In the Middle Ages, both in Europe and in the Islamic world, agriculture was transformed with improved techniques and the diffusion of cropplants, including the introduction of sugar, rice, cotton and fruit trees such as the orange to Europe by way of Al-Andalus. · Some crops have serious staying power. Long before supermarkets and seed catalogs, ancient civilizations were growing food that not only fed their people but shaped entire cultures. And surprisingly, a lot of those same plants are still thriving today—with barely a tweak to the original recipe. · Agriculture has changed a lot over time. Many ancientcrops once fed civilizations but eventually disappeared. Some were replaced by hardier or higher-yielding plants, while others faded away due to shifting diets and farming practices. Ever wonder what people used to grow and what took their place? · Today, half of the world’s calorie intake comes from just three: corn, rice, and wheat. Over thousands of years, we became reliant on fewer food crops that are easy to grow, provide good yields, and are calorie-dense. When growing vegetables at home, consider including some ancientcrops in the mix. · Let’s explore 15 remarkable crops that not only sustained early societies but also continue to nourish and delight us today. 1. Wheat. With its origins in the Fertile Crescent, wheat has been a cornerstone of agriculture since Neolithic times around 10,000 BCE. Data on ancientcrops, their past geographic distributions, domestication status, local significance, and interspecies diversity ought to constitute essential information for assessing policy proposals to reintroduce, expand, and promote forgotten crops. · The ancient Near East, and the historical region of the Fertile Crescent in particular, is generally seen as the birthplace of agriculture. The first agricultural evidence comes from the Levant, from where it spread to Mesopotamia, enabling the rise of large-scale cities and empires in the region.
