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Garlic has a origin from a wild progenitor: allium longicuspis, or a close relative, from central Asia
It is a sterile cultigen, that does not reproduce sexually. And, has clonal lineages through cloves.

Based on molecular and biochemical research, domesticated garlic was first developed from wild allium longicuspis in Central Asia, about 5,000–6,000 years ago
Though some say it may also have originated from a. tuncelianum. In se Turkey, or A. macrochaetum, in sw Asia.

Strongest evidence of origins point at Central Asia: Tien Shan, Pamir, and the Hindu Kush regions. Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan
Secondary areas of early cultivation are western China (Xinjiang) Iran and Afghanistan.

Wild garlic was probably used more than 10,000 years ago, with early cultivation beginning 7,000 years BP
Neolithic cultures begin domesticating around the Tien Shan and Pamir foothills. And, Early Bronze Age populations of Bactria–Margiana (BMAC)

It is often found in the Tien Shan mountains, or on the border between China and Kyrgyzstan
Those mountains were home to early (late neolithic/earlty bronze age) horseback traders.

Although there are a few wild collections in the region of where it was domesticated. In Central Asia; and, the Caucasus, which are seed-fertile
Today’s garlic cultivars are almost entirely all sterile and have to be propagated by hand. That must be a result of domestication.

Characteristics that appear in domesticated varieties include: increased bulb weight, thinner coat layer, reduced leaf length, shorter growing seasons, and resistance to environmental stress
Humans begin selecting larger cloves, replanting their clonal bulbs, selecting variants with mildness, strong flavor, storage qualities, and adaptation to different daylengths and altitudes.

It was likely traded out from central Asia into Mesopotamia where it was cultivated by the beginning of the 4th millennium BC
Very old remains were found at the ‘Cave of the Treasure’, near Ein Gedi, Israel.

By the Bronze Age, garlic was being consumed by people throughout the Mediterranean, including the Egyptians and It was also found in India and the Indus valley.

Several historical references cite the strong smelling and tasting flavours, as a medicinal cure-all
More recent studies have demonstrated that allicin and other garlic organosulfur compounds exhibit broad-spectrum antibacterial and antimycotic effects.

Check it out with some more neolithic architecture today!

Bibliography: Chen, Shuxia, et al. “Analysis of the Genetic Diversity of Garlic (Allium Sativum L.) Germplasm by SRAP.” Biochemical Systematics and Ecology 50.0 (2013): 139–46.

Guenaoui, Chedia, et al. “Diversity in Allium Ampeloprasum: From Small and Wild to Large and Cultivated.” Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution 60.1 (2013): 97–114.