WHERE DID THE CULTIVATION OF CEREALS ORIGINATE? 49 



We have seen that the wild emmer prefers rocky soils and has not 

 been found up to the present time on the broad plains and vast 

 steppes. Thus, I could not find it at the Ghor (the depression of the 

 valley of the Jordan) either in 1907, when I searched for it in the 

 neighborhood of the Lake of Tiberias, or in 1908 at the mouth of 

 the Jabbok. It disappeared also on the road from Rasheyya to 

 Katana when we reached the Senonian formations and the steppe 

 toward the east. It does not seem even to extend to the edges of the 

 rocky ground, but leaves a sort of protecting belt of rocky land be- 

 tween it and the alluvial, diluvial, or oolithic soils which border it. 



Further search ought to be made to find out how far Triticum 

 dicoccum dicoccoides extends toward the southeast of the country of 

 Moab and toward Arabia, as well as how far north along the Lebanon 

 and the Anti-Lebanon. Moreover, we should look further in the 

 Cis-Jordan region, where it probably extends farther than the terri- 

 tory lying between Rosh Pinar and the northern part of Lake 

 Tiberias. 



WHERE DID THE CULTIVATION OF CEREALS ORIGINATE? 



I believe that a careful consideration of the foregoing facts will 

 throw some light on the question of the origin of the cultivation of 

 cereals. I shall consider only three of the numerous hypotheses for- 

 mulated in regard to this problem: First, there is the ingenious 

 theory of the Count of Solms-Laubach, set forth in his work " Wei- 

 zen und Tulpe,*' etc., previously cited. 



He admits the polvphyletic origin of Triticum aestivum, but, hav- 

 ing definite proof that wheat was cultivated in Egypt at least four 

 thousand years before the Christian era and at least three thousand 

 years before the same era in China and assuming that the Egyptian 

 and Chinese civilizations were entirely independent and without in- 

 fluence upon one another, he reaches the conclusion that the cultiva- 

 tion of Triticum monococcum and of the prototype of Triticum 

 aestivum must have begun in an age so remote that the division of 

 land and sea, the climatic conditions, and the resultant flora were 

 very different from those of the present day. It must, then, have 

 taken place in central Asia, in the neighborhood of the basin of the 

 Tarim, and at a time when the Desert of Gobi was still covered by 

 the sea of Han-hai. Later, Triticum monococcum must have em- 

 igrated westward, while the prototypes of Triticum aestivum dis- 

 appeared and only their cultivated descendants reached the west. 

 But according to recent research it is not so certain that the Egyp- 

 tian civilizations were entirely independent, and we hesitate to 

 accept a theory which is doubtful in its conclusions, even though 

 based on irrefutable geological premises. 

 34655°— Bull. 180—10 4 



