Food & agriculture · c. 9,000 BCE

Domesticated wheat

Einkorn and emmer evolved non-shattering ears that waited for the harvester instead of scattering.

Einkorn was domesticated near Karacadag in southeast Turkey, and emmer in the same region. Selecting plants whose seeds stayed on the stalk made harvests reliable; bread wheat, a later emmer hybrid, now covers more land than any other crop.

See it in the living tree Wikipedia

Arcs above join it to what it stood on, arcs below to what it led to. The bar places this stretch on the tree's whole timeline.

What it built on 1

Agriculture 9500 BCE

What it led to 3

Related measurements

The dashed line marks when it first worked.

World population over a million years Latest: 6.27k million people (2000) Source: DeLong 1998, table 'Total World Population' (Kremer series); Kremer 1993, Population Growth and Technological Change: One Million B.C. to 1990, QJE 108(3)

World GDP over a million years Latest: 41k billion 1990 international $ (2000) Source: DeLong 1998, Estimating World GDP, One Million B.C. - Present; Wikipedia: Gross world product (DeLong table, cross-check)

Cereal yields in England/UK since 1275 Latest: Wheat: 7.28 t/ha (2024) Source: Our World in Data