Some of us spend so much time thinking about not eating wheat, particularly its key protein, gluten, that it can be difficult to remember how important wheat is to human history.

We started growing it about 10,000 years ago. That was a major milestone; it marked the beginning of the end of the Mesolithic hunter-gatherer society and the start of Neolithic settlements focused on planting crops and raising animals for food. And because different societies turned to agriculture at different times, identifying wheat in the archaeological record can hint at how ancient peoples moved out from the Near East, where farming began, and how they spread across Europe to trade and then put down new roots.

That’s a lot of history to hang on the remains of some grain kernels.