Where does this come from, and can I check it?

Wild grasses were selected for seeds that stayed on the stalk at harvest. The figure is taken from Encyclopaedia Britannica, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.

Is this really a food fact?

Yes. It sits on the Food shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.

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The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.

Mondo Knows Facts

Wheat was domesticated in the Fertile Crescent

Wild grasses were selected for seeds that stayed on the stalk at harvest Wild wheat shatters when ripe, scattering its seeds, which suits the plant and frustrates a farmer. Early cultivators in the Levant gathered rare mutant ears whose seeds stayed attached, and sowing those seeds produced fields that could be cut with a blade. Emmer and einkorn were farmed there about ten thousand years ago and later gave rise to bread wheat. It sits in Mondo's food collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.

Where this comes from

Encyclopaedia Britannica

Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.

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History trivia

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Tags: wheat, agriculture, neolithic

Wheat was domesticated in the Fertile Crescent: the short answers

Where does this come from, and can I check it?: Wild grasses were selected for seeds that stayed on the stalk at harvest. The figure is taken from Encyclopaedia Britannica, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
Is this really a food fact?: Yes. It sits on the Food shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
What else can I read about it?: The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.