Theme:
6. A Decade after the ‘Third Science Revolution in Archaeology’
Session format:
Regular session
Title:
Beyond the Chronology and Pathways of Dispersal: Reasoning the Use and Abandonment of Broomcorn Millet Cultivation across Eurasia
Content:
Broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum) is one of the most enigmatic crops of the ancient world. It was domesticated in northern China around 8000 years ago, becoming a dominant crop across Eurasian societies between 4000-3000 years ago. The ubiquitous use of this species led to crop diversification, which in turn heavily impacted the so called “third food revolution” in Bronze Age Europe and the subsequent rise of complex societies during the Early Iron Age of Central Asia and Mongolia. Nevertheless, the past spatial distribution of millet cultivation remains a puzzle, ranging from being a major crop among some societies to being completely absent in others.
Multiple research projects have addressed the timing and chronology of broomcorn millet dispersal across Eurasia by tracing the existence of millet processing and consumption by humans and animals, achieved by employing recent methodological advances in archaeobotany, radiocarbon dating, biomarker analysis in sediments and vessels, and stable isotope analysis. However, the reasons for the initial success and later decline of broomcorn millet across space and time is not fully understood. Why was millet first adopted and then later abandoned in some parts of Eurasia after centuries of thriving? Was the introduction of millet a response to growing food demands caused by rapid demographic growth, or tightly linked with climatic conditions? Or perhaps it was first an exotic novelty integrated in new territories by social elites and later adapted by commoners?
In this session we hope to discuss these and other hypotheses, and we therefore call for researchers who study the interplay between culture, agriculture and climate with a focus not only on broomcorn millet but also on other minor crops.
Keywords:
Broomcorn Millet, Eurasia, agriculture, climate change, minor crops, Panicum miliaceum
Session associated with MERC:
no
Session associated with CIfA:
no
Session associated with SAfA:
no
Session associated with CAA:
no
Session associated with DGUF:
no
Session associated with other:
Main organiser:
Giedre Motuzaite Matuzeviciut KEEN (Lithuania) 1,2
Co-organisers:
Łukasz Pospieszny (Poland) 3,4
Affiliations:
1. Department of Archaeology, Vilnius University
2. Department of City Research, Lithuanian Institute of History
3. Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Poznań
4. School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol
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