Kushan Period rice in the Amu Darya Basin: Evidence for prehistoric exchange along the southern Himalaya

Tang

Nayak

et al. 2020

Veget Hist Archaeobot

Self Cite

The mountain foothills of inner Asia have served as a corridor of communication and exchange for at least five millennia, using historically documented trade routes such as the Silk Road and the Tea-Horse Road. Recent research has illustrated the important role that this mountain corridor played in the dispersal of crops and farming technology between northeast and southwest Asia 5,000 to 1,000 years ago. However, the role of the mountain valleys along the southern rim of the Pamirs and Himalaya in facilitating crop dispersals has not yet been fully explored. Notably, ongoing debates over secondary dispersals of Hordeum (barley) and Triticum (wheat) into China and the routes of dispersal for the East Asian crops Oryza sativa (rice), Prunus persica (peach) and P. armeniaca (apricot) into northern India are continuing topics of inquiry. In this article, we add to these discussions by focusing on archaeobotanical remains from the Barikot site (ca. 1200 bce–50 ce) in the Swat valley of northern Pakistan. The Swat valley is an ancient settlement zone in the Hindu Kush-Karakoram foothills, whose cultural features have always had a strong link with inner Asia. The archaeobotanical assemblage illustrates that a diverse array of crops, with origins across Asia, were cultivated around the same settlement. Additionally, these farmers likely implemented seasonal cropping cycles and irrigation that required various labour inputs and water management regimes.

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Water-demanding Cropsmentioning

confidence: 94%

Section: Water-demanding Cropsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

The southern Central Asian mountains as an ancient agricultural mixing zone: new archaeobotanical data from Barikot in the Swat valley of Pakistan

Tang

Nayak

et al. 2020

Veget Hist Archaeobot

Self Cite

“…Archaeobotanists have argued for a rapid northward and westward dispersal of rice into the Guanzhong Plain and the Hehuang region of Gansu (Zhang et al 2010(Zhang et al , 2012Jin et al 2014). Current evidence seems to imply a slightly later dispersal south and west (Chen et al 2020;He et al 2017). Deng et al (2018) recently claimed to identify domesticated rice bulliform phytoliths in eastern Taiwan at Chaolaiqiao from 4200 years ago.…”

Section: East Asiamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Rice cultivation appears to have made it to the Sichuan Plains at Baodun and Guiyanqiao by more than 4000 years ago (d' Alpoim Guedes et al 2013) and into Yunnan at Baiyangcun by 2640 BC (Dal Martello et al 2018). The lack of early archaeobotanical evidence for rice in the Hexi Corridor or northern Central Asia, has led scholars to suggest that ecological constraints would have hampered a northern dispersal (Chen et al 2020). Increasingly, scholars are accepting a demic expansion model, suggesting that grain surplus allowed for the growth and spread of farming populations along with cultivation techniques across Asia (Fuller 2011b;Cobo et al 2019).…”

Section: East Asiamentioning

confidence: 99%

A Journey to the West: The Ancient Dispersal of Rice Out of East Asia

Stark

Zhou

et al. 2021

Rice

Self Cite

Rice is one of the most culturally valued and widely grown crops in the world today, and extensive research over the past decade has clarified much of the narrative of its domestication and early spread across East and South Asia. However, the timing and routes of its dispersal into West Asia and Europe, through which rice eventually became an important ingredient in global cuisines, has remained less clear. In this article, we discuss the piecemeal, but growing, archaeobotanical data for rice in West Asia. We also integrate written sources, linguistic data, and ethnohistoric analogies, in order to better understand the adoption of rice outside its regions of origin. The human-mediated westward spread of rice proceeded gradually, while its social standing and culinary uses repeatedly changing over time and place. Rice was present in West Asia and Europe by the tail end of the first millennium BC, but did not become a significant crop in West Asia until the past few centuries. Complementary historical, linguistic, and archaeobotanical data illustrate two separate and roughly contemporaneous routes of westward dispersal, one along the South Asian coast and the other through Silk Road trade. By better understanding the adoption of this water-demanding crop in the arid regions of West Asia, we explore an important chapter in human adaptation and agricultural decision making.

Testing the applicability of Watson’s Green Revolution concept in first millennium ce Central Asia

Mir-Makhamad

2023

Veget Hist Archaeobot

Drawing on archaeobotanical evidence from the central regions of Central Asia, we explore crop diffusion during the first millennium ce. We present a comprehensive summary of archaeobotanical data retrieved from this region dating to this period in order to better understand cultural drivers pushing agricultural intensification and crop diversification. We use these data to evaluate the applicability of Watson’s concept of a Medieval Green Revolution. Despite ecological limits to cultivation of most of Watson’s crops in much of Central Asia, some of these crops, particularly Gossypium arboretum/herbaceum (cotton) and Oryza sativa (rice), are prominent in the region today. In both cases there is now good archaeobotanical evidence showing that they were cultivated prior to the Islamic conquests in Central Asia. Moreover, the occurrence of several crops – Solanum melongena (eggplant), Ficus carica (fig), Morus alba/nigra (mulberry), and two spices – Rhus coriaria (sumac) and Coriandrum sativum (coriander) – have first been observed in phases dated to the 19th century ce. There is reason to believe that elaborate irrigation systems and seasonal rotation cycles were already in place in this region prior to the development of a centralized Arabic and Islamic government and are likely tied to urbanization in the first half of the first millennium ce. We suggest that most of the trappings of Watson’s model were present prior to this, but, as Watson’s thesis is multifaceted their presence alone does not nullify the model. Additionally, the ecological and cultural diversity of Central Asia means that a proper evaluation of Watson’s model requires a regionally specific examination.