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Abstract

Prehistoric cultivation of wild wheat in the Fertile Crescent led to the selection of mutants with indehiscent (nonshattering) ears, which evolved into modern domestic wheat. Previous estimates suggested that this transformation was rapid, but our analyses of archaeological plant remains demonstrate that indehiscent domesticates were slow to appear, emerging ~9500 years before the present, and that dehiscent (shattering) forms were still common in cultivated fields ~7500 years before the present. Slow domestication implies that after cultivation began, wild cereals may have remained unchanged for a long period, supporting claims that agriculture originated in the Near East ~10,500 years before the present.

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References

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All dates are in noncalibrated 14C years before the present.
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We thank R. Pasternack for making available samples from Nevali Cori. This work was partly supported by the European Commission (contract ICA3-CT-2002-10022).

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Published In

Science
Volume 311 | Issue 5769
31 March 2006

Submission history

Received: 5 January 2006
Accepted: 6 March 2006
Published in print: 31 March 2006

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Notes

Supporting Online Material
www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/311/5769/1886/DC1
Table S1
References

Authors

Affiliations

Ken-ichi Tanno
Research Institute for Humanity and Nature, Takashima 335, Kamigyo, 602-0878 Kyoto, Japan.
George Willcox* [email protected]
National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), Unité Mixte de Recherche 5133, Jalès, Berrias 07460, France.

Notes

*
To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: [email protected]

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