NEW YORK: Archaeological evidences show that wheat was present in Britain 8,000 years ago.
The DNA of wheat recovered from an ancient peat bog showed that the grain was traded long before it was grown by the first British farmers.
The grain was found at what is now a submerged cliff off the Isle of Wight.
Farming of plants and animals first appeared in the Near East, with the technology spreading along two main routes into Europe.
The accepted date of arrival on the British mainland is around 6,000 years ago, as ancient hunter gatherers began to grow crops such as wheat and barley.
The DNA of the wheat – known as einkorn – was collected from sediment that was once a peat bog next to a river.
Scientists think traders arrived in Britain with the wheat, perhaps via land bridges that connected the south east coast of Britain to the European mainland, where they encountered a less advanced hunter gatherer society.
The wheat may have been made into flour to supplement the diet, but a search for pollen and other clues revealed no signs that the crop was grown in Britain until much later.
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