Pre-pottery Neolithic remains from Iran show agriculture emerging in the Zagros Mountains around 12,000 years ago. Simone Riehl and her colleagues at the University of Tubingen in Germany found more than 21,000 plant remains encompassing 116 species in an 8-metre-deep dig at the site. Among these were wild progenitors of modern crops, including barley (pictured), wheat and lentils. At the beginning of the 2,200-year sequence studied, remains of wild wheat made up less than 10% of the plants. By the end of the sequence, about 9,800 years ago (around the time that domesticated emmer wheat first appeared), wheat made up more than 20% of the plants.
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