Barley

Barley (Hordeum vulgare) is a cereal grass that was first cultivated in the Fertile Crescent around 8000 BCE. The wild progenitor Hordeum spontaneum was characterised, together with wheat Triticum, as one of the seven agricultural species from the land of Israel in the first book of the Old Testament. Barley is cited throughout the Bible as one of the two grains that Moses offered up to God as the first fruits of the ripened crop. In the Book of Leviticus, Moses is asked to instruct the Israelites to “bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest: and he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord” (Leviticus 23:1), which according to archeobotanists would have been a sheaf of barley, as the grain matures and is harvested earlier in the season than wheat. It has since become a significant grain during the offerings at harvest festivals, in both the Christian and Jewish religions.