Neolithic founder crops

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The Neolithic founder crops (or 'primary domesticates') are the eight species of plant that were domesticated by early Holocene (Pre-Pottery Neolithic A and B) farming communities in the Fertile Crescent region of Southwest Asia. They consist of flax, three cereals and four pulses, and are the first known domesticated plants in the world. Although domesticated rye (Secale cereale) occurs in the final Epi-Palaeolithic strata at Abu Hureyra (the earliest instance of a domesticated plant species), it was an insignificant component in the Neolithic of southwest Asia, coming into its own with the spread of farming into northern Europe several millennia later.

Cereals

  • Emmer (Triticum dicoccum, descended from the wild T. dicoccoides)
  • Einkorn (Triticum monococcum, descended from the wild T. boeoticum)
  • Barley (Hordeum vulgare/sativum, descended from the wild H. spontaneum)

Pulses

Other

  • Flax (Linum usitatissimum)

[edit] Further reading

  • Daniel Zohary and Maria Hopf, Domestication of Plants in the Old World, third edition. Oxford: University Press, 2000. ISBN 0-19-850356-3
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