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Emmer is a hybrid species of wheat, producing edible seeds that have been used as food since ancient times. The domesticated types are Triticum turgidum subsp. dicoccum and T. t. conv. durum. The wild plant is called T. t. subsp. dicoccoides. The seeds have an awned covering, the sharp spikes helping the seeds to become buried in the ground. The principal difference between the wild and the domestic forms is that the ripened seed head of the wild plant shatters and scatters the seed onto the ground, while in the domesticated emmer, the seed head remains intact, thus making it easier for people to harvest the grain.
Along with einkorn, emmer was one of the first crops domesticated in the Near East. It was widely cultivated in the ancient world, but is now a relict crop in mountainous regions of Europe and Asia. Emmer is one of the three grains called farro in Italy.
The botanists Friedrich August Körnicke and Aaron Aaronsohn in the late 19th-century were the first to describe the wild emmer native to Palestine and adjacent countries. (first edition 1976) (2025). 9789950385849, Dar Al Nasher. ISBN 9789950385849 Earlier, in 1864, the Austrian botanist Carl Friedrich Kotschy collected specimens of the same wild emmer, without stating where he had collected them. Although cultivated in ancient Egypt, wild emmer has not been grown for human consumption in recent history, perhaps owing to the difficulty with which the chaff is separated from the seed kernels, formerly requiring the spikes to be pounded with mortar and pestle. Wild emmer is distinguished from common wheat by its tougher ear rachis and the beards releasing the grains easily, by their ear rachis becoming brittle when ripe and their firmly fitting beards. Wild emmer grows to a height of , and bears an elongated spike measuring , with long, protruding awns extending upwards. Avni et al., 2017 provides a complete emmer genome.
The location of the earliest site of emmer domestication is still unclear and under debate. Some of the earliest sites with possible indirect evidence for emmer domestication during the Early Pre-Pottery Neolithic B include Tell Aswad, Çayönü, Cafer Höyük, Aşıklı Höyük, and Shillourokambos. Definitive evidence for the full domestication of emmer wheat is not found until the Middle Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (10,200 to 9,500 BP), at sites such as Beidha, Tell Ghoraifé, Tell es-Sultan, Abu Hureyra, Tell Halula, Tell Aswad and Cafer Höyük.
Emmer is found in a large number of Neolithic sites scattered around the fertile crescent. From its earliest days of cultivation, emmer was a more prominent crop than its cereal contemporaries and competitors, einkorn wheat and barley. Small quantities of emmer are present during Period 1 at Mehrgharh on the Indian subcontinent, showing that emmer was already cultivated there by 7000–5000 BC.Gregory Possehl. "The Indus Civilization: An Introduction to Environmental, Subsistence, and Cultural History: (2003)
In the Near East, in southern Mesopotamia in particular, cultivation of emmer wheat began to decline in the Early Bronze Age, from about 3000 BC, and barley became the standard cereal crop. This has been related to increased salinization of irrigated alluvial soils, of which barley is more tolerant, although this study has been challenged.Powell, M. A. (1985) Salt, seed, and yields in Sumerian agriculture. A critique of the theory of progressive salinization. Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und Vorderasiatische Archäologie 75, 7–38. Emmer had a special place in ancient Egypt, where it was the main wheat cultivated in Pharaonic times, although cultivated einkorn wheat was grown in great abundance during the Third Dynasty, and large quantities of it were found preserved, along with cultivated emmer wheat and barleys, in the subterranean chambers beneath the Step Pyramid at Saqqara.Jean-Phillipe Lauer, Laurent Taeckholm and E. Aberg, 'Les Plantes Decouvertes dans les Souterrains de l'Enceinte du Roi Zoser a Saqqarah' in Bulletin de l'Institut d'Egypte, Vol. XXXII, 1949–50, pp. 121–157, and see Plate IV for photo of ears of both wheats recovered from beneath the pyramid. Neighbouring countries also cultivated einkorn, durum and common wheat. In the absence of any obvious functional explanation, the greater prevalence of emmer wheat in the diet of ancient Egypt may simply reflect a marked culinary or cultural preference, or may reflect growing conditions having changed after the Third Dynasty. Emmer and barley were the primary ingredients in ancient Egyptian bread and beer. Emmer recovered from the settlement at VolubilisC. Michael Hogan. 2008. Volubilis: Ancient settlement in Morocco, The Megalithic Portal, ed. Andy Burnham (in present-day Morocco) has been dated to the middle of the first millennium BC.
Emmer wheat may be one of the five species of grain which have a special status in Judaism. One of these species may be either emmer or spelt. However, it is fairly certain that spelt did not grow in ancient Israel, and emmer was probably a significant crop until the end of the Iron Age. References to emmer in Greek literature and Latin literature are traditionally translated as "spelt", even though spelt was not common in the Classical world until very late in its history.
Pliny the Elder notes that although emmer was called far in his time, it had formerly been called adoreum (or 'glory'), providing an etymology explaining that emmer had been held in glory.Pliny the Elder. Natural History 18.3 He mentions its mola salsa, stating that it had to be purified by roasting in order to be suitable.Pliny the Elder. Natural History 18.2 He states that in Etruria emmer was first roasted, then crushed either with an iron-capped pestle, or using a handmill that was toothed on the inside. This contrasted, Pliny writes, with the rest of Italy, where either a plain pestle or a watermill was used to make it into flour.Pliny the Elder. Natural History 18.97
In Italy, uniquely, emmer cultivation is well established and even expanding. In the mountainous Garfagnana area of Tuscany emmer (one of three grains known as farro) is grown by farmers as an IGP (Indicazione Geografica Protetta) product, with its geographic identity protected by law. The demand for Italian farro has led to competition from non-certified farro, grown in lowland areas and often consisting of a different wheat species, spelt.
Emmer has also been used in beer production.
Emmer has antihyperglycemic properties and antioxidant activity, which could be useful as part of a diet for type 2 diabetes in its early stages. As with all varieties and hybrids of wheat, emmer is unsuitable for people with gluten-related disorders, despite the popular claim that ancient grains contain less gluten.
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