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== Evolution == === Taxonomy and phylogeny === {{see also|Wheat#Genetics and breeding|Wheat taxonomy}} [[File:Polyploid wheat origins.svg|thumb|center|upright=3|Wild emmer is one of the ancestors of [[bread wheat]]; both species are [[Hybrid (biology)|hybrids]].<ref name="Golovnina-2007"/>]] Strong similarities in morphology and genetics show that wild emmer (''T. dicoccoides'' <small>Koern.</small>) is the wild ancestor and a [[crop wild relative]] of domesticated emmer. Wild emmer still grows wild in the Near East. It is a [[tetraploid]] wheat formed by the hybridization of two [[diploid]] wild grasses, wild red einkorn (''[[Triticum urartu]]''), and the goatgrass ''[[Aegilops speltoides]]''.<ref name="Golovnina-2007">{{cite journal |last1=Golovnina |first1=K. A. |last2=Glushkov |first2=S. A. |last3=Blinov |first3=A. G. |last4=Mayorov |first4=V. I. |last5=Adkison |first5=L. R. |last6=Goncharov |first6=N. P. |title=Molecular phylogeny of the genus Triticum L |journal=[[Plant Systematics and Evolution]] |volume=264 |issue=3–4 |date=2007-02-12 |doi=10.1007/s00606-006-0478-x |pages=195–216 |bibcode=2007PSyEv.264..195G |s2cid=39102602 }}</ref> [[File:Flora of Israel - Triticum turgidum subsp. dicoccoides.jpg|thumb|upright=0.6|Wild emmer still grows in Israel.]] The botanists [[Friedrich August Körnicke]] and [[Aaron Aaronsohn]] in the late 19th-century were the first to describe the wild emmer native to [[Palestine (region)|Palestine]] and adjacent countries.<ref>{{cite book |last=Zohary |first=Michael |author-link=Michael Zohary |editor=David Heller |title=A New Analytical Flora of Israel |publisher=Am Oved |edition=2 |location=Tel Aviv |year=1998 |page=562 |language=he |oclc=916628298}} (first edition 1976)</ref><ref name= "Dalman2020">{{cite book |author-last=Dalman |author-first=Gustaf |author-link=Gustaf Dalman |title=Work and Customs in Israel, volume II |publisher=Dar Al Nasher |location=Ramallah |year=2020 |volume=2 (Agriculture) |pages=288–289 |translator=Robert Schick |editor=Nadia Abdulhadi-Sukhtian |isbn=978-9950-385-84-9 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Aaronsohn |first=A. |author-link=Aaron Aaronsohn |title=Agricultural and botanical explorations in Israel |publisher=[[United States Department of Agriculture]] |location=[[Washington, D.C.]]|year=1910 |pages=42-ff., 46-ff |oclc=631059153 }}</ref> Earlier, in 1864, the Austrian botanist [[Carl Friedrich Kotschy]] collected specimens of the same wild emmer, without stating where he had collected them.<ref name="Shmida2005">{{cite book |author-last=Shmida |author-first=Avi |year=2005 |title=MAPA's Dictionary of Plants and Flowers in Israel |publisher=MAPA |location=Tel-Aviv |page=393 |language=he |oclc=716569354}}</ref> Although cultivated in ancient Egypt, wild emmer has not been grown for human consumption in recent history,<ref name= "Dalman2020"/> perhaps owing to the difficulty with which the chaff is separated from the seed kernels, formerly requiring the spikes to be pounded with mortar and pestle.<ref name="Amar 2015">{{cite book |last=Amar |first=Zohar |authorlink=Zohar Amar |title=Flora and Fauna in Maimonides' Teachings |oclc=783455868 |publisher=Machon Hatorah Veharetz |location=Kfar Darom |year=2015 |pages=96–97 |language=he}}</ref> Wild emmer is distinguished from common wheat by its tougher ear [[rachis]] and the beards releasing the grains easily, by their ear rachis becoming brittle when ripe and their firmly fitting beards.<ref name= "Dalman2020"/> Wild emmer grows to a height of {{convert|50|–|70|cm|abbr=on}}, and bears an elongated spike measuring {{convert|10|–|15|cm|abbr=on}}, with long, protruding awns extending upwards.<ref name="Shmida2005"/> Avni ''et al.'', 2017 provides a complete emmer [[genome]].<ref name="Architecture">{{cite journal |year=2017 |publisher=[[American Association for the Advancement of Science]] |journal=[[Science (journal) |Science]] |last1=Avni |first1=Raz |last2=Nave |first2=Moran |last3=Barad |first3=Omer |last4=Baruch |first4=Kobi |last5=Twardziok |first5=Sven |display-authors=etal |pages=93–97 |volume=357 |issue=6346 |s2cid=19943904 |doi=10.1126/science.aan0032 |title=Wild emmer genome architecture and diversity elucidate wheat evolution and domestication |pmid=28684525 |bibcode=2017Sci...357...93A |doi-access=free}}</ref> === History of cultivation === [[File:Composite Sickles for Cereal Harvesting at 23,000-Years-Old Ohalo II, Israel.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Grains of wild emmer from 17,000 BC, and sickles (shown) used to harvest it, have been found at the [[Ohalo II|Ohalo archaeological site]] in Israel.]] Wild emmer is native to the [[Fertile Crescent]] of the Middle East, growing in the grass and woodland of hill country from modern-day [[Israel]] to [[Iran]]. The origin of wild emmer has been suggested, without universal agreement among scholars, to be the [[Karaca Dağ]] mountain region of southeastern Turkey. In 1906, [[Aaron Aaronsohn]]'s discovery of wild emmer wheat growing in [[Rosh Pinna]] (Israel) created a stir in the botanical world.<ref>[https://genome.cshlp.org/content/10/10/1509 Molecular Genetic Maps in Wild Emmer Wheat, ''Triticum dicoccoides'': Genome-Wide Coverage, Massive Negative Interference, and Putative Quasi-Linkage]</ref> Emmer wheat has been found in archaeological excavations and ancient tombs. Emmer was collected from the wild and eaten by hunter gatherers for thousands of years before its domestication. Grains of wild emmer discovered at [[Ohalo II]] had a [[radiocarbon dating]] of 17,000 [[Before Christ|BC]] and at the [[Pre-Pottery Neolithic A]] (PPNA) site of [[Netiv Hagdud]] are 10,000–9,400 years old.<ref name="Zohary & Hopf 2000, p. 46">{{harvnb|Zohary|Hopf|2000|p=46}}</ref> The location of the earliest site of emmer domestication is still unclear and under debate.<ref name="Weide 2015"/> Some of the earliest sites with possible indirect evidence for emmer domestication during the Early [[Pre-Pottery Neolithic B]] include [[Tell Aswad]], [[Çayönü]], [[Cafer Höyük]], [[Aşıklı Höyük]], {{ill|Kissonerga-Mylouthkia|de}} and [[Shillourokambos]].<ref name="Weide 2015"/> Definitive evidence for the full domestication of emmer wheat is not found until the Middle Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (10,200 to 9,500 BP), at sites such as [[Beidha (archaeological site)|Beidha]], [[Tell Ghoraifé]], [[Tell es-Sultan|Tell es-Sultan (Jericho)]], [[Abu Hureyra]], [[Tell Halula]], Tell Aswad and Cafer Höyük.<ref name="Weide 2015">{{cite journal |last=Weide |first=Alexander |title=On the Identification of Domesticated Emmer Wheat, Triticum turgidum subsp. dicoccum (Poaceae), in the Aceramic Neolithic of the Fertile Crescent |journal={{ill|Archäologische Informationen|de}} |date=21 June 2015 |issue=38 |pages=381–424 |url=https://journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/arch-inf/article/download/26205/19920 |doi=10.11588/ai.2015.1.26205}}</ref> Emmer is found in a large number of Neolithic sites scattered around the fertile crescent. From its earliest days of cultivation, emmer was a more prominent crop than its cereal contemporaries and competitors, einkorn wheat and [[barley]].<ref>{{harvnb|Weiss|Zohary|2011|pp=S240-S242}}</ref> Small quantities of emmer are present during [[Mehrgarh#Mehrgarh Period I|Period 1 at Mehrgharh]] on the Indian subcontinent, showing that emmer was already cultivated there by 7000–5000 BC.<ref>[[Gregory Possehl|Possehl, Gregory]]. "The Indus Civilization: An Introduction to Environmental, Subsistence, and Cultural History: (2003)</ref> In the Near East, in southern [[Mesopotamia]] in particular, cultivation of emmer wheat began to decline in the [[Early Bronze Age]], from about 3000 BC, and [[barley]] became the standard cereal crop. This has been related to increased salinization of irrigated alluvial soils, of which barley is more tolerant,{{sfn|Jacobsen|Adams|1958}} although this study has been challenged.<ref>Powell, M. A. (1985) Salt, seed, and yields in Sumerian agriculture. A critique of the theory of progressive salinization. Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und Vorderasiatische Archäologie 75, 7–38.</ref> Emmer had a special place in [[ancient Egypt]], where it was the main wheat cultivated in Pharaonic times, although cultivated einkorn wheat was grown in great abundance during the [[Third dynasty of Egypt|Third Dynasty]], and large quantities of it were found preserved, along with cultivated emmer wheat and barleys, in the subterranean chambers beneath the [[Pyramid of Djoser|Step Pyramid]] at [[Saqqara]].<ref>Jean-Phillipe Lauer, Laurent Taeckholm and E. Aberg, 'Les Plantes Decouvertes dans les Souterrains de l'Enceinte du Roi Zoser a Saqqarah' in Bulletin de l'Institut d'Egypte, Vol. XXXII, 1949–50, pp. 121–157, and see Plate IV for photo of ears of both wheats recovered from beneath the pyramid.</ref> Neighbouring countries also cultivated einkorn, [[durum]] and common wheat.<ref>{{harvnb|Zohary|Hopf|2000|pp=50ff}}</ref> In the absence of any obvious functional explanation, the greater prevalence of emmer wheat in the diet of ancient Egypt may simply reflect a marked culinary or cultural preference, or may reflect growing conditions having changed after the Third Dynasty. Emmer and barley were the primary ingredients in ancient Egyptian bread and [[beer]]. Emmer recovered from the [[Phoenicia]]n settlement at [[Volubilis]]<ref>C. Michael Hogan. 2008. [http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=14906 ''Volubilis: Ancient settlement in Morocco'', The Megalithic Portal, ed. Andy Burnham]</ref> (in present-day [[Morocco]]) has been dated to the middle of the first millennium BC. Emmer wheat may be one of the [[five species of grain]] which have a special status in [[Judaism]]. One of these species<!--, referred to as {{lang|arc-Latn|kusmin}} ([[Aramaic]]) or {{lang|he-Latn|kūsmīn}} ({{langx|he|כוסמין}}),{{cn}}--> may be either emmer or [[spelt]]. However, it is fairly certain that spelt did not grow in ancient Israel, and emmer was probably a significant crop until the end of the [[Iron Age]]. References to emmer in [[Greek literature|Greek]] and [[Latin literature|Latin texts]] are traditionally translated as "spelt", even though spelt was not common in the Classical world until very late in its history.<ref>{{cite web |last=Nesbitt |first=Mark |title=Wheat Evolution: Integrating Archaeological and Biological Evidence |year=2001 |url=http://www.marknesbitt.org.uk/uploads/1/7/7/1/17711127/nesbitt2001wheat.pdf}}</ref> [[Pliny the Elder]] notes that although emmer was called {{lang|la|far}} in his time, it had formerly been called {{lang|la|adoreum}} (or 'glory'), providing an etymology explaining that emmer had been held in glory.<ref>[[Pliny the Elder]]. ''[[Natural History (Pliny)|Natural History]]'' 18.3</ref> He mentions its [[mola salsa|use in sacrifices]], stating that it had to be purified by roasting in order to be suitable.<ref>[[Pliny the Elder]]. ''[[Natural History (Pliny)|Natural History]]'' 18.2</ref> He states that in Etruria emmer was first roasted, then crushed either with an iron-capped pestle, or using a handmill that was toothed on the inside. This contrasted, Pliny writes, with the rest of Italy, where either a plain pestle or a watermill was used to make it into flour.<ref>[[Pliny the Elder]]. ''[[Natural History (Pliny)|Natural History]]'' 18.97</ref>
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