24.11.2014 - 13:14 [ nature ]

Barley fuelled farmers‘ spread onto Tibetan plateau

(20. November) All the archaeological sites higher than about 2,500 metres contained primarily barley and not millet, Chen and his colleagues say. That includes a 4,000-year-old site with the oldest known evidence for barley on the plateau. Barley may have arrived in the region as part of the same cultural exchange that brought wheat from the West, Chen‘s team says.