|
Einkorn wheat (from German ''Einkorn'', literally "single grain") can refer either to the wild species of wheat, ''Triticum baeoticum'', or to the domesticated form, ''Triticum monococcum''. The wild and domesticated forms are either considered separate species, as here, or as subspecies: Triticum monococcum subsp. baeoticum (wild) and T. monococcum subsp. monococcum (domesticated). Einkorn is a diploid species (2n = 14 chromosomes) of hulled wheat, with tough glumes ('husks') that tightly enclose the grains. The cultivated form is similar to the wild, except that the ear stays intact when ripe and the seeds are larger. The domestic form is known as petit épeautre in French, einkorn in German, einkorn or littlespelt in English, piccolo farro in Italian and espelta petita in Catalan. Einkorn wheat was one of the first plants to be domesticated and cultivated. The earliest clear evidence of the domestication of Einkorn dates from 10,600 to 9,900 years before present (8,650 BC to 7,950 BC) from two archaeological sites in southern Turkey.〔Weiss, Ehud and Zohary, Daniel (October 2011), "The Neolithic Southwest Asian Founder Crops: Their Biology and Archaeobotany", ''Current Anthropology'', Vol 52, No. S4, pp. S239-S240. Downloaded from JSTOR〕 Remnants of Einkorn have been found with the iceman mummy Ötzi. ==History== Einkorn wheat commonly grows wild in the hill country in the northern part of the Fertile Crescent and Anatolia although it has a wider distribution reaching into the Balkans and south to Jordan near the Dead Sea. It is a short variety of wild wheat, usually less than tall and is not very productive of edible seeds. The principal difference between wild einkorn and cultivated einkorn is the method of seed dispersal. In the wild variety the seed head usually shatters and drops the kernels (seeds) of wheat onto the ground. This facilitates a new crop of wheat. In the domestic variety, the seed head remains intact. Human intervention caused the difference. Harvesting einkorn with intact seed heads was easier for early human harvesters. Thus, over time and through selection, conscious or unconscious, the human preference for intact seed heads created the domestic variety, which also has slightly larger kernels than wild einkorn. Domesticated einkorn requires human planting and harvesting for its continuing existence.〔Weiss and Zohary, p. S239-S242〕 This process of domestication might have taken only 20 to 200 years with the end product a wheat easier for humans to harvest.〔Anderson, Patricia C. (1991), "Harvesting of Wild Cereals During the Natufian as seen from Experimental Cultivation and Harvest of Wild Einkorn Wheat and Microwear Analysis of Stone Tools", In ''Natufian Culture in the Levant'' ed. by Ofer Bar-Yosef, Ann Arbor:International Monographs in Prehistory. p. 523〕 Einkorn wheat is one of the earliest cultivated forms of wheat, alongside emmer wheat (''T. dicoccum''). Grains of wild einkorn have been found in Epi-Paleolithic sites of the Fertile Crescent. Although gathered from the wild for thousands of years, Einkorn Wheat was first domesticated approximately 10,000 years BP in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) or B (PPNB) periods. Evidence from DNA finger-printing suggests einkorn was first domesticated near Karaca Dağ in southeast Turkey, an area in which a number of PPNB farming villages have been found. An important characteristic facilitating the domestication of einkorn and other annual grains is that the plants are largely self-pollinating. Thus, the desirable (for human management) traits of einkorn could be perpetuated at less risk of cross-fertilization with wild plants which might have traits—e.g. smaller seeds, shattering seed heads, etc. -- less desirable for human management.〔Bellwood, Peter (2005), ''First Farmers: The Origins of Agricultural Societies'', Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, pp. 46-49〕 From the northern part of the Fertile Crescent, the cultivation of einkorn wheat spread to the Caucasus, the Balkans, and central Europe. Einkorn wheat was more commonly grown in cooler climates than emmer wheat, the other domesticated wheat. Cultivation of einkorn in the Middle East began to decline in favor of emmer wheat around 2000 BC. Cultivation of einkorn was never extensive in Italy, southern France, and Spain. Einkorn continued to be cultivated in some areas of northern Europe throughout the Middle Ages and until the early part of the 20th century. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「einkorn wheat」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|