Agricultural development in western Central Asia in the Chalcolithic and Bronze Ages

Miller, Norton G.

doi:10.1007/bf02042837

Cited by 66 publications

(66 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…Again, the Middle and Late Bronze Age reflects a transition, when sites in southern Central Asia have chickpeas (Cicer sp. ), lentils and green peas [29,30] for the first time. The peas found at Tasbas (figure 3d) provide compelling evidence that peas were among a suite of new crops spreading along the IAMC among highland pastoralists in the mid second millennium BC.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Early agriculture and crop transmission among Bronze Age mobile pastoralists of Central Eurasia

et al. 2014

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Archaeological research in Central Eurasia is exposing unprecedented scales of trans-regional interaction and technology transfer between East Asia and southwest Asia deep into the prehistoric past. This article presents a new archaeobotanical analysis from pastoralist campsites in the mountain and desert regions of Central Eurasia that documents the oldest known evidence for domesticated grains and farming among seasonally mobile herders. Carbonized grains from the sites of Tasbas and Begash illustrate the first transmission of southwest Asian and East Asian domesticated grains into the mountains of Inner Asia in the early third millennium BC. By the middle second millennium BC, seasonal camps in the mountains and deserts illustrate that Eurasian herders incorporated the cultivation of millet, wheat, barley and legumes into their subsistence strategy. These findings push back the chronology for domesticated plant use among Central Eurasian pastoralists by approximately 2000 years. Given the geography, chronology and seed morphology of these data, we argue that mobile pastoralists were key agents in the spread of crop repertoires and the transformation of agricultural economies across Asia from the third to the second millennium BC.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Early agriculture and crop transmission among Bronze Age mobile pastoralists of Central Eurasia

et al. 2014

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“…Irrigation agriculture first appeared in the oases of southern Turkmenistan in the Chalcolithic or Bronze Age (Lewis 1966;Miller 1999), but it was not until the early Iron Age (ca. early 1 st Millennium B.C.)…”

Section: Irrigation In the Desert Oases Of Inner Eurasiamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Specific practices were usually reconciled to an oasis's particular river system. For example, in piedmont oases such as those in the Kopet Dag foothills and in the Ferghana valley, where mountain streams provide small but stable flows, inhabitants cultivated lower yielding, drought tolerant crops, such as millet, barley, wheat, and green gram (mung bean), that could be readily combined with the herding of sheep and goats (Gorbunova 1986;Harris 2010:233;Sala 2003;Miller 1999;Moore et al 1994;Sarianidi 1992). These agropastoral activities were supported with still-water irrigation systems that used gravity flow, basin, and basin catchment techniques (Lewis 1966:477-478;Sala 2003:6-7;Scarborough 2003:99-102).…”

Section: Irrigation In Ancient Timesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Irrigation in the Khorezm oasis, past and present: a political ecology perspective

Brite

2016

Journal of Political Ecology

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The Khorezm oasis sits at the epicenter of an environmental disaster. Since the late 19 th century, the continual expansion of irrigation in this region has altered the natural hydrology of the Amu Darya delta, leading to widespread desertification and the near total disappearance of the world's fourth largest lake, the Aral Sea. The situation is widely acknowledged as an environmental catastrophe of unprecedented scale, and yet it is not the first irrigation crisis in Khorezmian history. Numerous events of irrigation collapse are recorded in the archaeological record of this oasis, with many in the scientific community now very interested in this past record for its potential to inform on the modern crisis. Unfortunately, there has also been a tendency to overlook the different historical conditions that led to irrigation in this oasis over the last three millennia. In this article, I take an alternative approach that draws on political ecology's insights about the cultural embeddedness of environmental behavior. I compare two periods of irrigation in Khorezm, one ancient and the other modern, to show how the particular social contexts of each period shaped irrigation schemes in different ways. Significantly different design and implementation features are apparent in the ancient versus modern systems, with vastly different implications for environmental sustainability and human well-being. Keywords: water, irrigation, Aral Sea, archaeology, collapse, Soviet Union, nomadic pastoralism Résumé L'oasis de Khorezm se trouve à l'épicentre d'une catastrophe écologique. Depuis la fin du 19e siècle, l'expansion continue de l'irrigation dans cette région a modifié l'hydrologie naturelle du delta Amou-Daria. Cela a conduit à la désertification généralisée, et la disparition quasi totale de quatrième plus grand lac du monde, la mer d'Aral. La situation est largement reconnu comme une catastrophe environnementale à une échelle sans précédent, et pourtant il est pas la première crise de l'irrigation dans l'histoire du Khorezm. L'effondrement de l'irrigation a été enregistrée plusieurs fois dans le dans le dossier archéologique. Certains scientifiques pensent que le passé peut aider à comprendre la crise actuelle. Malheureusement, il ya également eu une tendance à négliger les différentes conditions historiques qui ont conduit à l'irrigation dans cette oasis, ce qui rend les comparaisons difficiles. Dans cet article, je prends une approche alternative qui attire sur les idées de l'écologie politique sur l'implantation culturelle du comportement environnemental. Je compare deux périodes de l'irrigation dans Khorezm, un ancien et l'autre moderne, pour montrer comment les contextes sociaux particuliers à chaque période ont contribué à créer les différents systèmes d'irrigation. Conception et réalisation étaient très différents, conduisant à des résultats différents pour la durabilité environnementale et le bien-être humain. Mots clés: l'eau, l'irrigation, la mer d'Aral, l'archéologie, l'effondrement, l'Union soviétique,...

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“…[224]; Nevali ~ori, pre-pottery Neolithic B [247]; Kusakh, early Iron Age [246]; Gritille, A.D. llth-13th C [210]. Turkmenistan/Uzbekistan: several sites, Chalolithic and Bronze Age [211]. Yugoslavia: Feudvar, Bronze and Iron Age [166].…”

Section: Pastinaea Sativa Lmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[340]; keyword Gespinstpflanzen (fibre plants) [276] [133]; in Roman graves [255]; Schaffhausen, Middle Ages [42]. Turkmenistan/Uzbekistan: Several sites, Chalolithic and Bronze Age [211].…”

Section: Linum Bienne Lmentioning

confidence: 99%

Literature on archaeological remains of cultivated plants (1998/1999)

Kroll

2000

Veget Hist Archaebot

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Agricultural development in western Central Asia in the Chalcolithic and Bronze Ages

Cited by 66 publications

References 9 publications

Early agriculture and crop transmission among Bronze Age mobile pastoralists of Central Eurasia

Early agriculture and crop transmission among Bronze Age mobile pastoralists of Central Eurasia

Irrigation in the Khorezm oasis, past and present: a political ecology perspective

Literature on archaeological remains of cultivated plants (1998/1999)

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