheat in the Neolithic period, {{circa|8500–4000 BC}}]]

Einkorn and emmer are considered two of the [[founder crops]] cultivated by the first farming societies in [[Neolithic]] West Asia.<ref name="Zohary-2012" /> These communities also cultivated naked wheats (''T. aestivum'' and ''T. durum'') and a now-extinct domesticated form of [[Triticum timopheevii|Zanduri wheat]] (''T. timopheevii''),<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Czajkowska |first1=Beata I. |last2=Bogaard |first2=Amy |last3=Charles |first3=Michael |last4=Jones |first4=Glynis |last5=Kohler-Schneider |first5=Marianne |last6=Mueller-Bieniek |first6=Aldona |last7=Brown |first7=Terence A. |date=2020-11-01 |title=Ancient DNA typing indicates that the "new" glume wheat of early Eurasian agriculture is a cultivated member of the Triticum timopheevii group |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305440320301795 |journal=Journal of Archaeological Science |volume=123 |pages=105258 |doi=10.1016/j.jas.2020.105258 |bibcode=2020JArSc.123j5258C |s2cid=225168770}}</ref> as well as a wide variety of other cereal and non-cereal crops.<ref name="Arranz-Otaegui-2023">{{Cite journal |last1=Arranz-Otaegui |first1=Amaia |last2=Roe |first2=Joe |date=2023-09-01 |title=Revisiting the concept of the 'Neolithic Founder Crops' in southwest Asia |journal=Vegetation History and Archaeobotany |volume=32 |issue=5 |pages=475–499 |doi=10.1007/s00334-023-00917-1 |bibcode=2023VegHA..32..475A |s2cid=258044557 |doi-access=free }}</ref> Wheat was relatively uncommon for the first thousand years of the Neolithic (when [[barley]] predominated), but became a staple after around 8500&nbsp;BC.<ref name="Arranz-Otaegui-2023"/> Early wheat cultivation did not demand much labour. Initially, farmers took advantage of wheat's ability to establish itself in [[annual grasslands]] by enclosing fields against grazing animals and re-sowing stands after they had been harvested, without the need to systematically remove vegetation or till the soil.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Weide |first1=Alexander |last2=Green |first2=Laura |last3=Hodgson |first3=John G. |last4=Douché |first4=Carolyne |last5=Tengberg |first5=Margareta |last6=Whitlam |first6=Jade |last7=Dovrat |first7=Guy |last8=Osem |first8=Yagil |last9=Bogaard |first9=Amy |date=June 2022 |title=A new functional ecological model reveals the nature of early plant management in southwest Asia |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/s41477-022-01161-7 |journal=Nature Plants |volume=8 |issue=6 |pages=623–634 |doi=10.1038/s41477-022-01161-7 |pmid=35654954 |bibcode=2022NatPl...8..623W |s2cid=249313666}}</ref> They may also have exploited natural wetlands and floodplains to practice [[décrue farming]], sowing seeds in the soil left behind by receding floodwater.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Sherratt |first=Andrew |date=February 1980 |title=Water, soil and seasonality in early cereal cultivation |url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00438243.1980.9979770 |journal=World Archaeology |volume=11 |issue=3 |pages=313–330 |doi=10.1080/00438243.1980.9979770}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Scott |first=James C. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UjYuDwAAQBAJ |title=Against the Grain: A Deep History of the Earliest States |date=2017 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-3002-3168-7 |publication-place=New Haven |page=66 |chapter=The Domestication of Fire, Plants, Animals, and ... Us |quote=The general problem with farming — especially plough agriculture — is that it involves so much intensive labor. One form of agriculture, however, eliminates most of this labor: 'flood-retreat' (also known as décrue or recession) agriculture. In flood-retreat agriculture, seeds are generally broadcast on the fertile silt deposited by an annual riverine flood. |author-link1=James C. Scott |access-date=19 March 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Graeber |first1=David |title=The dawn of everything: a new history of humanity |last2=Wengrow |first2=David |date=2021 |publisher=Allen Lane |isbn=978-0-241-40242-9 |location=London |page=235}}</ref> It was harvested with [[Microblade technology|stone-bladed]] [[sickle]]s.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Maeda |first1=Osamu |last2=Lucas |first2=Leilani |last3=Silva |first3=Fabio |last4=Tanno |first4=Ken-Ichi |last5=Fuller |first5=Dorian Q. |date=2016-08-01 |title=Narrowing the Harvest: Increasing sickle investment and the rise of domesticated cereal agriculture in the Fertile Crescent |journal=Quaternary Science Reviews |volume=145 |pages=226–237 |doi=10.1016/j.quascirev.2016.05.032 |bibcode=2016QSRv..145..226M |doi-access=free }}</ref> The ease of storing wheat and other cereals led farming households to become gradually more reliant on it over time, especially after they developed individual storage facilities that were large enough to hold more than a year's supply.<ref name="Weide-2021">{{Cite journal |last=Weide |first=Alexander |date=29 November 2021 |title=Towards a Socio-Economic Model for Southwest Asian Cereal Domestication |journal=Agronomy  |volume=11 |issue=12 |pages=2432 |doi=10.3390/agronomy11122432 |doi-access=free |bibcode=2021Agron..11.2432W }}</ref>

Wheat grain was stored after [[threshing]], with the [[chaff]] removed.<ref name="Weide-2021"/> It was then processed into flour using [[ground stone]] [[Mortar and pestle|mortars]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Dubreuil |first=Laure |date=2004-11-01 |title=Long-term trends in Natufian subsistence: a use-wear analysis of ground stone tools |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305440304000731 |journal=Journal of Archaeological Science |volume=31 |issue=11 |pages=1613–1629 |doi=10.1016/j.jas.2004.04.003 |bibcode=2004JArSc..31.1613D}}</ref> [[Bread]] made from ground einkorn and the tubers of a form of [[Club-rush|club rush]] (''Bolboschoenus glaucus'') was made as early as 12,400&nbsp;BC.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Arranz-Otaegui |first1=Amaia |last2=Gonzalez Carretero |first2=Lara |last3=Ramsey |first3=Monica N. |last4=Fuller |first4=Dorian Q. |last5=Richter |first5=Tobias |date=2018-07-31 |title=Archaeobotanical evidence reveals the origins of bread 14,400 years ago in northeastern Jordan |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |volume=115 |issue=31 |pages=7925–7930 |doi=10.1073/pnas.1801071115 |pmc=6077754 |pmid=30012614 |bibcode=2018PNAS..115.7925A |doi-access=free }}</ref> At [[Çatalhöyük]] ({{Circa|7100–6000&nbsp;BC}}), both wholegrain wheat and flour was used to prepare bread, [[porridge]] and [[gruel]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=González Carretero |first1=Lara |last2=Wollstonecroft |first2=Michèle |last3=Fuller |first3=Dorian Q. |date=2017-07-01 |title=A methodological approach to the study of archaeological cereal meals: a case study at Çatalhöyük East (Turkey) |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-017-0602-6 |journal=Vegetation History and Archaeobotany |volume=26 |issue=4 |pages=415–432 |doi=10.1007/s00334-017-0602-6 |pmid=28706348 |pmc=5486841 |bibcode=2017VegHA..26..415G |s2cid=41734442}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Fuller |first1=Dorian Q. |last2=Carretero |first2=Lara Gonzalez |date=2018-12-05 |title=The Archaeology of Neolithic Cooking Traditions: Archaeobotanical Approaches to Baking, Boiling and Fermenting |journal=Archaeology International |volume=21 |pages=109–121 |doi=10.5334/ai-391 |doi-access=free }}</ref> Apart from food, wheat may also have been important to Neolithic societies as a source of [[straw]], which could be used for fuel, [[Wicker|wicker-making]], or [[wattle and daub]] construction.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Graeber |first1=David |title=The dawn of everything: a new history of humanity |last2=Wengrow |first2=David |date=2021 |publisher=Allen Lane |isbn=978-0-241-40242-9 |location=London |pages=232}}</ref>