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"As far back as 3500 B.C. the Sumerians used barley as a basis for both a
measuring and a monetary system. And in the Babylonian Code of Hammurabi,
the grain is also mentioned as a means of simple monetary exchange.
Egyptian hieroglyphics that date from as early as 5000 B.C. show the
cultivation of the crop, and perhaps one of the most interesting (and
possibly apocryphal) stories is one that goes back to that time.

"We have read that the ancient Egyptians knew of a way to determine the sex
of a pregnant woman's unborn child. The mother-to-be doused barley and
wheat with her urine. If the barley sprouted first, the child would be a
boy!...

"It as a major grain of the Greeks, and was a part of the diet of the
Romans, Etruscans, Phoenicians and Carthaginians..."

"One of the plagues of Egypt in Exodus 1 was the storm of hailstones 'by
which the barley was smitten,'"

-- from The Versatile Grain and the Elegant Bean

So you see, it might not be wheat but barley that weeded out the genes of
Africans that predispose them to celiac disease.

Linda Blanchard