The progenitors of wheat and barley in relation to domestication and agricultural dispersal in the Old World

Abstract

This chapter deals with a survey of the wild ancestors, reviewing the main genetic reasons why these wild plants should be considered as progenitors of the barley and wheats cultivated by the neolithic farmers. It begins with a review of their distinct ecology and several other biological traits, stressing features relevant to domestication and to the spread of agriculture. Where the trees have been destroyed or heavily coppiced, the herbaceous cover is even more uniform, and a steppe-like landscape prevails in places unoccupied by agriculture. The distribution, ecology and various biological characteristics of the wild species can be surveyed, in order to find out whether they might have some bearing on the questions of where, when and how crop domestication began and developed in the Old World. The size of the kernel in the wild wheats and barley is, so to speak, a pre-adaptation for domestication.