Barley

The barley is ripe and the harvest in Northern France is well advanced. Soon it will be turned into animal food and malted to produce beer and other alcoholic delights.

The domestication of wild cereals and other plants is arguably the most important achievement of humans allowing us to move from a lifestyle of hunting and gathering to one of agriculture and settlement, supporting an increasingly large population. The archaeological evidence suggests that the domestication of various forms of plants and animals evolved in separate locations worldwide starting around 12,000 years ago.