Agriculturalists and pastoralists: Bronze Age economy of the Murghab alluvial fan, southern Central Asia

Abstract

Archaeological investigations of pastoral economies often emphasize exchange relations with agricultural populations, though for Bronze Age Eurasia the notion of a ubiquitous 'pastoral realm' has masked various forms of mixed subsistence economies. In Central Asia, there are few attempts to specifically identify the domestic crops utilized by mobile pastoralists or what they may suggest about the role of agriculture in mobile pastoral production or subsistence strategies. This study reports the macrobotanical remains from two Late/Final Bronze Age (ca. 1950-1300 BC) mobile pastoralist habitation sites in the Murghab alluvial fan region of southern Turkmenistan. We compare our results with published macrobotanical data from contemporary agricultural settlements in the Murghab region, as well as with other sites in broader prehistoric Eurasia. We find that mobile pastoralists in the Murghab utilized some of the same domestic crops as their sedentary neighbors. While the data presented here do not preclude the possibility that mobile pastoralists may have practiced some low-investment cultivation (particularly of millet), we hypothesize an economic model that places mobile pastoralists in direct contact with nearby sedentary farming communities through exchange for pre-processed grains. These results highlight one of the possible strategies of mobile pastoral subsistence in Central Asia, and are a further step toward identifying the various degrees of agricultural involvement in the conceptually outdated pastoral realm of Eurasia.

Agriculture in the Central Asian Bronze Age

“…However, based on published photos of barley from the Middle Bronze Age at Gonur Depe, the hulled form seems to be predominantly replaced (Miller 1999), and the same seems to be true at Tasbas (Spengler et al 2014b). The site of Ojakly in the Murghab delta of Turkmenistan primarily has naked barley; however, the nearby site of 1211 has a mix of naked and hulled (Spengler et al 2014a). While many early (fifth to fourth millennium BC) sites in southern Central Asia have a mix of hulled and naked barley, by the second millennium BC much of the barley found in this region is naked.…”

“…Another trait that could possibly help with archaeobotanical links between the historic landraces and archaeological material is the shallow ventral furrow. This trait has not been discussed archaeologically; however, wheat grains from Tasbas (Spengler et al 2014b) and from the site of 1211 in Turkmenistan (Spengler et al 2014a) have shallow furrows (Fig. 2) similar to herbarium and gene bank specimens of dwarf wheat from India (elaborated upon below).…”

“…2) similar to herbarium and gene bank specimens of dwarf wheat from India (elaborated upon below). Despite all the issues that arise when (Spengler et al 2014a) attempting to classify these wheats, there appears to be a loosely identifiable morphological category of wheats present across a large part of Asia during the late third and the second millennium BC. One theory is that highly compact wheat in Asia may have originated from the same gene pool as a historically documented variety of highly compact free-threshing hexaploid wheat, 'Indian dwarf wheat' (T. aestivum ssp.…”

“…3). Examples of these traits are seen in grains from Sarazm (Spengler and Willcox 2013); Ojakly in Turkmenistan (Spengler et al 2014a); Miri Qalat, Makran (Tengberg 1999;Willcox 1994); several sites in Pakistan (e.g. Mehrgarh and Nausharo: Costantini 1984Costantini , 1987; and Tasbas in Kazakhstan (Spengler et al 2014b).…”

“…It is clear that this morphology-based category is not neatly defined and overlaps greatly with other compact wheats. Spengler et al (2014a) discuss cache deposits of carbonized grain remains found at the site of 1211 (c. 1500-1200 cal BC; Fig. 1).…”