Abstract
Studies of the origins of agriculture in the Near East have revealed that the eight plant species known as “Founder Crops”, i.e. emmer, einkorn, barley, lentils, peas, chickpeas, bitter vetch and flax, derived from annual self-pollinating wild predecessors, were all domesticated in roughly the same period. Recent research however has prompted new debate on whether there are really only eight “Founder Crops” species in the Near East. Interest has focused on “new” glume wheat (NGW), a Triticum species identified for the first time by de Moulins at the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) site of Caferhöyük in Eastern Anatolia. After this identification, similar remains were identified in Neolithic and Bronze Age sites in Greece and were named “new” glume wheat. Recently, the remains of NGW spikelet bases have been documented in two settlements in Turkey: Yumuktepe (Cilicia) and Yenikapı (eastern Thrace). The remains of NGW spikelet bases from these two settlements underwent morphobiometric analysis in order to contribute to discussion of the morphological character of NGW spikelets. In addition, a whole NGW spikelet from Yenikapı was analysed, contributing to discussion of the morphological features of NGW caryopses. At the same time, these attestations open up new debate not only on its large-scale presence in Anatolia but also its origins and the ways and routes by which it spread to other regions. In this study, the two basic models of domestication and geographical expansion, i.e. the “rapid transition model” and the “protracted model”, are assessed on the basis of the new evidence of NGW in Turkey and the relationship with other European sites where it is attested.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Isabella Caneva (director of excavations at Yumuktepe); TÜBİTAK (The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey); Alata Horticultural Research Institute Mersin-Turkey; RahmiAsal (director of the Istanbul Archaeology Museums); İlknur Türkoğlu for the drawings; Anna Maria Grasso for the statistical analysis; Aslı Polat Ulaş; Milena Primavera; Zeynep Kızıltan; archaeologists M. Ali Polat, Sırrı Çömlekçi, Emre Öncü and Sinan Yiğit; photographers Turhan Bilgili and Dilara ŞenTuran and all the members of the Yumuktepe and Yenikapı excavation teams. We would like to thank Soultana-Maria Valamoti and Shahal Abbo and the anonymous reviewers for their valuable contributions, comments and criticisms during the preparation of the paper. We also thank Simone Riehl, who first recognized NGW chaff remains on Yumuktepe samples, for her scientific support of the MA thesis of Burhan Ulaş.
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Ulaş, B., Fiorentino, G. Recent attestations of “new” glume wheat in Turkey: a reassessment of its role in the reconstruction of Neolithic agriculture. Veget Hist Archaeobot 30, 685–701 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-020-00807-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-020-00807-w