Abstract
Free-threshing wheat was a principal cereal in Neolithic cultures, as shown by the abundance of grains in the archaeological record. However, the morphology of the mainly charred preserved, prehistoric naked wheat grains is not characteristic of either tetraploid,Triticum durumDesf. andTriticum turgidumL., or of hexaploid, e.g.Triticum aestivumL. We analysed the morphology of charred naked wheat grains originating from a storage assemblage of an Early Cortaillod culture layer (3906–3906bc) at the Lake of Zürich, Switzerland and addressed their identification by molecular genetics. A fragment of the promoter region of the high-molecular-weight (HMW) subunit genes of glutenin was successfully amplified by the polymerase chain reaction. Sequences obtained from cloned PCR products are highly similar to modern sequences. The detection of the D genome allele suggests the presence of hexaploidT. aestivum. However, rachis remains from the same site as well as other contemporary sites were identified morphologically as tetraploid naked wheat.
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