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Carbon isotope discrimination (Δ) was determined for kernels of six‐row barley and durum wheat cultivated in the western Mediterranean basin during the last seven millennia. Samples came from different archaeological sites in Catalonia (north‐east Spain) and in the south‐east of Spain (mainly eastern Andalusia). Samples from the present were also analysed. Mean values of Δ for barley and durum wheat grains decreased slightly from Neolithic (7000–5000 BP) to Chalcolithic‐Bronze (5000–3000 BP) and Iron ages (3000–2200 BP) both in Catalonia and in south‐east (SE) Spain. Values were consistently lower in SE Spain than in Catalonia throughout these five millennia, which suggests that Catalonia was less arid than SE Spain in this period. Within a given region, current discrimination values for kernels of the same cereal species cultivated under rainfed conditions were lower than those of archaeological …