Barley is one of the main cereals found in archaeological sites in the north-western Mediterranean basin, over the last 8 millennia. Grains are preserved in archaeological sediments by charring after or before dehusking. Morphological criteria for distinguishing 2-row from 6-row barley, but also hulled barley from naked barley, can be affected by charring and this can complicate identification of barley subgroups. In the last decade, geometric morphometrics applied to uncharred barley grains has shown the possibility of identifying barley subgroups, but its applicability to archaeological remains still needs to be ascertained. We used 3985 raw and charred grains of 113 current varieties to (1) assess charring effects on the shape of barley caryopses, depending on their subgroup and whether they were charred husked or dehusked and (2) select the best dataset for identifying barley subgroups. We also used 700 archaeological grains, from the Neolithic period to the end of the Middle Ages, to (3) compare the morphometric taxonomic assignment of the grains with their carpological identification based on discrete anatomical features in a series of 7 archaeological samples. Our results indicate size and shape differences between barley grains when charred husked or dehusked. Although the charring process results in greater morphometric homogeneity, it allows subgroups of barley to be identified. For the 2-row vs. 6-row identification, more than 71% of the charred modern grains can be correctly identified. For the hulled vs. naked identification, the correct cross-validation percentages range from 70 to 73%. Finally, the good correlation between carpological and morphometric identifications of archaeological grains suggests that it is possible to identify archaeobotanical samples in the future.

大麦是过去八千年来在地中海盆地西北部考古遗址发现的主要谷物之一。谷物在去壳之后或之前通过炭化保存在考古沉积物中。区分 2 行大麦和 6 行大麦以及去壳大麦和裸大麦的形态标准可能会受到炭化的影响，这会使大麦亚类的识别变得复杂。在过去的十年中，应用于未烧焦的大麦谷物的几何形态计量学已经显示出识别大麦亚群的可能性，但其在考古遗迹中的适用性仍需确定。我们使用了 113 个现有品种的 3985 颗未加工和烧焦的谷物来 (1) 评估烧焦对大麦颖果形状的影响，具体取决于大麦颖果的亚类以及它们是烧焦的去壳还是脱壳，以及 (2) 选择用于识别大麦亚类的最佳数据集。我们还使用了从新石器时代到中世纪末期的 700 颗考古谷物，以 (3) 将谷物的形态分类分配与基于一系列 7 个考古样本中离散解剖特征的尸体学鉴定进行比较。我们的结果表明，烧焦去壳或脱壳后大麦籽粒的大小和形状存在差异。尽管炭化过程会导致更大的形态均匀性，但它可以识别大麦的亚类。对于2排与6排识别，可以正确识别71%以上的烧焦现代谷物。对于带壳与裸露的识别，正确的交叉验证百分比范围为 70% 至 73%。最后，考古谷物的考古学和形态测定学鉴定之间的良好相关性表明，未来鉴定考古植物学样本是可能的。