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Results for einkorn:

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einkorn

CATEGORY: flora
DEFINITION: A variety of wheat (Triticum monococcum) cultivated in Neolithic times. It has pale red kernels and is a hulled grain (i.e. the glume remains on the grain after threshing), found at farming sites of the 8th and 7th millennia BC. Like the other cereals, it could be used for bread-making or for porridge. It probably originated in southeastern Europe and southwestern Asia, and is still grown in mountainous parts of southern Europe as grain for horses.

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Abu Hureyra, Tell

CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A small tell on the Euphrates River, 120 km east of Aleppo in Syria. The site was excavated in 1972-73 prior to flooding by the Tabqua/Tabqa Dam. Two major phases of occupation were found: Mesolithic or Epi-Palaeolithic (early 9th millennium BC) to a Pre-Pottery Neolithic B Culture in the 6th millennium. There was a long period of abandonment in the 7th millennium and then a final abandonment c 5800 BC. The site depicted a transition from gathering to cultivation, including large quantities of einkorn wheat, and from hunting to herding (sheep and goats, also gazelle and onager). The Neolithic settlement was of enormous size, larger than any other recorded site of this period -- even Çatal Hüyük. In the uppermost levels, a dark burnished pottery appeared.

Argissa

CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: An important Neolithic site in Thessaly, northern Greece, which has given much information on the early phases of the Greek Aceramic Neolithic period. In the Argissa Magula near Larissa, there have been early prepottery Neolithic finds of probably the 6th millennium BC. Timber-framed huts consisted of shallow mud-walled pits that were likely roofed with branches. Obsidian was already being traded and flint tools were made. The earliest known domesticated cattle date from about 6000 BC at Argissa (and Nea Nikomedeia) in Greece, in association with cultivated einkorn, emmer wheat, and barley, millet, lentils. Sheep, goats, and pigs were also cultivate and kept. This site (along with Knossos) is also responsible for the earliest evidence of agriculture, soon after 7000 BC. The site was occupied throughout the Neolithic and well into the Bronze Age.

Bug / Dniester

SYNONYM: Bug-Dniester
CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: A complex of sites in two river valleys in Russia from the 5th millennium BC. Each phase is typified by short-lived sites on river terraces, occupied year-round for 5-10 years. There was hunting, fishing and shell-collecting, and some domestication of pigs, cattle, and einkorn wheat. Pointed-base pottery evolved there.

Can Hasan

CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: The site of a number of tells in southern Turkey. Can Hasan III was an aceramic Neolithic settlement c 6500 BC. There were at least seven structural phases, with dark burnished pottery in several levels and painted pottery in one. The villagers were agriculturists, growing einkorn and emmer, lentil, and vetch in the earlier phases. The main Can Hasan mound was occupied in the late Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods.

Cayönü Tepesi

CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A site on a tributary of the Tigris River in eastern Turkey with occupation dating from c 7500-6500 BC. There are impressive architectural remains with stone foundations and evidence of a farming and hunting community. The latest phase included domesticated sheep and goats. Einkorn wheat was cultivated as well as emmer wheat, peas, and lentils. Another important feature of this site was the very early appearance of simple copper objects, derived from closeby Ergani Maden. Also, clay bricks, baked figurines, and pottery have been found.

Coveta de l'Or

SYNONYM: Coveta del Or
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A cave site in eastern Spain near Valencia with Early Neolithic cardial (impressed) ware pottery, bones of domestic animals (einkorn), and remains of cultivated emmer and bread wheats. Large, deep pottery jars may have been used for grain storage. The radiocarbon dates are of mid-5th millennium BC.

emmer

CATEGORY: flora
DEFINITION: A primitive variety of wheat, similar to einkorn. It was cultivated by early farmers and is a hulled species (i.e. threshing does not remove the glumes from the grain). It is found in archaeological contexts in its wild and its cultivated form from the eighth millennium BC onwards. It is still grown in mountainous parts of southern Europe as a cereal crop and livestock food. It is thought to be the ancestor of many other varieties of wheat.

Gomolava

CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A large, frequently occupied, double-tell site on the Sava River in Serbia. On both tells, the prehistoric sequence goes from the Late Neolithic to the Middle Ages. The Late Neolithic occupation belongs primarily to the Vinca culture, with houses, pits, and a cemetery with copper grave goods. The subsistence economy of most levels indicates reliance on einkorn wheat, flax, and cattle husbandry.

Mureybet

SYNONYM: Mureybit, Mureybat
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A site in the curve of the Euphrates 80 km east of Aleppo in Syria, occupied in the late-Epipalaeolithic (Natufian) and Aceramic Neolithic (to PPNB), from c 8500-6800 BC. The Natufian level had a date of 8640 +/- 140 BC. Einkorn was the staple of the villagers' diet, possibly cultivated. It is an important site for understanding the emergence of food production and village life on the middle Euphrates.

Nea Nikomedeia

SYNONYM: Nea Nikomidhia
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: An Early Neolithic tell settlement in Macedonia in northern Greece. From a large structure (shrine?) in the center of the mound, there were terra-cotta female figurines thought to have been used in rituals. The remains of rectangular mud houses, a number of crouched burials, and plain and painted pottery, frogs carved from greenstone, flint blades, and many ground stone axes have been found. Radiocarbon dates of c 6200-5300 BC was obtained. The earliest known domesticated cattle date from about 6000 BC at Nea Nikomedeia, in association with cultivated einkorn, emmer, and barley.

Soroki

CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A complex of short-lived settlement sites of the Late Mesolithic and Early Neolithic, located in the middle Dniester valley in Moldova. The Mesolithic sites, with radiocarbon dates of c 5600-5400 BC, have provided data on the late Mesolithic / early Neolithic Bug-Dniester culture. The earliest occupations are aceramic and had a hunting-fishing economy. Later levels, c 4800 BC, have pointed-base vessels, hearths, and shallow pits. The subsistence economy is similar to the preceding Mesolithic, with the addition of some cultivated einkorn wheat and some domesticated cattle and pig.

wheat

CATEGORY: flora
DEFINITION: Cereal grass of the Gramineae (Poaceae) family and of the genus Triticum and its edible grain, one of the oldest and most important of the cereal crops. Two wild forms of wheat are found in the Near East today, wild einkorn (Triticum boeoticum) and wild emmer (Triticum dicoccoides). Wild einkorn and, less commonly domestic einkorn, appear in the Near East at such early farming sites as Ali Kosh before 7000 BC. Emmer, both wild and domestic, was much more common than einkorn and has been found on most early Neolithic sites in the Near East. Domestic emmer subsequently spread throughout Europe. Hexapolid wheats (club wheat, bread wheat) appear in the Near East before 6000 BC. Spelt wheat was being cultivated at Yarim Tepe in northern Mesopotamia in the 6th millennium BC. In Europe there are some Neolithic occurrences of spelt, but it became common only in the Iron Age.