Where Was Einkorn Wheat Domesticated?

research news Where was einkorn wheat domesticated?

The emergence of agriculture in southwest show that 19 accessions of wild einkorn from Asia and its spread to Europe is the key fac- the basalt mountain of Karacadag in southeast tor in the development of complex civiliz- Turkey are distinct from other lines of wild ations in these regions1. One of the earliest cinkorn from within the fertile crescent, and domesticates was einkorn whcat (Fig. l), and that 11 lines of these are by far the most other early crops included emmer wheat, bar- closely related to domesticated einkorns. ley, pulses such as lentil and pea, and flax. Wild einkorn lines from secondary habitats Collaboration between archaeologists and outside the fertile crescent were found to be crop scientists over the last 40 years has estab- related to wild einkorn from primary habitats lished that the wild ancestors of these early in othcr fertile-crescent groups, but not to the crops grow mainly in an area known as the Karacadag lines. These weedy einkorns are 'fertile crescent' (Fig. 2), stretching from the therefore not feral derivatives of domesti- Levant to southeast Turkey and the Zagros cated einkorn, but rather spread with agricul- mountains of Iran. The earliest Neolithic ture from different parts of the fertile crescent. farming villages known from the Old World The case of the aegilopoides form of that have evidence of these crops appear weedy wild einkorn is different. The mor- within the fertile crescent from about 10 000 phological traits of aegilopoides - increased years ago2. However, until now it has been number of spikelets per spike, larger seeds impossible to localize the region in which any and tough rachis - iire so similar to those of of these crops was domesticated more pre- domesticated einkorn that they probably cisely. For einkorn wheat, two particular derive from a feral form of domesticated questions can be framed: einkorn or through introgression of weedy Where within the area of primary distribu- wild forms with domesticated einkorn in the tion was einkorn taken into domestication? region. Nine lines from the Balkans were As argued by some archaeologist?, could finger-printed and found to be very closely wild einkorn (Triticzdm monococcrrm ssp. related to domesticated einkorn. The close boeoticum) have existed in primary habi- Fig. 1. Spikes of domesticated einkorn, genetic relationship is hardly surprising in tats in the Balkans, allowing an independ- under cultivation in the Pontic moun- view of the morphological similarities. ent domestication of einkorn prior to the tains of northern Turkey. Overall, these results point to a single spread of agriculture into the region from domestication of wild einkorn, in the southwest Asia? Karacadag region; domesticated einkorn Recent work4 has used DNA finger-printing carbon dated to 9500-9700 years ago, includ- probably spread from here throughout the rest to pinpoint the area of domestication of ing Abu Hureyra, Cafer Hoyuk, Nevali Cori of Eurasia, accompanied by weedy wild einkorn wheat to the Karacadag mountainsof and Cayaniib.'. From the Near East einkorn einkorns, and with a feral form, aegilopoides, southeast Turkey, with important impli- spread eastwards to become a major crop in evolving after domeslicated einkorn reached cations for our understanding of the origin central Asia, and an important cereal, the Balkans. and spread of agricullure. although usually secondary to barley and emmer whcat, throughout most of Europe. Key assumptions Wild and domesticated einkorn As the authors of this study point out, some Wild einkorn wheat has long been recognized New approaches assumptions about the stability and survival as the wild ancestor of domesticated einkorn Heun et al. have applied two fresh approaches of populations of wild einkom are necessary. wheat. The two forms are fully interfertile and for investigating the origins of einkorn wheat. The distribution of wild cereals today is the morphologically very similar. Wild einkorn First, amplified-fragmcnt length polymor- result of their expansion during the early is widespread in primary, relatively undis- phism (AFLP) DNA finger-printing was used Holocene from the refugia in which they sur- turbed habitats in southeast Turkey and north- to compare the degree of relationship of 338 vived the last Ice Age, combined with the cm Iraq, and is present less abundantly in lines of wild and domesticated cinkorns from extinction or depletion of stands of wild and western Turkey and the Zagros mountains of different locations. Second, 1362 lines were domesticated einkorn caused by increasingly [ran". Wild einkorn is also abundant in sec- grown on, ensuring that identification of intensive agriculture in the 10 000 years since ondary, weedy habitats throughout central accessions from genebanks could be checked. farming began. For example, archaeobotani- and western Turkey and much of the Balkans. and study of morphological traits correlated cal evidence suggests that in the early Wild cinkorn probably spread into these sec- with genetic characteristics. This is unusual Neolithic period, stands of wild einkorn may ondary habitats as they were created by the among genetic studies of cereals, both in inte- have extended further south than today, to the spread of agriculture. Domesticated einkorn grating diffcrenl types of data and in testing a environs of Abu Hureyra in northcrn Syriav. occurs at several early agricultural sites in large number of lincs for which the origins are This is a rcl;~rivcly dry, m;~rginal habitat southc;ist Turkcy :ind northern Syria radio- clear. Rcsults from DNA f'ingcr-printing t'or wild cinkorn: where the pressures of

finger-printing is applied to equally large collections of lines of other crop plants and their wild ancestors, significant progress is promised in understanding the location and trajectory of agricultural origins.

Acknowledgements I would like to thank Manfred Heun, Dclwen Samuel and Daniel Zohary for help- ful comments on this article.

Mark Nesbitt British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara, Tahran Caddesi 24, Kavaklidere, Ankara 06700, Turkey (tel t90 312 427 54 87; fax +90 31 2 428 01 59; e-mail [email protected])

References 1 Diamond, J. (1997) Guns, Gerttts und Steel: The Fig. 2. Early village sites in relation to the distribution of wild wheats. Filled symbols show Fates of Human Societies, Jonathin Cape selected archaeological sites with dcfinite evidence of domesticated crops; open symbols 2 Zoliary, D. and Hopf, M. (1993) Domestication show sites based on hunter-gatherer economics. Dotted lines show the distribution of pri- of Plants in the Old World. T/te Origin and mary stands of wild einkorn; broken lines show primary stands of wild emmer wheat. The Spread o/Cuitivared Plants in West Asia, distribution of the two wheats together approximately encompass the fertile crescent. Europe, and the Nile Valley (2nd edn), Clarendon Press 3 Denncll, R. (1985) European Econon~ic agriculture and grazing may havc led to its Karacadag have shown that enough wild Prehistory: a New Approach, Academic Prcss early extinction. The Karacadag forms of wild einkorn grain could easily have been har- 4 Heun. M. et al. (1997) Site of einkorn wheat einkorn may themselves have been more vested to support substantial hunter-gatherer domcstication identified by DNA fingerprinting, wtdely distributed in areas adjoining the ~ettlements'~.It is highly likely that pre- Science 278, 1312-13 14 mountain in the past. Neolithic hunter-gatherer sites exist in the 5 Harlan, J.R. and Zohary, D. (1966) Distribution Einkorn domesticated elsewhere in thc region that have not yet been found by archae- of wild wheits and barley, Science 153, fertile crescent may have been replaced ologists, and that these werc the precursors to 1074-1080 by the Karacadag domesticate during the the known agricultural settlements. 6 Nesbitt, M. and Samuel. D. (1996) t:rom staple early spread of agriculture. However, the Evidence of domestication is not necess- crop to extinction? The archaeology and history Karacadag wild einkorn is uniquc in being arily the same as evidence of agricultural ori- of the hullcd wheats, in Hulled Wheats: closely related to the existing domesticatcd gins, because agriculture may have begun in Proceedings of the First lnrernrrtional Workshop cinkorns. and it is unlikely that more closely one area with one set of crops, and then on Hulled Wheuts (Padulosi, S., llammer, K. and related forms could have exi~tedelsewhere. encompassed more domesticates as it spread. Heller, J., eds), pp. 41-100, International Plant The case of einkorn parallels that for the other Wild ancestors of all the Neolithic founder Genetic Resources Institute Neolithic crops, which also probably derive crops are present in southeast Turkey and 7 de Moulins, D. (1993) Lcs resles de planles from a single domestication eventt0. could have been domesticated there. carhonisecs de Cafer Hiiyuk, Cahiers de However, it is equally possible that agricul- I 'Euphrale7, 191-234 The origins of agriculture ture began in the Levant, without einkorn; 8 van Zeist. W. and dc Roller, G.J. (199111992) Much attention has been given to the Levant which is rare in the area, but with cmmer The plant husbandry of aceramic Cayonii, SE -especially the Jordan valley - as the likely wheat and barley. Agriculture may well have Turkey, Palaeolzb~oria33134.65-96 area of the first cultivation and domesti- begun in different parts of the Near East with 9 Hillman, GC. (1996) Late Pleistocene changes cation". Until recently, archaeological sites different foundcr crops, blending by the Pre- in wild plant-foods available to hunter-gatherers there such as Jericho and Aswad appearcd to Pottery Ncolithic B period (8000-9500 years of the northern Fertile Crcsccnl: possible be the earliest agricultural vik~ges.However, ago) of the Neolithic to result in the familiar preludes to ccrcal cultivation, in 7/1eOrigins and archaeobotanical work on charred plant packagc of foundcr crops, As yet, too few Spread of Agriculture und Paslorulism in remains from sites in the northern fertile cres- Neolithic or pre-Ncolithic sites have been htrasia (Harris. D.R., ed.), pp. 15S203, UCL cent has established that sites in Turkey and excavated to allow us to identify intra- Press Syria, such as Cafer Hoyiikand Cayonii, yield regional patterns of early crop exploitation. 10 Zohary, D. (1996) The mode of domestication of better evidence for the earliest dorncsticated The new insights into einkorn domesti- thc founder crops of Southwest Asian crops by 950h9800 years ago. The new cvi- cation from DNA finger-printing are valuable agriculture, in The Origins cord Spread of dence for the area of domcstication of wild in their own right, providing a welcomc re- Agicullttre and l'aslorcrlis~nin Errrasiu einkorn -just a few kilometres from these cmphasis on the importance of the northern (Harris. D.R.. ed.), pp. 142-1 58. UCL Press sites - fits well with this realization that fertilc crcscent in plant domestication, and l l Smith, R.1). (1995) Tile Etnergetrcc of domesticatcd crops (including cinlorn) were confirmation of the exclusively southwest Agricrrlturc. Scien[il'ic American Librarv present early on at sites in thc northern Asion origins of European einkorn. If the 12 I1:trlnn. J.K. (1967) A wild whe:~tharvest in fcrtile crescent. Harvesting expcrimenls on remnrkablc power of resolution of AI'LP 'I'urkey. Arclrucolq~20. 197-201

March 1998. Vol. 3. No. 3 83