The history of rye cultivation in Europe

During recent years finds from several prehistoric and medieval periods have thrown new light on the history of the spread of rye. It is now proven that wild rye is indigenous to Anatolia and was already domesticated there by the early Neolithic at the beginning of agriculture. Secale migrated to Central Europe as a weed among other cereals, and single grains of weed rye have been recorded there since the early Neolithic. The number of finds increased during the Bronze Age and Iron Age, and the status of rye changed from weed to crop plant, probably in the course of the early Iron Age. This acculturation of Secale cereale in central and eastern Europe was obviously independent of the earlier one in Anatolia. The first stages towards deliberate cultivation happened unintentionally through harvesting close to the ground, so that the rye was permanently represented in the seed corn. From this point rye was able to take advantage of its competitive strength on poor soils and in areas with unfavourable climate. The start of rye as a crop in its own right during the pre-Roman Iron Age and Roman period presumably took place independently in different areas. The expansion of intensive rye cultivation occurred in the Middle Ages. However, new finds from north-west Germany, which are presented here, show that in this area rye has been cultivated as a main crop on poor soils since the Roman period. In two maps all rye finds up to 1000 A.D. are shown, which after critical consideration can be regarded as cultivated rye.