[3] Wild barley is native to North Africa, the Middle East, parts of the Indian subcontinent and south-west China.

Its range includes Libya, Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Crete, Cyprus, Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, India and the Sichuan and Xizang provinces of China.

This wild plant is potentially a genetic resource useful for the breeding of stress-tolerant varieties of the cultivated crop.

[5] The domestication of barley probably occurred around 10,000 years ago in the Israel and Jordan region of the Fertile Crescent.

[2] Further research using haplotype frequency in different geographic parts of the range led to the inference that there were at least two domestication events, one in the Fertile Crescent and another some 1,500 to 3,000 km (932 to 1,864 mi) further east.