TBILISI, GEORGIA—Phys.org reports that wheat for baking bread (Triticum aestivum) may have first been grown some 8,000 years ago in Georgia. Genetic studies of modern wheat plants and wild grasses indicate that domesticated wheat and wild goat grass were mixed in the South Caucasus and the Caspian Sea region. This hybrid plant eventually became bread wheat, explained Nana Rusishvili of the Georgia National Museum and her colleagues. They examined charred grains recovered from Gadachrili Gora and Shulaveris Gora, two Neolithic village sites in Georgia. Because charred grains of bread wheat look similar to durum wheat and other wheat seeds, the team members focused on the rachis, the part of the plant stem that holds the grain to the ear of wheat. This structure is known to vary among species of wheat plants. After the team identified bread wheat rachis, they radiocarbon dated the seeds to between 5800 and 6000 B.C. “These findings provide critical empirical support for this region as a primary center of early bread wheat domestication,” the researchers concluded. To read about the earliest evidence for baked goods go to "The First Bakers."
