Ancient grains

Ancient grains is a marketing term used to describe a category of grains and pseudocereals that are purported to have been minimally changed by selective breeding over recent millennia, as opposed to more widespread cereals such as corn, rice and modern varieties of wheat, which are the product of thousands of years of selective breeding.

[2][3] The origin of grains goes back to the Neolithic Revolution about 10,000 years ago, when prehistoric communities started to make the transition from hunter-gatherer to farmer.

Modern varieties of grains have been developed over time through mutation, selective cropping, breeding and research in biotechnology.

[9] Amaranth was likewise considered sacred by the Aztecs, and was used as part of a religious ceremony, its cultivation being banned by Spanish colonial authorities.

It was commonly cultivated throughout the Near East and Southern Europe in its hulled form, and the domesticated two row species may have originated at Beidha, Jarmo, or Ali Kosh.

[14] The Anishinaabe are thought to have harvested wild rice in prehistoric North America, according to archaeologists studying the clay linings of thermal features and jigging pits associated with parching and threshing of the plant.

Charred grains of cultivated and wild ragi have been found at the Neolithic site Hallur in southern India.

[10] Charred grains of Paspalum scrobiculatum (Kodo millet), dating to the Satavahana period, have been found at Nevasa.