From the moment our ancestors first recognized that a fallen seed could sprout into sustenance, humanity’s destiny became forever intertwined with agriculture. The story of farming is not merely about food production—it’s the narrative of civilization itself, written in grains of wheat, kernels of corn, and strands of hemp fiber that stretch back nearly 30,000 years.

This comprehensive timeline traces the remarkable journey of how four foundational crops—wheat, corn, cannabis, and soybeans—transformed wandering hunter-gatherers into settled communities, sparked technological innovations, and created the first global trade networks. From the ancient hemp cords of Czechoslovakia to the sophisticated bread-making techniques of Egypt, from the sacred plants of China to the agricultural gods of Mesoamerica, we witness humanity’s greatest revolution unfold across millennia and continents.

What emerges is not just a chronology of agricultural milestones, but a testament to human ingenuity and adaptation. These plants didn’t simply feed our ancestors—they provided medicine, textiles, building materials, and spiritual significance. They drove the development of tools, from simple grinding stones to complex mills. They necessitated new social structures, from the first farming villages to specialized guilds. Most remarkably, they connected distant civilizations through trade and knowledge exchange thousands of years before our modern global economy.

As we face contemporary challenges of food security and sustainable agriculture, this ancient history offers both perspective and wisdom. The innovations, experiments, and discoveries chronicled here remind us that every crop in our fields today carries within its DNA the accumulated knowledge of countless generations who selected, saved, and shared seeds—humanity’s first and perhaps most important technology.

The Ancient History Of Agriculture

“To really understand a plant, one has to look into its history. It became what it is now through its whole course of development.” – Luther Burbank; botanist and ag science pioneer

• 26,900 BCE: Use of hemp cord in Czechoslovakia (oldest known object to be associated with cannabis).
• 17,000 BCE: Grains of wild emmer wheat discovered at Ohalo II had a radiocarbon dating of 17,000 BCE.
• 10,000 BCE: Grains of wild emmer discovered at the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) site of Netiv Hagdud are 10,000-9,400 years old. The ancestors of modern wheat are introduced: Triticum urartu (wild einkorn), Aegilops speltoides, and Aegilops tauschi.
• 9,600 BCE: Archaeological records suggests that wheat was first cultivated in the regions of the Fertile Crescent around 9,600 BCE. Definitive evidence for the full domestication of emmer wheat is not found until the Middle Pre-Pottery Neolithic B, at sites such as Beidha, Tell Ghoraifé, Jericho, Abu Hureyra, Tell Halula, Tell Aswad and Cafer Höyük.
• 8,650 BCE: The earliest clear evidence of the domestication of Einkorn wheat dates from 8,650 BCE to 7,950 BCE from Çayönü and Cafer Höyük, two Early Pre-Pottery Neolithic B archaeological sites in southern Turkey.
• 8,000+ BCE: Use of hemp cord in pottery in the area of modern day Taiwan.
• 7,500 BCE: People first began to farm corn (instead of picking it wild) around 7,500 BCE in Mexico.
• 6,700 BCE: In the stone age, man ground grains of wheat with rocks to make flour.
• 6,500 BCE: The cultivation of emmer wheat reached Greece, Cyprus, and India by 6,500 BCE. The oldest evidence for hexaploid wheat has been confirmed through DNA analysis of wheat seeds, dating to around 6,400-6,200 BCE, recovered from Çatalhöyük.
• 6,100 BCE: Bread wheat is an allohexaploid (an allopolyploid with six sets of chromosomes: two sets from each of three different species). Of the six sets of chromosomes, two come from Triticum urartu (einkorn wheat) and two from Aegilops speltoides. This hybridisation created the species Triticum turgidum (durum wheat) 5800–8200 years ago.
• 6,000 BCE: The cultivation of emmer wheat reached Egypt shortly after 6,000 BCE. Ecuador was growing corn by this time. Cannabis seeds and oil used for food in China.
• 5,600 BCE: A large corpus of data indicates that it corn was dispersed into lower Central America by 5,600 BCE.
• 5,500 BCE: Millstones used for grinding flour were introduced. The ability to sow and reap cereals may be one of the chief causes which led man to dwell in communities, rather than to live a wandering life hunting and herding cattle
• 5,000 BCE: The cultivation of emmer wheat reached Germany and Spain by 5,000 BCE. Also around 5,000 BCE Spelt (Triticum spelta), also known as dinkel wheat, or hulled wheat, was cultivated.
• 4,500 BCE: Corn moved into the inter-Andean valleys of Colombia between 5,000-4,000 BCE.
• 4,200 BCE: Between 5,000 and 3,500 BCE, Mesoamericans were already planting mutant forms of corn that showed signs of the husks characteristic of modern domestic corn.
• 4,000 BCE: Textiles made of hemp used in China and Turkestan. Cannabis was farmed as a major food crop in China.
• 3,500 BCE: A much improved race of corn appeared.
• 3,400 BCE: In northeastern Europe, emmer (in addition to einkorn and barley) was one of the most important cereal species; this importance increased from 3,400 BCE onwards.
• 3,000 BCE: The Egyptians were the first to produce risen loaves using yeast. Their method included used a small amount of old dough, or leaven, to “start” the new dough. Both dough were mixed together and allowed to ferment for some time before baking. By 3,000 BCE, wheat had reached the British Isles and Scandinavia. In the Near East, in southern Mesopotamia in particular, cultivation of emmer wheat began to decline in the Early Bronze Age, from about 3000 BC, and barley became the standard cereal crop. Also by 3,000 BCE, cannabis was an important crop in Korea.
• 2,853 BCE: Emperor Sheng-Nung of China named five sacred plants: soybeans, rice, wheat, barley, and millet.
• 2,737 BCE: First recorded use of cannabis as medicine by Emperor Shen Neng of China.
• 2,700 BCE: Ancient Chinese writings from 2,700 BCE describe growing wheat.
• 2,500 BCE: It’s believed that beginning about 2500 BCE, corn spread through much of the Americas.
• 2,100 BCE: Northern Flint corn descends from the flint corn introduced into the southwestern United States 4,100 years ago and provides a substantial portion of the genetic background of modern corn hybrids.
• 2,000 BCE: Bhang (dried cannabis leaves, seeds and stems) was mentioned in the Hindu sacred text Atharvaveda (Science of Charms) as “Sacred Grass”, one of the five sacred plants of India. The ancient Egyptians used cannabis in suppositories for relieving the pain of hemorrhoids and also used cannabis to treat sore eyes.
• 1,900 BCE: In the British Isles, wheat straw (thatch) was used for roofing in the Bronze Age (2,000 BCE – 500 BCE), and was in common use until the late 19th century.
• 1,700 BCE: Egyptian papyrus that mentioned medical cannabis: the Ramesseum III Papyrus.
• 1,600 BCE: Soybean plants were domesticated between 17th and 11th century BCE in the eastern half of China where they were cultivated into a food crop.
• 1,500 BCE: Scythians cultivated cannabis and used it to weave fine hemp cloth. Scientists in Egypt developed a new kind of wheat – bakers could mix the wheat with yeast from beer-making and make risen bread. By 1,500 BCE, people were growing wheat in China, but not for bread – they didn’t have the right kind of wheat for risen bread. Instead, people made noodles, which needed much less fuel to cook. Sedentary village farming in Mesoamerica came into being by about 1,500 BCE. Corn (maize) was one of the most important crops. Indigenous Americans were taught to soak corn in alkali-water, made with ashes and lime (calcium oxide), since at least 1,200 to 1,500 BCE by Mesoamericans.
• 1,340 BCE: “three-ply hemp cord” in the ruins of El Amarna, the city of the Pharaoh Akhenaton.
• 1,300 BCE: The Berlin Papyrus and The Chester Beatty Medical Papyrus VI mention medical cannabis.
• 1,213 BCE: Ramesses II, the Egyptian pharaoh, mummified on his death. Cannabis pollen was later recovered from the mummy.
• 1,100 BCE: The earliest known name for the soybean was shu , a term used in north China as early as the 11th century BCE.
• 1,000 BCE: Developments in milling techniques began with the invention of the rotary mill, which made better quality flour. In India, the medical and religious use of cannabis began.
• 900 BCE: Assyrians employed the psychotropic effects of cannabis for recreational and medical purposes.
• 750 BCE: In the Iron Age (750–15 BC), spelt became a principal wheat species in southern Germany and Switzerland.
• 700 BCE: Scythian tribes left Cannabis seeds as offerings in royal tombs. There is some conjecture that cannabis was used along with wine in a preparation known as nepenthe, which was recorded by Homer around 700 BCE as being used in Greece to “banish pain and sorrow” .
• 664 BCE: In the Kuan-tzu , a work attributed to a Chinese statesman of the 7th century BCE but not actually compiled until Han times, it is stated that an army sent to punish the Mountain Jung brought back “winter onions and soybeans ( Jung-shu ) for dissemination throughout the various states.” This expedition is known to have taken place in 664 BCE. Although soybeans were known in China before 1,000 BCE, they did not become widely disseminated until after 664 BCE.
• 650 BCE: The Zoroastrian Zendavesta, an ancient Persian religious text of several hundred volumes, referred to bhang as the “good narcotic.”
• 600 BCE: Hemp rope appeared in southern Russia.
• 500 BCE: Spelt wheat was in common use in southern Britain. Cannabis was commonly used by 500 BCE in Asia as herbal medicine. Gautama Buddha said to have survived by eating hempseed. Cannabis used in Germany (Hochdorf Hallstatt D wagon burial site). First botanical drawings of cannabis in Constantinopolitaus.
• 480 BCE: The classical Greek historian Herodotus reported that the inhabitants of Scythia would often inhale the vapors of hemp-seed smoke, both as ritual and for their own pleasurable recreation.
• 470 BCE: The philosopher Socrates said, “No man qualifies as a statesman who is entirely ignorant on the problems of wheat.”
• 300 BCE: Physician Dioscorides prescribed cannabis for toothaches and earaches. Greek doctor Claudius Galen noted it was widely consumed throughout the empire. Women of the Roman elite also used cannabis to alleviate labor pains. Carthage and Rome struggled for political and commercial power over hemp and spice trade routes in the Mediterranean.
• 200 BCE: The Romans started to use animal power to grind wheat. Hemp rope appeared in Greece. The Chinese Book of Rites mentioned hemp fabric.
• 170 BCE: Tofu-making was first recorded during the Chinese Han dynasty some 2,000 years ago. Chinese legend ascribes its invention to Prince Liu An (179–122 BCE).
• 168 BCE: The Roman Baker’s Guild, or Pistorum, was created. The importance of bread to daily life meant that bakers were recognized as freemen of the city. All other craftsmen were slaves.
• 150 BCE: The full season crop soybeans of northern Japan came from north China via Korea between 200 BCE and CE 220 (Han dynasty), the period during which China controlled Korea.
• 130 BCE: The term dadou (ta-tou; literally “great bean”) came to be the standard Mandarin term for the soybean, and first appeared in the Huai-nan tzu written in about 130 BCE.
• 100 BCE: The Fan Sheng-chih Shu of the first century BCE contained the first detailed information about soybean planting and harvest. First evidence of hemp paper, invented in China.
• 87 BCE: Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was buried with textiles and paper made from cannabis.
• 1 CE: By about 1 CE, the Pueblo people in North America grew corn. The psychotropic properties of Cannabis were mentioned in the newly compiled herbal Pen Ts’ao Ching.
• 50 CE: Pliny the Elder noted that, although emmer was called far in his time, formerly it was called adoreum (or “glory”), providing an etymology explaining that emmer had been held in glory. Pliny the Elder’s The Natural History mentioned hemp rope and marijuana’s analgesic effects.
• 70 CE: Roman medical texts listed cannabis as a cure for earache and as a way to suppress sexual desire. Dioscorides, a physician in Nero’s army, listed medical marijuana in his Pharmacopoeia.
• 80 CE: Plutarch mentioned Thracians using cannabis as an intoxicant.
• 100 CE: Imported hemp rope appeared in England.
• 150 CE: Greek physician Galen prescribed medical marijuana.
• 200 CE: Hua T’o, the founder of Chinese surgery, used a compound of cannabis, taken with wine, to anesthetize patients during surgical operations.
• 207 CE: First pharmacopoeia of the East listed medical marijuana.
• 300 CE: The earliest known mention of soybeans in Korean literature.

Final Thoughts

This fascinating journey through the ancient history of agriculture reveals how deeply intertwined human civilization is with the cultivation of plants. From the earliest hemp cords in Czechoslovakia nearly 29,000 years ago to the sophisticated agricultural systems of ancient China and Rome, we see a story of continuous innovation and adaptation.

What strikes me most is how these foundational crops—wheat, corn, cannabis, and soybeans—didn’t just feed our ancestors; they shaped the very fabric of human society. The ability to cultivate wheat may have been the catalyst that transformed nomadic hunters into settled communities. The development of bread-making techniques in ancient Egypt represents not just culinary advancement but a leap in food preservation and nutrition that could sustain larger populations.

The global exchange of agricultural knowledge is equally remarkable. Crops that originated in one region—corn from Mexico, soybeans from China, wheat from the Fertile Crescent—eventually spread across continents, adapting to new climates and cultures. This ancient agricultural network predates our modern globalization by millennia.

Perhaps most intriguing is how our ancestors recognized both the nutritional and medicinal properties of these plants. From Emperor Shen Neng’s classification of the “five sacred plants” to the widespread medicinal use of cannabis across ancient civilizations, we see an sophisticated understanding of plant properties that we’re only now rediscovering through modern science.

As Luther Burbank noted in the opening quote, to truly understand a plant, we must look at its history. This timeline reminds us that every grain of wheat, every ear of corn, and every soybean carries within it thousands of years of human ingenuity, experimentation, and survival. Our modern agricultural challenges—feeding a growing population, adapting to climate change, preserving biodiversity—are extensions of the same fundamental quest that began when the first human saved seeds for next season’s planting.