Britannica Sources used in this answer

Where were wheat and barley first domesticated?

Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.

A large red and yellow combine harvester cuts through a golden wheat field, leaving neat rows of harvested grain behind. — Cereal farming Combine harvesting wheat.

Wheat and barley were first domesticated in Southwest Asia, a region encompassing the Fertile Crescent.1

While early populations in the region harvested wild grains for thousands of years, the transition to settled agriculture occurred shortly after 10,000 bp. The oldest indisputably domesticated grain identified in the archaeological record is einkorn wheat from Nevali Çori in Turkey, dating to approximately 10,500 bp. By 10,000 bp, populations across Southwest Asia had become dependent on various cultigens, including barley and two early forms of wheat: emmer and einkorn.1

Agriculture later spread from this region into Europe through a combination of migration and the diffusion of ideas.2