Abstract: The onset of cooler, drier conditions after 25,000 BP favoured the spread of many large-grained grass species, especially in Eurasia and North Africa. These cereal species were increasingly exploited by groups, such as the semi-sedentary Ohalo culture in the Levant, who collected wild barley for grinding to baking in oven-like hearths. Relatively large amounts of wild cereals could be gathered and stored by small family groups to supplement other, more seasonal, foodstuffs. Cereals became less important in Eurasia during the climatic amelioration of the later Kerbaran period (c.15,000 BP), but were still being exploited by the Natufians when the climate suddenly deteriorated again at 12,800 BP. Non-agricultural management of wild plants is likely to have been a major food acquisition strategy for much of human history. It was often highly sophisticated, flexible, and more enduring than agriculture and is especially adaptive in resource-poor regions and/or in times of climatic change.

Keywords: cereals, einkorn, emmer, Kerbarans, Natufians, Kumeyaay, aridity, plant management, coevolution,