Oldest ever found remains of modern bread wheat, 8000-year-old, found in Gadachrili and Shulaveris Gora, in the country of Georgia.
A new archaeological study on the Neolithic sites of southeastern Georgia, where the oldest remains of wine were once found (also ~8,000 years old), has now shed light on the history of modern-day bread wheat.
Researchers examined evidence from several sites in Kvemo Kartli, southeastern Georgia, and found an unusually diverse assemblage of wheat.
Among the identified wheats are Triticum monococcum, T. dicoccum, T. carthlicum, T. durum, T. spelta, T. compactum, and T. aestivum, including several hexaploid wheats.
Interestingly, researchers also identified ancient evidence of Aegilops tauschii, the will grass that contributed the D genome to modern bread wheat. They argue that the coexistence of these potential ancestral lineages in the same Neolithic landscape provides important evidence for Georgia as an independent center in the emergence of bread wheat.
It is highly likely that the South Caucasus was one of the places where the genetic combination that eventually produced modern bread wheat arose, and where the earliest remains of modern bre wheat have now been found.
Scientific paper:
https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.2537697123