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Humans selected and cultivated hazelnuts for a long time
They were domesticated multiple times independently, across regions (British Isles, central Europe, Spain, Italy, Black Sea region of Türkiye, and Iran)

They are native across much of Europe, western Asia, and the Caucasus region (including parts of modern Türkiye, the Balkans, and adjacent regions)
It occurred naturally as part of local woodlands.

Hazelnuts were an important wild food for Mesolithic hunter-gatherers in Europe
Massive pits full of hazelnut shells attest to communal harvesting and processing. Like a 8,000 year old one on Colonsay, Scotland. Shells and nutshell fragments are commonly found at archaeological sites, including caves and open sites, where people gathered and processed them.

Compared to European mesolithic assemblages, hazelnuts are practically absent or rare in early epipalaeolithic and neolithic assemblages
They were important wild foods in mesolithic Europe.

It believed this was tied to post-glacial recolonization of woodlands. As the climate warmed after the Last Glacial Maximum, 18 to 10,000 years ago.

Human gathering, transport, and woodland management by mesolithic peoples likely helped hazel expand its range, but formal cultivation came later and sporadically in different regions.

Humans selected for: Larger, plumper nuts and kernels; and, Increased fat content, shell traits, and kernel shape.

Hazelnuts, (Corylus avellana), were an important wild food for mesolithic hunter-gatherers. Check it out with some more neolithic architecture today!

Bibliography: Philippe Crombé, Annelies Storme, Yves Perdaen, Hans Vandendriessche, The changing role of hazelnuts (Corylus avellana) in the Mesolithic diet: The Scheldt basin (W Belgium) as a case-study, Quaternary Science Reviews, Volume 317, 2023, 108295, ISSN 0277-3791, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2023.108295. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277379123003438)

Boccacci, Paolo & Botta, Roberto. (2009). Investigating the origin of hazelnut (Corylus avellana L.) cultivars using chloroplast microsatellites. Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution. 56. 851-859. 10.1007/s10722-009-9406-6.

Mesolithic food industry on Colonsay” (http://www.britarch.ac.uk/BA/ba5/ba5news.html) (Dec 1995) British Archaeology. No. 5.
Moffat, Alistair (2005) Before Scotland: The Story of Scotland Before History. London. Thames & Hudson. Pg 91–2.