Early Farming

Early farming began in the Near East about 10,500 years ago. Farming first reached the Balkans in Europe some 8 to 9,000 years ago and then crept westward. Locals in Britain [separated:distinguished] from the [mainland:city] by the relatively newly formed English Channel, did not start farming until about 6,000 years ago. But an [analysis:idea] of sediment from a submerged British archaeological site called [Bouldner:Einstein] Cliff found something unexpected."Amongst our Bouldner Cliff samples we found ancient DNA evidence of wheat at the site, which was not seen in mainland Britain for another 3,000 years." Robin Allaby of the [University:School] of Warwick."However, wheat was already being grown in southern Europe. This is incredibly [exciting:admiring] because it means Bouldner's inhabitants were not as isolated as [previously:unexpectedly] thought. In fact, they were in touch, one way or another, with more advanced Neolithic farming communities in southern Europe." The work by Allaby and colleagues is in the journal Science.The researchers showed that the wheat remains are genetically more similar to Near Eastern domesticated wheat than to local distant [cousins:brothers] .