Barley was one of the first domesticated grains in the Fertile Crescent, an area of relatively abundant water in Western Asia, and near the Nile river of northeast Africa.
The grain appeared in the same time as einkorn and emmer wheat.
 Wild barley (H. vulgare ssp.
spontaneum) ranges from North Africa and Crete in the west, to Tibet in the east.
 According to some scholars, the earliest evidence of wild barley in an archaeological context comes from the Epipaleolithic at Ohalo II at the southern end of the Sea of Galilee.
 The remains were dated to about 8500 BCE.
Other scholars have written that the earliest evidence comes from Mesopotamia, specifically the Jarmo region of modern day Iraq.
Barley was one of the first domesticated grains in the Fertile Crescent, an area of relatively abundant water in Western Asia, and near the Nile river of northeast Africa. The grain appeared in the same time as einkorn and emmer wheat.  Wild barley (H. vulgare ssp. spontaneum) ranges from North Africa and Crete in the west, to Tibet in the east.  According to some scholars, the earliest evidence of wild barley in an archaeological context comes from the Epipaleolithic at Ohalo II at the southern end of the Sea of Galilee.  The remains were dated to about 8500 BCE. Other scholars have written that the earliest evidence comes from Mesopotamia, specifically the Jarmo region of modern day Iraq.
Barley