Barley has been found to have helped mountainous people live at high altitudes as well as practise some measure of agriculture on the mountains. It has also been found to have helped an entire people relocate to mountainous regions to establish village settlements, and this is as far back as 5,200 years ago. Mountain dwelling peoples never lacked farmed crops because they were able to sustain on barley and other frost-resistant crops that can survive in high altitudes.

Ancient people were able to discover that barley, contrary to most crops back then, was very frost-resistant and able to survive high altitudes because of its hardy nature. Barley was known to be very tolerant to tough environments, and it could ensure a steady supply of food for whole mountain settlers.

For over 20,000 years, people of old had always wanted to conquer the mountains for obvious reasons: they needed natural protection against enemies – but needed a source of constant food supplies while they remained inaccessible to their enemies. Hence the search of crops that could survive high altitudes and useful for a number of dietary purposes, but they were only able to discover the tenacity of the barley 5,200 years ago and instantly adopted it as their survival crop.

Some mountain animals that only lived on high altitudes provided the source of meat that these mountain settlers needed, and these ancient people were content to dwell the mountains and subsist on barley, among other crops and plants. And add to this: barley could also be used to brew local beer and other similar drinks for the comfort of the people.

Growing barley on high altitude mountains had another advantage: it could withstand droughts and winter if famine ever occurs to the inhabitants of lowlands. Decreasing temperatures made it nearly impossible to grow crops in lowlands during winters, but frost-resistant crops like barley would survive on lowlands as much as it would on high altitudes.

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  1. CaptainObvious

    Higher elevations lack water, so the barley was as important to keep drinking water safe (beer) as it was a food source.


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