The breadth of dietary economy in Bronze Age Central Asia: Case study from Adji Kui 1 in the Murghab region of Turkmenistan

Spengler, Robert N.; Nigris, Ilaria de; Cerasetti, Barbara; Carra, Marialetizia; Rouse, Lynne M.

doi:10.1016/j.jasrep.2016.03.029

Cited by 28 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…Indeed, during the Xiongnu and Mongol empires, we see clear evidence for human dietary reliance on millet in a significant proportion of individuals. Although some scholars contend that all grains were either extorted or imported from China and other exterior polities 6 , we argue that our data, alongside existing archaeobotanical and archaeological findings 25,59,60 , provide clear evidence for imperial reliance on locally grown crops in the Xiongnu and Mongol heartlands, as well as the coordination of diverse economic connections and exchanges 12 . These discoveries bolster the notion of an economically diverse population across much of Mongolian history 14,61,62 .…”

Section: Figure 3 Carbon and Nitrogen Values From Bone Collagen Withsupporting

confidence: 48%

Economic Diversification Supported the Growth of Mongolia’s Nomadic Empires

Wilkin

Miller

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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Populations in Mongolia from the late second millennium B.C.E. through the Mongol Empire are traditionally assumed, by archaeologists and historians, to have maintained a highly specialized horsefacilitated form of mobile pastoralism. Until recently, a dearth of direct evidence for prehistoric human diet and subsistence economies in Mongolia has rendered systematic testing of this view impossible. Here, we present stable carbon and nitrogen isotope measurements of human bone collagen, and stable carbon isotope analysis of human enamel bioapatite, from 137 well-dated ancient Mongolian individuals spanning the period c. 4400 B.C.E. to 1300 C.E. Our results demonstrate an increase in consumption of C 4 plants beginning at c. 800 B.C.E., almost certainly indicative of millet consumption, an interpretation supported by archaeological evidence. The escalating scale of millet consumption on the eastern Eurasian steppe over time, and an expansion of isotopic niche widths, indicate that historic Mongolian empires were supported by a diversification of economic strategies rather than uniform, specialized pastoralism. Mongolian empires, such as the Xiongnu and Mongols, are some of the most renowned imperial entities in public and academic thought. This is, in part, due to their historical portrayal as highly mobile, predatory horseback polities with a specialized dairy and meat-based economy 1-4 , an image that is perpetuated in cinema, novels, and documentaries alike. While such stereotypes likely arose from the hyperbolized accounts of neighboring adversaries, starting with the Han, who fought against the Xiongnu 5 , they have persisted and now pervade academic evaluations of the economic basis of these ancient peoples. The modern economic focus on pastoralism in rural areas of Mongolia today is frequently viewed as a relic of the past and has been drawn upon to interpret the often-fragmentary archaeological record of this region 6,7 , although ethnoarchaeological approaches often ignore the role of urban markets and motorized transport in modern mobile pastoralism. The view of uniformly specialized pastoral economies has also furthered the scholarly fascination with historical Mongolian populations, resurrecting the long-standing question of whether an empire can meet the costs and challenges of long-term political and economic organization in the absence of grain surpluses 6,7. Empires are, however, inherently complex and, by definition, extend their control over multiple societies, cultures, and economies, as well as heterogeneous landscapes 8-10. Crop surplus has traditionally been viewed as an essential component of stable political entities and complex imperial food production and procurement systems are often oversimplified by historians and archaeologists, leading to their characterization as single-resource systems (such as maize for the pre-Columbian empires of South America). Refined analyses generally reveal diverse and dynamic economies supporting imperial expansions, which draw together a variety of food sou...

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Section: Figure 3 Carbon and Nitrogen Values From Bone Collagen Withsupporting

confidence: 48%

Economic Diversification Supported the Growth of Mongolia’s Nomadic Empires

Wilkin

Miller

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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“…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]. The early dates of broomcorn millet from southwestern Ukraine are consistent with the several-centuries earlier direct-dates from southern Central Asia (Adji Kui 1 and Ojakly 30,68 ) and the Inner Asian Mountain Corridor (Begash 28 ). The stable isotope picture for humans and animals of the 3rd and 2nd millennium bc (Early-Middle Bronze Age) in the North Pontic and the lower Don and Volga region displays isotopic variability attributed to seasonal movements between pastures, diversity of dietary sources, and changing climatic conditions that shaped the local vegetation 69 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 62%

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

Filipović

Meadows

Corso

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

115

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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.

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“…The ease of irrigation along the alluvial slopes facilitated experimentation with farming practices, such as the development of crop rotation cycles (Miller et al 2016;. Over the past few years, archaeobotanical investigations along the inner Asian mountain corridor from the Pamirs north to the Altai (Kuzmina 2008;Frachetti 2012), has greatly expanded our understanding of crop diversification (Liu et al 2016;Motuzaite Matuzeviciute et al 2018;Spengler et al 2018) and technological advances in cultivation (Miller et al 2016). Yet, further south along the southern rim of the Pamirs, Hindu Kush, Kunlun and Himalaya, there are still questions regarding when and from where certain crops arrived.…”

Section: Electronic Supplementary Materialsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…dicoccum have been reported from sites in northern India and Kashmir (Lone et al 1993;Fuller 2002;Salunkhe et al 2012). As these cereals spread further north and east, the glume wheats were grown less and there is currently no evidence for T. turgidum in Central Asia until the Islamic period (see discussion in Spengler et al 2018). Farmers integrated other southwest Asian crops into the cultivation system in Kashmir, including Lens culinaris and Pisum sativum (Saraswat and Pokharia 2003).…”

Section: Agricultural Diversificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Spengler

Tang

Nayak

et al. 2020

Veget Hist Archaeobot

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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.

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The breadth of dietary economy in Bronze Age Central Asia: Case study from Adji Kui 1 in the Murghab region of Turkmenistan

Cited by 28 publications

References 17 publications

Economic Diversification Supported the Growth of Mongolia’s Nomadic Empires

Economic Diversification Supported the Growth of Mongolia’s Nomadic Empires

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

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

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