[13] The staple crops of Neolithic agriculture were cereals, which could be easily cultivated in open fields, have a high nutritional value, and can be stored for long periods of time.
[15] The main feature that distinguishes domestic einkorn from wild is that its ears will not shatter without pressure, making it dependent on humans for dispersal and reproduction.
[14] Slightly earlier finds have been reported from Tell Aswad in Syria, c. 10,500–10,200 years ago, but these were identified using a less reliable method based on grain size.
[14] Wild barley (Hordeum spontaneum) is more widely distributed than either wheat species, growing across the Eastern Mediterranean, Southwest Asia, and as far east as Tibet, but is most common in the Fertile Crescent.
[14] Wild barley has two rows of spikelets, hulled grains, and a brittle rachis; domestication produced, successively, non-brittle, naked (hulless), and then six-rowed forms.
[14] At Gilgal I, a Pre-Pottery Neolithic A site in Israel dated to c. 11,700–10,550 years ago, archaeologists discovered a large granary containing thousands of wild barley grains, providing direct evidence for the cultivation of a cereal before it was domesticated.
[22][20] In Southwest Asia, the oldest known wild linseed comes from Tell Mureibit and is c. 11,800–11,300 years old; thereafter, it is commonly found at Pre-Pottery Neolithic B sites across the region.
[20] Domestic flax is distinguished by its non-splitting capsules, larger seeds, higher oil yield, and longer fibres compared to wild varieties.
[20] Epipalaeolithic hunter-gatherers harvested the wild ancestors of the "founder crops" for millennia before they were domesticated, perhaps as early as 23,000 years ago, but they formed a minor component of their diets.
[23][24] Even after they were brought under cultivation, the founder crops were not favoured over wild plants, and they were not established as staple foods until the early Pre-Pottery Neolithic B period, c. 10,700–9700 years ago.
[25][24] This phase of "pre-domestication cultivation" lasted at least a thousand years, during which early cultivars were spread around the region and slowly developed the traits that would come to characterise their domesticated forms.