Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-v2bm5 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-08T16:25:54.094Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The early chronology of broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum) in Europe

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 November 2013

Giedre Motuzaite-Matuzeviciute ,
Richard A. Staff ,
Harriet V. Hunt ,
Xinyi Liu  and
Martin K. Jones
Giedre Motuzaite-Matuzeviciute
Affiliation:
1McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3ER, UK (Email: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]) 2History Faculty/Department of Archaeology, Vilnius University, Universiteto 7, 01513 Vilnius, Lithuania (Email: [email protected])
Richard A. Staff
Affiliation:
3Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit (ORAU), Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art (RLAHA), University of Oxford, Dyson Perrins Building, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3QY, UK (Email: [email protected])
Harriet V. Hunt
Affiliation:
1McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3ER, UK (Email: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected])
Xinyi Liu
Affiliation:
1McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3ER, UK (Email: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected])
Martin K. Jones
Affiliation:
4Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3DZ, UK (Email: [email protected])
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The majority of the early crops grown in Europe had their origins in south-west Asia, and were part of a package of domestic plants and animals that were introduced by the first farmers. Broomcorn millet, however, offers a very different narrative, being domesticated first in China, but present in Eastern Europe apparently as early as the sixth millennium BC. Might this be evidence of long-distance contact between east and west, long before there is any other evidence for such connections? Or is the existing chronology faulty in some way? To resolve that question, 10 grains of broomcorn millet were directly dated by AMS, taking advantage of the increasing ability to date smaller and smaller samples. These showed that the millet grains were significantly younger than the contexts in which they had been found, and that the hypothesis of an early transmission of the crop from east to west could not be sustained. The importance of direct dating of crop remains such as these is underlined.

Keywords

EuropeNeolithicbroomcorn milletPanicum miliaceumAMS datingceramic grain impressionsEurasian connections
Type
Research articles
Information
Antiquity , Volume 87 , Issue 338 , December 2013 , pp. 1073 - 1085
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2013

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Antanaitis, I. & Ogrinc, N.. 2000. Chemical analysis of bone: stable isotope evidence of the diet of Neolithic and Bronze Age people in Lithuania. Istorija 45: 3–12.Google Scholar
Baltensperger, D.D. 2002. Progress with proso, pearl and other millets, in Janick, J. & Whipkey, A. (ed.) Trends in new crops and new uses: 1–9. Alexandria (VA): American Society for Horticultural Science Press.Google Scholar
Barton, L., Newsome, S.D., Chen, F.H.Wang, H.Guilderson, T.P. & Bettinger, R.L.. 2009. Agricultural origins and the isotopic identity of domestication in northern China. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 106: 5523-28.Google Scholar
Bogaard, A. & Walker, A.. 2011. Plant use and management at M?agura-Buduiasca (Teleor 003), southern Romania: preliminary report on the archaeobotanical analysis. Report prepared for the European Union, Brussels.Google Scholar
Boivin, N., Q.|Fuller, D. & Crowther, A.. 2012. Old World globalization and the Columbian exchange: comparison and contrast. World Archaeology 44: 452-69.Google Scholar
Brock, F., Higham, T., Ditchfield, P. & Ramsey, C. Bronk. 2010. Current pre-treatment methods for AMS radiocarbon dating at the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit (ORAU). Radiocarbon 52: 103-12.Google Scholar
Cohen, D.J. 1998. The origins of domesticated cereals and the Pleistocene-Holocene transition in East Asia. The Review of Archaeology 19: 22–29.Google Scholar
Cohen, D.J. 2002. New perspectives on the transition to agriculture in China, in Yasuda, Y. (ed.) The origins of pottery and agriculture: 217-27. New Delhi: Lustre & Roli.Google Scholar
Crawford, G. 2006. East Asian plant domestication, in Stark, S.T. (ed.) Archaeology of Asia: 77–95. Oxford:Blackwell.Google Scholar
De Wet, J.M.J. & Harlan, J.R.. 1975. Weeds and domesticates: evolution in the man-made habitat. Economic Botany 29: 99–108.Google Scholar
Frachetti, M.D. 2012. Multiregional emergence of mobile pastoralism and nonuniform institutional complexity across Eurasia. Current Anthropology 53: 2–38.Google Scholar
Fuller, D.Q. 2006. A millet atlas: some identification guidance. Report prepared for University College London. Available at: http://www.homepages.ucl.ac.uk/?tcrndfu/Abot/Millet%20Handout06.pdf (accessed 30 August 2013).Google Scholar
Graybosch, R.A. & Baltensperger, D.D.. 2009. Evaluation of the waxy endosperm trait in proso millet (Panicum miliaceum). Plant Breeding 128: 70–73.Google Scholar
HajnalovÁ, E. 1989. Katalóg zvyskov semien a plodov v archeologickych nálezoch na Slovensku. Acta Interdisciplinaria Archeologica 6: 3–192.Google Scholar
Harlan, J.R. 1975. Crops and man. Madison (WI):American Society of Agronomy.Google Scholar
Hunt, H.V., Linden, M. Vander, Liu, X.Motuzaite-Matuzeviciute, G., Colledge, S. & Jones, M.K.. 2008. Millets across Eurasia: chronology and context of early records of the genera Panicum and Setaria from archaeological sites in the Old World. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 17: 5–18.Google Scholar
Hunt, H.V., Campana, M.G., Lawes, M.C.Park, Y.J.I.N.Bower, M.A.Howe, C.J. & Jones, M.K.. 2011. Genetic diversity and phylogeography of broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum L.) across Eurasia. Molecular Ecology 20: 4756-71.Google Scholar
Jacomet, S. 2004. Archaeobotany. A vital tool in the investigation of lake-dwellings, in Menotti, F. (ed.) Living on the lake in prehistoric Europe. 150 years of lake dwelling research: 162-77. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Jones, M.K. 2004. Between Fertile Crescents: minor grain crops and agricultural origins, in Jones, M.K. (ed.) Traces of ancestry: studies in honour of Colin Renfrew: 127-35. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.Google Scholar
Kohl, P.L. 2007. The making of Bronze Age Eurasia. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kohler-Schneider, M. & Caneppele, A.. 2009. Late Neolithic agriculture in eastern Austria: archaeobotanical results from sites of the Baden and Jevišovice cultures (3600-2800 BC). Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 18: 61–74.Google Scholar
Kreuz, A. & SchÄFer., E. 2011. Weed finds as indicators for the cultivation regime of the early Neolithic Bandkeramik culture? Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 20: 333-48.Google Scholar
Kreuz, A., Marinova, E.SchÄFer, E. & Wiethold, J.. 2005. A comparison of early Neolithic crop and weed assemblages from the Linearbandkeramik and the Bulgarian Neolithic cultures: differences and similarities. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 14: 237-58.Google Scholar
Kuzminova, N.N. & Petrenko, V.G.. 1989. Kulturnye rasteniya na zapade Stepnogo Prichernomorya v seredine 3-2 tis. do n. e. (po dannym paleobotaniki), in Tolochko, P.P. (ed.) Problemu Drevnei Istorii i Arkheologii Ukrainskoi SSR: 119-20. Kiev: Naukova Dumka.Google Scholar
Lawler, A. 2009. Millet on the move. Science 325: 942-43.Google Scholar
Leshtakov, K., Todorova, N.Petrova, V.Zlateva-Uzunova, R., ÖZbek, O., Popova, T., Spassov, N. & Iliev, N.. 2007. Preliminary report on the salvage archaeological excavations at the Early Neolithic site Yabalkovo in the Maritsa Valley. Anatolica 33: 185–234.Google Scholar
Liu, X., Jones, M.K.Zhao, Z.Liu, G. & O'Connell., T.C. 2012. The earliest evidence of millet as a staple crop: new light on Neolithic foodways in north China. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 149: 283-90.Google Scholar
Lu, H., Zhang, J.Liu, K.Wu, N.Li, Y.Zhou, K.Ye, M.Zhang, T.Zhang, H. & Yang, X.. 2009. Earliest domestication of common millet (Panicum miliaceum) in East Asia extended to 10,000 years ago. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 106: 1–6.Google Scholar
Marinval, P. 1992. Archaeobotanical data on millet (Panicum miliaceum and Setaria italica) in France. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 73: 259–70.Google Scholar
Mei, J. 2003. Qijia and Seima-Turbino: the question of early contacts between northwest China and the Eurasian steppe. Bulletin of theMuseum of Far Eastern Antiquities 75: 31–54.Google Scholar
Motuzaite-Matuzeviciute, G., Hunt, H.V. & Jones, M.K.. 2012. Experimental approaches to understanding variation in grain size in Panicum miliaceum (broomcorn millet) and its relevance for interpreting archaeobotanical assemblages. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 21: 69–77.Google Scholar
MÜLler-ScheeßEl, N., Hofmann, R., MÜLler, J. & Rassmann, K.. 2010. The socio-political development of the Late Neolithic settlement of Okoliste/Bosnia-Hercegowina: devolution by transhumance?, in Kiel Graduate School (ed.) Landscapes and human development: the contribution of European archaeology: 181-91. Bonn: Rudolf Habelt.Google Scholar
Nesbitt, M. & Summers, G.D.. 1988. Some recent discoveries of millet (Panicum miliaceum L. and Setaria italica (L.) P. Beauv.) at excavations in Turkey and Iran. Anatolian Studies 38: 85–97.Google Scholar
Pashkevich, G.A. 2003. Palaeoethnobotanical evidence of agriculture in steppe and forest-steppe of East Europe in the Late Neolithic and Bronze Age, in Levine, M., Renfrew, C. & Boyle, K. (ed.) Prehistoric steppe adaptation and the horse: 287-97. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.Google Scholar
Popova, T. 2010. Plant environment of man between 6000 and 2000 BC in Bulgaria (British Archaeological Reports international series 2064). Oxford: Archaeopress.Google Scholar
Rachie, K.O. 1975. Millets. Importance, utilization and outlook. Hyderabad: International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT).Google Scholar
Reimer, P.J., Baillie, M.G.Bard, E.Bayliss, A.Beck, J.W.Blackwell, P.G.Ramsey, C. Bronk, Buck, C.E.Burr, G.S.Edwards, R.L.Friedrich, M.Grootes, P.M.Guilderson, T.P.Hajdas, I.Heaton, T.J.Hogg, A.G.Hughen, K.A.Kaiser, K.F.Kromer, B.Mccormac, F.G.Manning, S.W.Reimer, R.W.Richards, D.A.Southon, J.R.Talamo, S.Turney, C.S.M.Plicht, J. Van Der & C. Weyhenmeyer, . 2009. IntCal09 and Marine09 radiocarbon age calibration curves, 0-50,000 years cal BP. Radiocarbon 51: 1111-50.Google Scholar
Santos, G.M., Southon, J.R.Griffin, S.| Beaupre, S.R. & Druffel, E.R.M.. 2007. Ultra small-mass AMS 14C sample preparation and analyses at KCCAMS/UCI Facility. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms 259: 293–302.Google Scholar
Sherratt, A. 1996. Plate tectonics and imaginary prehistories: structure and contingency in agricultural origins, in Harris, D.R. (ed.) The origins and spread of agriculture and pastoralism in Eurasia: 130-41. Washington, D.C.:Smithsonian Institution.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M. & Polach, H.A.. 1977. Discussion: reporting of 14C data. Radiocarbon 19: 355-63.Google Scholar
Tafuri, M.A., Craig, O.E & Canci, A.. 2009. Stable isotope evidence for the consumption of millet and other plants in Bronze Age Italy. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 139: 146-53.Google Scholar
Tieszen, L.L. 1991. Natural variations in the carbon isotope values of plants: implications for archaeology, ecology and paleoecology. Journal of Archaeological Science 18: 227-48.Google Scholar
Van Der Merwe, N.J. 1982. Carbon isotopes, photosynthesis, and archaeology: different pathways of photosynthesis cause characteristic changes in carbon isotope ratios that make possible the study of prehistoric human diets. American Scientist 70: 596–606.Google Scholar
Verloove, F. 2002. A revision of the genus Panicum (Poaceae, Paniceae) in Belgium. Systematics and Geography of Plants 71: 53–72.Google Scholar
Wasylikowa, K., CÂRciumaru, M., HajnalovÁ, E., HartyÁNyi, B.P., Pashkevich, G.A. & Yanushevich, Z.V.. 1991. East-central Europe, in Zeist, W. Van, Wasylikowa, K. & Karl-Ernst, B. (ed.) Progress in Old World palaeoethnobotany. A retrospective view on the occasion of 20 years of the International Work Group for Palaeoethnobotany: 207-39. Rotterdam: A.A. Balkema.Google Scholar
Weber, S.A. & Fuller, D.Q.. 2007. Millets and their role in early agriculture. Paper presented at the First Farmers in Global Perspectives conference, Lucknow, India, 18-20 January 2006.Google Scholar
Yanushevich, Z.V. 1976. Kulturnye rasteniya yugo-zapada SSSR po paleobotanicheskim issledovaniyam. Kishinev:Shtiintsa.Google Scholar
Zhao, Z. 2005. Zhiwu kaoguxue jiqi xin jinzhan. Kaogu 7: 42–49.Google Scholar
Zhao, Z. 2011. New archaeobotanic data for the study of the origins of agriculture in China. Current Anthropology 52: 295–306.Google Scholar
Zohary, D., Hopf, M. & Weiss, E.. 2012. Domestication of plants in the Old World: the origin and spread of domesticated plants in southwest Asia, Europe, and the Mediterranean basin. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar