WHEAT FOUR THOUSAND YEARS OLD

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 50, 21 May 1927, Page 20 (Supplement)

WHEAT FOUR THOUSAND YEARS OLD

TAKEN FROM MUMMY SOWN AND GROWN A strange experiment, which proves the amazing vitality of wheat, has just been” carried out. A quantity of “mummy” wheat—that is, wheat buried by the ancient Egyptians with the embalmed body of a dead man, has been sown by a farmer of Bathurst, New South Wales. Although it was over 4,000 years old, a crop has been obtained. This crop was of seven-eared wheat of good quality, though not so suitable for milling purposes as modern wheat It grew to an exceptional height Wheat older than this Egyptian “mummy” grain has, however, been found, and it is now definitely established that it was one of the oldest cereals grown by early man. This is the result of a discovery made during excavations of an ancient Sumerian site near Kish. What the Experts Said A red-and-black jar was found in the course of the researches, and in this was stored a quantity of charred wheat. That was last year, but nothing was said about the discovery at the time. Professor S. Langdon, who made it, wished to have the wheat examined by experts before he made any announcement. Now, however, the experts have reported and the find has been made public. According to one authority it is rivet, or cone wheat, which is the most prolific of all the varieties of the cereal. Other experts, however, say that it is common wheat, or club wheat, as it is often called, the most highly developed of all the kinds and the finest for -bread-making. It is estimated that this sample of wheat dates back to 3.500 8.C., so that it is now roughly 5,500 years old. Its discovery is considered as proving that the original home of the bread-mak-ing wheats was in Mesopotamia. The historical botanists have long believed that this was the case, but they couli advance no absolutely definite proof until this find by Professor Langdon.