The wind that shakes the barley: the role of East Asian cuisines on barley grain size

Ritchey, Melissa M.; Sun, Yufeng; Matuzevičiūtė, Giedrė Motuzaitė; Shoda, Shinya; Pokharia, Anil K.; Spate, Michael; Tang, Li; Song, Jinfeng; Li, Haiming; Dong, Guanghui; Vaiglova, Petra; Frachetti, Michael; Liu, Xinyi

doi:10.1080/00438243.2022.2030792

Cited by 16 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…The average barley measurements at Luanzagangzi (l/w = 3.97/3.01 mm) measure smaller than naked barley from Chap I (5.1/3.0 mm; Motuzaite Matuzeviciute et al, 2021a) and Shirenzigou (5.3/3.2 mm; Tian et al, 2018). Luanzagangzi measurements appear closer to naked barley from a number of sites of similar elevation in Gansu reported by Ritchey et al (2021), including Majiayao (4.3/2.8 mm), Shangping (4.2/2.6 mm) and Diantiandi (4.3/2.9 mm).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 68%

Late Bronze Age agriculture and the early westward transmission of rice at Luanzagangzi, Northern Xinjiang, China

Heywood,

Spate,

Betts

et al. 2023

The Holocene

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The Dzungar Basin of northern Xinjiang has previously been considered a marginal environment with little evidence for the development of prehistoric agriculture. Recent archaeobotanical studies have indicated the region as being a route for the transmission of domesticated plants, technologies and ideas between East and West Eurasia during prehistory, as early as 5000 BP. These interactions are still poorly understood and most evidence for early plant food production and consumption in the region comes from limited mortuary contexts. In this study we present plant macrofossil analysis from the settlement site of Luanzagangzi on the southern side of the Dzungar Basin. From ca. 3130 BP an agricultural package of east and west Asian cereals and chaff is present, comprising wheat, barley, foxtail millet, broomcorn millet, and significantly a single grain of japonica type rice. AMS dating indicates this is the oldest directly dated rice in Xinjiang and the broader region, ranging 3069–2881 cal. BP. Cereal morphometrics and material culture from the site further indicate a connection with the Gansu region to the east. The spread of agriculture into the site environment may be linked to the onset of wetter conditions relating to strengthened westerly systems across arid Central Asia in the Late-Holocene. A declining abundance of West Asian cultivars over the period of the site’s occupation possibly reflect a shift away from intensive agriculture to low-level management of millets.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 68%

Late Bronze Age agriculture and the early westward transmission of rice at Luanzagangzi, Northern Xinjiang, China

Heywood,

Spate,

Betts

et al. 2023

The Holocene

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“…In the light of this observation, there is an interesting comparison with wheat and barley that traveled into eastern and central China from Central Asia, during the second and first millennium BCE. Contrary to broomcorn millet, wheat and barley grain morphotypes and western grinding and baking cuisine traditions did not spread together (Ritchey et al, 2021).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 82%

Lipid residues in ancient pastoralist pottery from Kazakhstan reveal regional differences in cooking practices

et al. 2022

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The Bronze Age—Iron Age transition in Central Asia (ca. 800 BCE) was a period of significant cultural change that was heavily influenced by greater population interaction and mobility. Indeed, scholars have increasingly emphasized the role that “food globalization in prehistory” has played in defining this period. In the mountain foothills of Kazakhstan, culinary traditions from across Eurasia were combined through the use of Southwest Asian wheat, barley, and livestock (cattle, sheep, and goats) with East Asian foxtail and broomcorn millets. The development of food cultures during this period has been investigated by archaeobotanical and isotopic analysis, yet lipid residues from pottery, which directly represent culinary practices, have not been adequately examined. In this study, lipid residue analysis was conducted on 72 pottery sherds, excavated from three burial mounds and one non-burial, ritual site located in Kazakhstan, dating to ca. 700–200 BCE. A particularly informative observation was the frequency of miliacin, a biomarker of broomcorn millet, detected in residues that corresponded well with previously published regional differences observed in carbon isotope ratios of human remains that indicate the consumption of C4 plants. This study also demonstrates continuity of Bronze Age dairying traditions into the Iron Age. Finally, this study sheds new light on the diversity of food cultures and mortuary practices in this region, which were not uniform across either space or time.

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“…This might suggest a cuisine in which boiling was integrated with grinding and baking (Ritchey et al . 2021). Archaeological evidence of ovens and stone querns during third and second millennia BC spans the Hexi Corridor and the Inner Asian Mountain Corridor (IAMC, sensu Frachetti 2012: fig.5, broadly corresponding to the Pamir, Tianshan, Dzhungar and Altai ranges and associated foothills), clearly suggesting a western origin.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Did crops expand in tandem with culinary practices from their region of origin? Evidence from ancient DNA and material culture

Hunt,

Jiang,

Liu

et al. 2024

Antiquity

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Grain-cooking traditions in Neolithic China have been characterised as a ‘wet’ cuisine based on the boiling and steaming of sticky varieties of cereal. One of these, broomcorn millet, was one of the earliest Chinese crops to move westward into Central Asia and beyond, into regions where grains were typically prepared by grinding and baking. Here, the authors present the genotypes and reconstructed phenotypes of 13 desiccated broomcorn millet samples from Xinjiang (1700 BC–AD 700). The absence in this area of sticky-starch millet and vessels for boiling and steaming suggests that, as they moved west, East Asian cereal crops were decoupled from traditional cooking practices and were incorporated into local cuisines.

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The wind that shakes the barley: the role of East Asian cuisines on barley grain size

Cited by 16 publications

References 57 publications

Late Bronze Age agriculture and the early westward transmission of rice at Luanzagangzi, Northern Xinjiang, China

Late Bronze Age agriculture and the early westward transmission of rice at Luanzagangzi, Northern Xinjiang, China

Lipid residues in ancient pastoralist pottery from Kazakhstan reveal regional differences in cooking practices

Did crops expand in tandem with culinary practices from their region of origin? Evidence from ancient DNA and material culture

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