Intensification in pastoralist cereal use coincides with the expansion of trans-regional networks in the Eurasian Steppe

Abstract

The pace of transmission of domesticated cereals, including millet from China as well as wheat and barley from southwest Asia, throughout the vast pastoralist landscapes of the Eurasian Steppe (ES) is unclear. The rich monumental record of the ES preserves abundant human remains that provide a temporally deep and spatially broad record of pastoralist dietary intake. Calibration of human δ 13 C and δ 15 N values against isotope ratios derived from co-occurring livestock distinguish pastoralist consumption of millet from the products of livestock and, in some regions, identify a considerable reliance by pastoralists on C 3 crops. We suggest that the adoption of millet was initially sporadic and consumed at low intensities during the Bronze Age, with the low-level consumption of millet possibly taking place in the Minusinsk Basin perhaps as early as the late third millennium cal BC. Starting in the mid-second millennium cal BC, millet consumption intensified dramatically throughout the ES with the exception of both the Mongolian steppe where millet uptake was strongly delayed until the end of first millennium cal BC and the Trans-Urals where instead barley or wheat gained dietary prominence. The emergence of complex, trans-regional political networks likely facilitated the rapid transfer of cultivars across the steppe during the transition to the Iron Age.

New AMS 14C dates track the arrival and spread of broomcorn millet cultivation and agricultural change in prehistoric Europe

“…Differences between the estimated start dates of millet cultivation (Fig. 4) www.nature.com/scientificreports/ stable isotope data do not indicate broomcorn millet cultivation and/or consumption before the very end of the 2nd millennium bc or later 65,66 . From current evidence, therefore, millet appears to have arrived in Europe via the "Caucasus corridor", amidst strengthened connections between the two sides of the mountain in the Late Bronze Age 67 [20,21].…”

“…There are, however, indications of 'non-adoption' or, more precisely, non-consumption of millet among some communities at the time when their neighbours consumed notable amounts of it. This was seen in the human stable isotopes from the Bronze and Iron Age Trans-Urals 66 , the Terramare culture zone 91 and Iron Age coastal Croatia 116 . Thus, at a more local scale, the introduction and use of the new crop may not have been indiscriminate 43 .…”

A dynamic 6,000-year genetic history of Eurasia’s Eastern Steppe

“…During the EIA, the Uyuk (also known as the Aldy-Bel or Sagly-Bazhy culture) were pastoralists largely centered in the Upper Yenisei region of present-day Tuva, and together with the Pazyryk, with whom they share log chamber tombs and other features, they formed part of a broader Saka cultural phenomenon that stretched across the Western Steppe, the Tarim Basin, and the Upper Yenisei (Parzinger, 2006). In addition to dairying, many Saka groups, including EIA individuals at the Chandman Mountain site, also cultivated millet (Murphy et al, 2013; Ventresca Miller and Makarewicz, 2019; Wilkin et al), a practice that had been earlier adopted by many southern steppe and Central Asian populations during the westward spread of millet from China to the Caucasus during the second millennium BCE (Ventresca Miller and Makarewicz, 2019).…”

Economic Diversification Supported the Growth of Mongolia’s Nomadic Empires

“…Of particular interest in this context has been the growing archaeobotanical evidence from across Central Asia that demonstrates an influx of millet, both broomcorn (Panicum miliaceum L.) and foxtail (Setaria italica L.), and other domesticated grains in the surrounding steppe lands of Siberia, Kazakhstan, and northwestern China during the second and first millennia B.C.E. [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24] . There are some archaeobotanical data suggesting the use of crops in Mongolia starting around c. 100 B.C.E.…”

“…Stable isotope analysis of archaeological human and associated faunal remains has emerged as an increasingly powerful methodology for tracking palaeodietary and subsistence change in Central and East Asia 23,[28][29][30][31] . The distinction in stable carbon isotope ratios (δ 13 C) between C 3 plants on the one hand -including crops such as rice (Oryza sativa L.), wheat (Triticum spp.…”