Both species were the staple food of the human population until the end of the Bronze Age when naked Triticum species became dominant in agriculture lands.
The studies shows comparing ancient human remains (and foodstuffs that surrounded them) from all parts of the globe show that farming practices did not start from one community and spread; instead, these ancient farming communities began independently.
The wild cereal grains abounded and agriculture developed at the hands of Neolithic women who were most likely responsible for the first planting and harvesting of hand-sown crop.
The first recorded farming communities in the ninth millennium BC were found in the region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in what is now called Iraq. These farmers were quite sophisticated and were in their way the founders of cereal technology.
They grew wheat and other cereal grains (as well as keeping livestock) and used quite complicated irrigation systems to maintain their crops.
Through the fourth millennium BC during most ancient Egyptians in the Early Dynastic Period and later periods, villages became increasingly dependent on the cultivation of emmer wheat and barley, which was increasingly successful in the environment of the Nile floodplain in Egypt.
In Roman times its cereal exports were of such importance to Italy that the trade enjoyed the peculiar protection of the state and the general imperial system of provincial government received special modifications in its adaptation to Egypt.
Record shows that from 2300 to 1750 BC, wheat, barley, and rice were grown by inhabitants of northern India. In all these ancient societies cereals continued to be among the preferred crops right through to the Egyptians and on to the modern farms of time.
Amaranth the pseudocereal was eaten by hunter-gatherers in both North and South America before the domestication of crops. Amaranth, a pseudocereal, was cultivated first (from 7000 to 5000 BC), but by around 2500 BC maize was first domesticated.
The plants were domesticated independently in the Andes.
Later still, around AD 250 to 1600, maize was hybridized to increase the yields by Maya-Aztec civilization. These people were excellent farmers, who developed methods for tilling dry soil to retain moisture and also built the irrigation canal and made artificial gardens that floated on water.
The agriculture implements used by Inca’s farmers were few and simple. A hoe with a bronze plate was used for general cultivation. The grain were principle staple crops in the higher valleys.
The people of Inca Empire lived in the inhospitable Andes in around AD 1200. They cultivated maize on terraces with intricate irrigation and drainage systems.
History of ancient cereal
