Investigating early agriculture in Central Asia: new research at Jeitun, Turkmenistan

Abstract

In 1989 ANTIQUITY published a special section of papers on the archaeology of the steppe zone, to notice the special role of that great sweep of land that links the northern fringes of early prehistoric agriculture in Europe and Asia. A new international team has now returned to Jeitun, the key early agricultural site in Turkmenistan, on the edge of the Kara Kum desert.

Cultivated emmer wheat (Triticum dicoccon Schrank), an old crop with promising future: a review

“…During the 6th millennium BC, emmer wheat was largely cultivated in the plains of Mesopotamia and western Anatolia. It reached Turkmenistan by the middle of the 6th millennium BC (Harris et al 1993) when early farming villages were established in the northern foothills of the Kopet Dagh Mountains (Mellaart 1975). The earliest evidence for the presence of emmer wheat in Pakistan is from the Neolithic site of Mehrgarh (6000-5000 BC).…”

Modern impacts on an ancient landscape, the piedmont plain in southwest Turkmenistan

“…Especially for the Early and Mid‐Holocene, it cannot be excluded that there were times of higher rainfall availability in the lowlands that permitted rain‐fed agriculture. However, the importance of the Kopet Dag rivers for the piedmont plain and its millennia‐long irrigation schemes appears obvious . This is strengthened by the fact that the continuous water and sediment supply through the alluvial fans onto the floodplains provide the most preferable locations for irrigation endeavors …”

The discovery of Capparis spinosa L. (Capparidaceae) in the Yanghai Tombs (2800 years b.p.), NW China, and its medicinal implications

“…(Miller, 1985), the other caper remains consisted of only seeds. However, due to storage conditions, most of them were either carbonized (Helbaek, 1966;Hillman, 1975;Miller, 1992;Harris et al, 1993) or serious damaged (Helbaek, 1966(Helbaek, , 1972Bakker-Heeres, 1982, 1984b). The seed remains from Nahal Hemar Cave, Israel, dated about 7100-6000 b.c., include only dry material and showed no detailed structures (Kislev, 1988).…”

“…However, so far caper seed remains have only been unearthed in the Jeitun (dated about 5400-5000 b.c. ), Turkmenistan, in the western part of Central Asia (Harris et al, 1993), nearly 2700 km from the Yanghai Tombs. The caper specimens discovered in the Yanghai 1st century Root bark in wine were good for the spleen, as emetic and diuretic; plant in vinegar and honey were used for expelling the tape worms; plant boiled in vinegar for mouth ulcers; root bark and leaves with honey were used for cleaning ulcers; fruits, root bark or seeds in vinegar for pained teeth; roots bark for taking away white vitiligo spots; root and leaves boiled in oil for killing worms in the ears or as analgesic for ear ache; flower buds eating for protecting palsy and spleen ache.…”

“…Another important aspect of the caper seeds unearthed from the Yanghai Tombs is that they were still in clumps and stored in a pottery jar. To date, nearly all the caper remains consisted of only a small number of seeds, mixed together with seeds of cereals or weeds and dispersed at the archaeological sites (Helbaek, 1965;Harris et al, 1993). So, the significance of those caper seeds was ambiguous.…”