Ancient wheat process of milling

It is generally believed that wheat had its origins in the regions of the ancient Eastern region of Egypt, Mesopotamia and the Levant, around 7000 B.C, although it had likely been gathered as a wild grain much earlier.

The grain was placed in a large saucer-shaped stone, a smaller rounded stone was used to crush it. Saddle querns seem to be the most common cereal grinding tools through all prehistory and early history of Mesopotamia and the Mediterranean.

The process of milling wheat into flour was revolutionized around 800 BC in Mesopotamia, when animal, water and wind power were harnessed for the first time to run the large stones used for grinding.

These mills were often constructed using good quality stones, the grinding process could have been repeated several times and finally flour was sieved.

In ancient Rome the mill and the bakery were the very same enterprise. The grains were milled and worked up without delay to dough and bread.

In the Middle Ages the milling of four became the monopoly of a few professional millers who were granted this concession by the wealthy landholders who built the large mills.

The first wind-powered mills were built in England in the 11th century, and in Belgium Luxemburg and the Netherlands in the 12th century.
Ancient wheat process of milling

Origin of durum wheat

Durum wheat originated from the domesticated form of a wild species named emmer wheat (Triticum dicoccum Koern.) between 12,000 and 10,000 years ago, in the West Levantine.

The first step in the improvement of durum wheat involved the domestication of its wild progenitors in the hilly area of southwest Asia at the Tigris and Euphrates basin (ancient Mesopotamia) and in the mountains of Iran, Turkey, Syria, and Jordan, in the area often referred to as the “Fertile Crescent”.

Phoenicians, Greeks, and above all Romans were active in the expansion and success of durum cultivation in all Mediterranean Rim that started displaced emmer by the mid first millennium BC.

Archaeological evidence suggests that naked emmer reached Ethiopia approximately 5000 years ago, probably arriving from the Levantine, through Egypt, along the Silk Road.

Emmer spread from the Near East to various European, African, and Asian regions. Archaeological evidence has shown the arrival of emmer into regions far away from the Near East (its center of origin) into Britain, to the West, around 3500 BC and in the Indian subcontinent, to the East, around 5000 BC.

Durum evolved in the eastern Mediterranean region and it had established as a major crop by 2300 BC. Phoenicians have traded it along the Mediterranean shores since historical times and throughout the rise of civilizations this crop has encountered several waves of expansion until today’s global importance.

Its grains have been found in eight archaeological sites of the Iron Age, dating from the end of the 2nd millennium BC to the end of the 4th century BC in Northern Greece. The first agricultural book on wheat was written using cuneiform on a clay tablet around 1700 BC and was discovered in Israel in 1950.
Origin of durum wheat

Wheat in ancient India

Indian’s climate is dominated by the monsoon, a wind that brings alternating seasons of hot, dry weather and heavy rain and flooding. In the drier west and north, wheat was the crop from early times.

Wheat was used by the people of the Indus Valley Civilization. Grains of wheat have been found from various sites of Indus valley civilization. Historians believe that the Harappans ate mostly wheat, rice and lentils. They use the wheat to make stews, soups and flat bread called chapati.

According to research bread wheat was cultivated in west Asia long before the date of the earliest finds in India, it remains certain that the northwest of the Indian subcontinent is a major center of diversity of the species, T. sphaerococcum, which is a wheat of great antiquity and which has been found in the excavations at Mohenjo-daro dating back to 2300 BC , is supposed to have originated in the northwestern are of the Indian subcontinent.

Emperor Anoshirwan (531 AD to 579 AD) arrange for a land survey and determine the amount of land tax to be paid by tillers on the field growing of wheat, and also other crops.
Wheat in ancient India

History of wheat in Finland

Together with rice and corn, wheat is one of the most widely cultivated and oldest cereals in the world. Up until the twentieth century, only limited amounts of wheat were grown in Finland, and wheat dishes were delicacies enjoyed by a select few.

Wheat emerges first in the Pre-Roman Iron Age in the Finnish material. The earliest evidence is from the dwelling site complex around the Rapola hill fort in Häme, which has been one of the most important settlement concentrations in the inland from the Pre-Roman Iron Age until the historical period.

In the warm Bronze Age club wheat was common in central Finland, but it had disappeared towards the much colder Early Iron Age (200 BC-200 AD). Both spring and winter wheat were grown in the 16th century, but both were insignificant compared to rye.

Very little wheat was grown in nineteenth-century Finland, and it could not be ground in ordinary mills. Only industrialization made wheat flour commonplace. In the Finnish foodstuffs industry, the use of rye and oats has increased, while the use of wheat has slightly decreased.
History of wheat in Finland

Ancient Mesopotamia and wheat

The appearance of agriculture in the Fertile Crescent has propelled the development of Western civilization. The most important crops in Mesopotamia were wheat and barley. Farmers also grew dates, grapes, figs, melons, and apples.

The Sumerian word for wheat was “she-lib-ba,” a word meaning “the dark grain.” During the 6th millennium BC, emmer wheat was largely cultivated in the plains of Mesopotamia and western Anatolia. It reached Turkmenistan by the middle of the 6th millennium BC when early farming villages were established in the northern foothills of the Kopet Dagh Mountains.

The inhabitants of the land between the Tigris and Euphrates used mainly barley and emmer, a type of wheat, to brew their beer. Emmer wheat and also barley played a very important cultural role. In Mesopotamia “bread and beer” was the phrase corresponding to current society as “bread and water.” By the time writing was invented in Mesopotamia, brewing was already a well-established technology.

Emmer wheat is one of the three hulled wheats known in Italy as farro. It is a low yielding, awned wheat. It was one of the first crops domesticated in the Near East. It was widely cultivated in the ancient world.
Ancient Mesopotamia and wheat

History of wheat in Roman Empire

Wheat was immensely important in the Roman Empire, partly because it was almost the only staple. Barley, which had been important in earlier centuries was going out of fashion, although it still provided food for the poor.

Rome’s conquests brought changes in agriculture. One change was in the size and purpose of farms. Most Romans had been small farmers who believed in hard work and service to Rome. Now, the small farms were replaced by large estates called latifundias. The small farms had grown wheat for food.

Emmer (Triticum dicoccum L.) was the most widely cultivated husked wheat in Roman Italy for over 300 years, into the Imperial period, until at least the 5thand 4thcentury AD.

The bulk of the Roman basic citizens would eat wheat or barley every day in the form of a gruel called puls or as a coarse home-baked flatbread. The citizen who could afford to do so would take their cereal to a local bakery to have it made into loaves of leavened bread, which was ideal for dipping into olive oil, milk, wine, or the sauces from cooked dishes.

Feeding the city also had an important political dimension: since the Republic, a dole of wheat was given to each adult man which began in 58B.C.

By the time of Augustus, this dole was providing free food for some 200,000 Romans. The emperor paid the cost of this dole out of his own pocket.

Roman Empire in 117 AD

It has been calculated that the dole would have been enough to provide a man with about 3,000- 3,500 calories a day, although in practice he would have shared it with his family and, of course, eaten other things.

In 2 BC Augustus cut back the number of recipients of the wheat dole to 200,000, which implied importing somewhere in the order of 80,000 tons of wheat per annum for this purpose alone. In 146 B.C., the Roman legions sacked Carthage and took over its wheat fields. Less than 25 years later, Rome was able to begin issuing grain to its citizens at subsidized prices, and later free of charge.

To make this possible, there had to be food ships leaving for Italy every day, weather permitting. They sailed the sea in large convoys. The crossing from Alexandria, Egypt took 13 days, and from Carthage four days or less.

According to Roman philosopher and politician Cicero, writing in the 1st century BC, Sardinia, Sicily and Africa were the main sources of wheat-growing, but this gradually changed. In the Bellum Judaicum, Roman-Jewish scholar Josephus, writing about the time of the destruction of Pompeii, maintained that Africa fed Rome for two-thirds of the year and Egypt for the remaining third.
History of wheat in Roman Empire

Wheat history in ancient Greece

Wheat as a staple food was cultivated in ancient Greece in prehistoric times. Cultivation of wheat began to spread beyond the Fertile Crescent after about 8000 BC. Jared Diamond in his excellent book, “Guns Germs and Steel”, traces the spread of cultivated emmer wheat starting in the “Fertile Crescent” about 8500 BC, reaching Greece by 6500 BC, Egypt shortly thereafter, followed by introductions in Germany and Spain by 5000 BC.

Cereals, vine, and oil were the basic agricultural products in ancient Greece like in the entire Mediterranean region. The choice to cultivate depended first on environmental conditions. Wheat was one of the main cereal crops in ancient Greek agriculture.

The coastal lowlands were very attractive for ancient people thus most of the human settlements had been established in such areas. Mild winters and hot summers are the characteristics of the coastal lowlands of the Greece. This type of climate is very advantageous for some annual crops like wheat and for some perennial crops like olive.

Bread made from wheat was eaten, and flour was sold in the markets of Athens and elsewhere. Grain from the Greek colonies in southern Italy was shipped to Athens through the port of Piraeus and ground into particularly soft white flour. In ancient Greece, a keen rivalry existed between cities as to which produce the best bread.

The Greeks planted “naked wheat,” an evolved variety whose grain could be easily separated from the hulls when threshed. Until the Greeks arrived, the Egyptians used only Triticum turgidum of the dicoccum variety, which require more labor to arrive at the same result.
Wheat history in ancient Greece

The invention of of Graham crackers

Graham crackers were invented around 1830. Minister named Sylvester Graham wanted people to eat healthier foods.

He toured the country giving lectures on the merits of eating coarse whole grain breads and abstaining from fats and meat.

He did not think that people should eat meat or white bread. He wanted people to eat more fruits and vegetables and wheat breads that were brown instead of white. Graham crackers were named after Sylvester Graham.

During the late 1820s and early 1839s, Sylvester Graham launched America’s first culinary revolution the importance of coarsely milled, unbolted, whole wheat flour. Recipes for so-called Graham crackers made from this flour appeared in cookbooks during the nineteenth century.

During the 1850s Graham cracker was probably first manufactured by Russell Thacher Trall, a follower of Sylvester Graham and the author of the New Hydropathic Cookbook in 1854. The National Biscuits Company was the first national manufacturer of Graham Crackers in 1898.
The invention of  of Graham crackers

Wheat in ancient Egypt

The kingdom of ancient Egypt existed for over 3000 years. Wheat was one of the most common grains used in ancient Egypt.

During 12000 BC early people settle in the fertile Nile valley. Around 7000 years ago changes took place when some of these people began to farm land. They planted wild wheat seeds and cultivated the cereal plants which grew.

Before that Egyptians adopted a complex of crops including emmer wheat that was domesticated in southwest Asia between 9000 and 7000 BC.

By trial and error over centuries efficient methods of cultivation and processing were developed by Egyptians.

By choosing seeds form healthy plants their corps became strong and gave a good return of grain.

Harvesting wheat

Farming became the main business of ancient Egypt. They also grew flax and barley in large amounts. 

Emmer remained virtually the only wheat until Roman rule established durum as the main cereal crop.

In pharaonic Egypt, they transformed emmer wheat and other cereals into bread and beer, the staples of their diet.

Only the middle and upper class used wheat for making cakes while the poorer made do with cakes of barley.

Allotment of grain including wheat also often served as the wages for workmen and artisans.
Wheat in ancient Egypt

Wheat in ancient history

Historic documents confirm that wheat is the earliest field crop used for human food processing.

In the western part of the Fertile Crescent (Syria, Jordan and Israel) Natufians people in settled communities after 9500 BC on a diet of wild wheat and also barley.

The Chinese cultivated wheat as early as 2700 BC and had developed elaborate rituals to honor it.

Wheat became the leading grain used for human consumption due to its nutritive profile and relatively easy harvesting, storing, transportation and processing, as compared to other grain.

The earliest varieties, grown in Near East, were Triticum monococcum (einkorn) and Triticum dicoccum (emmer). Emmer, which is rather widely regarded as one of the ancestors of today’s wheat, closely resembles a wild species of wheat found in the mountainous area of Syria and Palestine.

Emmer was a wild grain, not yet completely domesticated, but as early as 7000 BC, the villagers of Jarmo, a Neolithic village of modern Iraq crushed it to make flour.

The main wheat varieties grown today are Triticum aestivum, subspecies vulgare, which is a hexaploid with six groups of seven chromosomes in each group.

This species includes hard red winter, hard red spring, soft red winter, and white wheat.

The importance of cereals in the diet throughout the empire is confirmed by the Prices Edict which gives first place to wheat and followed by other crops. The Romans established their perfected wheat as the predominant grain of the Mediterranean world.

During ancient Egypt, wheat is one of the main cereal crops, grown for making bread.
Wheat in ancient history

History of Wheat in United States

Wheat was brought to a New World by Spanish colonists. A slave of Cortez finding a few grains in some rice, sent from Spain, carefully preserved and planted them in 1529. From these, it is believed, the wheat’s of Mexico have been derived.

Wheat cultivation spread farther north in the 1660s, but did not grow well in the climate and soil of New England.

It was introduced into the Elizabeth islands of Massachusetts in 1602 an in 1611 into Virginia. In 1718 it was brought into the valley of the Mississippi.

Though wheat was grown in the United States during the early colonial years, it was not until the late nineteenth century that wheat cultivation flourished, owing to the importation of an especially hardy strain of wheat known as Turkey red wheat.

It was brought over by Russian immigrants who settled in Kansas. A large colony of Mennonite Russians, members of an Anabaptist sect founded by one Menno Simmons in 1506, settled in Kansas in 1873.

The devout emigrants has brought with them some sacks of a variety of wheat called Turkey Red which, when sown in America soil, proved superior to all other varieties previously cultivated.

Until the very late nineteenth century, wheat hardly figured as a major territorial crop. Not until 1896 did these farmers get a descent wheat harvest, but the following year’s production was remarkable .

In just twelve months, the acreage planted in wheat has doubled. The difference that made such a difference was the introduction of Turkey red wheat.

The development of the steam engine in the 1880s and the internal combustion engine in the 1920s allowed for still greater efficiency on planting and harvesting wheat, the size of farming operations increased.

The wheat crops of the United Sates in 1913, 1914, and 1915 were the largest in history, the average for the three years being almost 900,000,000 bushels.  
History of Wheat in United States

Flour milling during ancient Egypt

One of Egypt’s indigenous grains, wheat, grown in flat fields, flourished in the country’s hot climate and , once the canals that supplied them with water had been constructed, required little care.

In order to harvest the grains, the ancient Egyptians made sickles out of sharpened flint and mounted them on wooden sticks. These were the perfect instruments for chopping down the tall grasses.

It was then dried in the sun, winnowed and sieved and finally milled. Grain was winnowed and soaked, the ground in a rehaaya.

After collection, several handfuls were placed on a stone quern with a gently curved surfaced for milling. A stones shaped like rolling pin with a curve to match the curvature of the grinding surface was rolled back and forth, grinding the grain into flour, which was caught in a container at one end of the quern.

Excavations and the hieroglyphics of the ancient Egyptian indicate that the primitive milling implements were first wooden, then stone, and later on metal mortars, on which the grain was crushed by blows from pestles.

Ancient Egyptians then advanced to grinding the grain (grist) between two large flat stones (grooved or dressed to let the fine flour particles escape) , moving in opposite direction and driven by animal power.

Grist mills soon employed the power of running water to drive wheels.

After the grain was milled, it was transferred to baskets. A scribe counted and recorded the number of basket before they were transferred to the granary where the grain stored.
Flour milling during ancient Egypt

The Origin of Wheat

The Origin of Wheat
Historic documents confirm that wheat is the earliest field crop used for human food processing.

It also became the leading grain used for human consumption due to its nutritive profile and relatively easy harvesting, storing, transportation and processing, as compared to other grain.

The earliest varieties, grown 12,000 – 17,000 years ago in Near East, were Triticum monococcum (einkorn) and Triticum dicoccum (emmer).

Continue breeding resulted for the cultivation of wheat.

The main wheat varieties grown today are Triticum aestivum, subspecies vulgare, which is a hexaploid with six groups of seven chromosomes in each group.

This species includes hard red winter, hard red spring, soft red winter, and white wheat.

Another wheat durum is a tetraploid, containing four groups of seven chromosomes totaling 28 chromosomes.

The botanical name of durum whet is Triticum durum.

A limited are is planted with soft white wheat variety of Triticum aestivum, subspecies compactum, commonly known as club wheat.

Currently about 4000 different wheat varieties are grown around the world.
The Origin of Wheat

Grain in Ancient Egypt 1300 BC

Grain in Ancient Egypt 1300 BC
The wheat that Egyptian grew in such quantity was made into about 40 different sorts of bread, pastry, cakes and biscuits, but grinding the grain was very hard work. It was usually done by woman using two stones, and as it was done in the open air, grit and other foreign bodies found their way into the flour. These impurities caused extensive wear on the teeth, and Egyptians often suffered from both tooth infections and abscesses.

The Egyptians’ bread dough was made from flour and water – but without yeasts, so the bread did not rise. It was cooked as flat loaves or in moulds and different flavorings could be added, such as honey, milk, eggs, fruit, butter and herbs.

Barley was the other major grain crop, and the Ancient Egyptians used it to make the beer that every one drank everyday - even the gods. The brew had an alcohol content of about 8 per percent. To make it, the Egyptians first moistened barley with water, and left it to stand. Then they mixed the moist grains with lightly baked barley loaves in a large jar, poured on more water and let the mixture ferment. When the beer was ready it was very thick and had to be strained before drinking.
Grain in Ancient Egypt 1300 BC

Egyptian Farming and Food in 1300 BC

Egyptian Farming and Food in 1300 BC
Harvest of the fertile River Bank
Neat parcels of farmland bordered the Nile, and it was there that nearly all Egyptians worked. The boundaries between farmers’ fields were marked with special stones, and during the annual inundation the Nile’s water obliterated all landmarks except the stones. The dishonest farmer then had an unparalleled opportunity to move boundary stones in his favor, but stealing precious land in this way was one of the worst sins an Egyptian could commit.

When the river water started to recede, the farmer’s first tasks were to reinstate any migrant boundary stones, and to repair flood damaged to dykes. The Egypt’s yearly round of cultivation began in earnest. Peasants with digging sticks broke up the larger clods of earth: then came ox-drawn ploughs followed by sowers scattering seed by hand, and sheep or goats to tread the seed in.

Growing season
During the growing season, the farmers worked hard weeding and watering the crops. They also help to protect them from birds, and from straying cattle and even the hippopotamus.

Egyptian most important crops were wheat and barley, and flax which they grew for linen and linseed oil. Grain was harvested in March or April. All work in the fields and the threshing floor was a communal effort, and land owner provided musicians to play flutes while peasants worked.

End of the Season
The beehive-shaped silo each stored one type of grain, and a small farm would have several of them. Then everyone celebrated in honor of Renenutet, guardian goddess of harvest. The middle of March marked the beginning of the summer season of drought and heat. During this period it was vital to repair any damaged irrigation canals before the soil dried out and became too hard to dig. For a few weeks farmers enjoyed a brief rest before the floods came again.
Egyptian Farming and Food in 1300 BC

History of Wheat

Food History

Wheat is an ancient grain. Thought to have originated in southwestern Asia, it has been consumed as a food for more than 12,000 years.

It played an important role of religious significance and was part of the sacred rituals of many cultures. Greek, Roman, Sumerian and Finnish mythology had gods and goddesses of wheat. This exceptionally nutritious grain is still considered to be sacred in some areas of China.

Wheat was not native to the Western Hemisphere and was only introduced here in the late 15th century when Columbus came to the New World. While wheat was grown in the United States during the early colonial years, it was not until the late 19th century that wheat cultivation flourished, owing to the importation of an especially hardy strain of wheat known as Turkey red wheat, which was brought over by Russian immigrants who settled in Kansas.

As rice has been the dietary staple of Asia, wheat has served this role for many of other regions of the world. It is estimated that approximately one-third of the world's people depend upon wheat for their nourishment.

The collection of wheat offered man a number of advantages. Grains could be stored without spoiling. They could be stocked or carried from place to place and prepared in any number of ways. Grain could be traded for other essentials or comforts, eventually leading to the development of commerce and a means of supplying food for city populations from distant fields.

Today, the largest commercial producers of wheat include the Russian Federation, the United States, China, India, France and Canada.

Food History