Records of “new” glume wheat in France: a review

Abstract

Following the first identification in 2000 of a new type of hulled wheat from three Neolithic settlements and a Bronze Age one in Greece, many finds of this “new” glume wheat have been reported from all over Europe and the Near East. In France, a first identification in 2009 also triggered several discoveries. Up to now, twelve sites have delivered remains of this new type, from different phases of occupation, located in the eastern half of France. Their chronology ranges from Neolithic Linearbandkeramik to late Bronze Age/early Iron Age transition (5300–800/700 bc). At most of the sites, the “new” glume wheat appears as a minor contaminant of other cereal crops. However, at the early Bronze Age settlement of Clermont-Ferrand, central France, the recovery of large quantities of caryopses and spikelet bases has demonstrated that the “new” glume wheat was a crop by itself, maybe mixed with emmer and other cereals. For the late Bronze Age, numerous records of the new type come from the upper Seine valley, north-eastern France. At four settlements with early phases of the late Bronze Age, the “new” glume wheat was also a crop in its own right, within a much diversified agricultural system. In the light of the numerous archaeobotanical analyses carried out on Bronze Age sites in France, and despite the fact that its presence is surely underestimated, cultivation of the “new” glume wheat appears to have been a speciality, restricted to a few places. It may have come from a local agricultural choice, but it could also have resulted from eastern influences and exchanges that were very active during the Bronze Age.