History of Wheat. 



77 



to the coarser, pubescent, dark, and black-awned races of Hard 

 wheats, such as " africanum" " niloticum" or "libycum" although 

 in some cases the approach was not so strikingly close. But if 

 Triticum dicoccoides gave rise to the Hard wheats, it also gave 

 rise to the Emmers, only that in the Emmers the spindle remained 

 brittle, the grains tight in the husks, and the grain shell thin, 

 while the spindle hairs were much reduced or all but disappeared, 

 so that the Emmers represent an evolution parallel to that of the 

 Einkorn. The common origin of the Hard wheats and Emmers 

 from the wild wheat of Palestine also suggests the possibility of 

 the evolution of Hard wheats from Emmers as the more primitive 

 of the two series. Schweinfurth not only suggested this a few 

 years ago, but he actually found in wheat from the tombs at 

 Abusir in Egypt a few Emmer heads with partially tough spindles. 

 More than that, the spindles were villous along their edges, as in 

 some of the Hard wheats. Hard wheat represents no doubt one 

 of the oldest races of wheat, although so far not many authen- 

 ticated cases of very old finds have been recorded. Still, it has 

 been discovered in several Egyptian tombs, and at Hissarlik in a 

 stratum overlying the ruins of Troy. Being essentially a warm- 

 country wheat, it is not surprising that it has not been met with 

 in the prehistoric strata of Central Europe. But probably this 

 wheat spread early over the whole of North Africa, where, as also 

 in Spain, it is represented by very numerous races. Hard wheat 

 is also found in Abyssinia, and eastwards as far as India, and, 

 what is significant, accompanied in both countries by Emmer 

 and forms intermediate between Emmer and Hard wheat. It 

 may also have reached Southern Europe in remote times ; but 

 there seems to be no definite evidence, the earliest reliable records 

 dating from the sixteenth century. 



We are better informed as to the early history of Emmer., 

 According to Schweinfurth, Emmer and six-rowed barley were the 

 common cereals of ancient Egypt, where the former has been 

 found in considerable quantities and in an excellent state of pre- 

 servation. At Abusir, for instance, Emmer chaff was used along 

 with other materials for filling up the tombshaft, and at Gebelen, 

 in the tomb of Ani, Maspero found satchels made of grass and 

 filled with fruits and Emmer spikes. These finds take us back to 

 about 2000 B.C. Emmer is also recorded from the neolithic lake 

 dwellings at Wangen, and from those of Auvernier and the Peter- 

 sinsel, all in Switzerland, the last two being of Bronze Age. 

 More recent, but still dating back to the first centuries of our era, 

 is the Emmer of Aquileia. The ancient Romans and Greeks knew 

 it, and there is now little doubt that it was the Adore urn or Far 

 of the Romans and the Zea or "Okvpa of the Greeks, or at least 

 of most of the Greek writers. In the famous Codex of 



