Einkorn wheat was one of the earliest cultivated forms of wheat. Einkorn can refer either to the wild species of wheat, Triticum boeoticum, or to the domesticated form, Triticum monococcum. The cultivated form is similar to the wild, except that the ear stays intact when ripe and the seeds are larger.
Grains of wild einkorn have been found in Epi-Paleolithic sites of the Fertile Crescent. It was first domesticated approximately 7500 BCE, in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) or B (PPNB) periods. Evidence from DNA finger-printing suggests einkorn was domesticated near Karaca Dağ in southeast Turkey, an area in which a number of PPNB farming villages have been found. Its cultivation decreased in the Bronze Age, and today it is a relict crop that is rarely planted. It remains as a local crop, often for bulgur (cracked wheat) or as animal feed, in mountainous areas of France, Morocco, the former Yugoslavia, Turkey and other countries. It often survives on poor soils where other species of wheat fail.
Bulgur is a cereal food made from several different wheat species. Its use is most common in Middle Eastern cuisine, Turkey, Greece, Armenia and Bulgaria. Bulgur for human consumption is usually sold parboiled and dried, with the bran partially removed.
See: Blessing, story of wheat and human civilization.