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

Abstract

Broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum L.) is not one of the founder crops domesticated in Southwest Asia in the early Holocene, but was domesticated in northeast China by 6000 bc. in europe, millet was reported in Early Neolithic contexts formed by 6000 bc, but recent radiocarbon dating of a dozen 'early' grains cast doubt on these claims. Archaeobotanical evidence reveals that millet was common in Europe from the 2nd millennium bc, when major societal and economic transformations took place in the Bronze Age. We conducted an extensive programme of AMS-dating of charred broomcorn millet grains from 75 prehistoric sites in Europe. Our Bayesian model reveals that millet cultivation began in europe at the earliest during the sixteenth century bc, and spread rapidly during the fifteenth/ fourteenth centuries bc. Broomcorn millet succeeds in exceptionally wide range of growing conditions and completes its lifecycle in less than three summer months. Offering an additional harvest and thus surplus food/fodder, it likely was a transformative innovation in European prehistoric agriculture previously based mainly on (winter) cropping of wheat and barley. We provide a new, high-resolution chronological framework for this key agricultural development that likely contributed to far-reaching changes in lifestyle in late 2nd millennium bc europe.

Dig out, Dig in! Plant-based diet at the Late Bronze Age copper production site of Prigglitz-Gasteil (Lower Austria) and the relevance of processed foodstuffs for the supply of Alpine Bronze Age miners

“…However, against the background of the diachronic regional changes as reported by Stika & Heiss [177,178], this rather seems to reflect the general trend of barley's decrease in importance between Early and Late Bronze Age than any site-specific preferences. At the same time, the large amounts of millet at Prigglitz fit together well with the late arrival of millets towards Late Bronze Age, which is by now well-documented across Europe [157,192]. Still, it must be noted that the rather large proportion of undetermined grain fragments found at Prigglitz-Gasteil may also play a big role in distorting the results.…”

“…In addition to the high-resolution radiocarbon dating approach within our project, 14 C dating of a single broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum) grain of from find no. 691 (SE 413), funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) SFB/CRC 1266, was included into a recent overview of the early chronology of millet cultivation in Europe [157].…”

The place of millet in food globalization during Late Prehistory as evidenced by new bioarchaeological data from the Caucasus

“…Numerous broomcorn millet grains from Central and Eastern European Neolithic structures were recently directly radiocarbon dated. None of these grains returned Neolithic dates; the oldest remains date back to the Middle Bronze Age (MBA) and LBA, during the second half of the 2nd millennium 7 , 8 . In the Caucasus, as described above, all the charred millet grain directly dated as part of our project, which were presumed to be EBA (Kura-Araxes Culture) or MBA I (2500–2000 BC), are younger.…”

“…In the Bronze Age Caspian and Low Don Steppe (2500–2350 cal BC), similarly no consumption of millet is registered through archaeobotanical or isotopic analyses 72 . Interestingly, at the site of Vinogradnyi Sad in western Ukraine Panicum was directly dated to 1622–1452 cal BC 8 , which is a little bit older than Panicum grains from Namcheduri. The Mid Second millennium (1600–1400 BC) is a period of explosive expansion of Panicum cultivation in western Eurasia, millet appears in the Caucasus, as well as in Ukraine and South-East Europe 8 .…”

Archaeoentomological assessment of weevil (Coleoptera, Bruchidae) infestation level of pea (Pisum sativum) at the Late Bronze Age settlement Hissar

“…BC) a mass find of 2572 charred peas was discovered (Medović, 2012). A recent pan-European study on broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum L.) provided the possibility of indirect radiocarbon dating of the rich pea collection by the AMS C14 technique (Filipović et al, 2020). In the same deposit, more than 300 charred grains of broomcorn millet were identified (Medović et al, 2011).…”