Millet Consumption in Siberia Prior to Mid-Second Millennium Bc? A Review of Recent Developments

Abstract

In this paper we discuss recent developments in documenting the spread of millet across the Eurasian steppes. We emphasize that, despite a recent proposal that millet consumption in southern Siberia can be attributed to the Early Bronze Age (i.e., the late third to early second millennium BC), at present there are no direct data for southern Siberia indicating the consumption of millet prior to the Late Bronze Age, from the 14th century BC. We also present in full the combined stable isotope and 14C datasets from the Minusinsk Basin to support this conclusion.

Adaptability of Millets and Landscapes: Ancient Cultivation in North-Central Asia

“…Some researchers have suggested that the initial introduction of millet into the Minusinsk Basin began as early as 2000 BCE based on shifting isotopic values [23], while other scholars have suggested this began later, by 1400 BCE [49]. Our Bayesian isoscape indicates that millet was consumed by as early as 1600 BCE (Figure 3a).…”

“…Our Bayesian isoscape indicates that millet was consumed by as early as 1600 BCE (Figure 3a). By 1500 BCE there is unambiguous evidence for millet consumption among populations in the Minusinsk Basin and in central Kazakhstan; the latter has evidence that rain-fed agriculture was possible at the base of granite outcrops in the Kent Mountains [49][50][51][52]. Both locales are designated as cropland (Figure 1).…”

North Central Asia isotopic database for archaeological samples

“…The North Central Asia Isotopic Database (NCAID) consists of published stable isotope data for archaeological human, animal, and, plant samples from across North Central Asia ( Fig. 1 ) [1] , [2] , [3] , [4] , [5] , [6] , [7] , [8] , [9] , [10] , [11] , [12] , [13] , [14] , [15] , [16] , [17] , [18] , [19] , [20] . Data was retrieved from 35 of publications creating a dataset with 3,143 individual entries, consisting of 2,494 of stable carbon and nitrogen isotopic measurements.…”

Multiresource Pastoralism, Dynamic Foodways, and Ancient Statecraft in Mongolia

“…The timings, pathways, and conditions by which cereal grains arrived and were individually adopted across steppe communities remain somewhat obscure; however, evidence is building for the Inner Asian Mountain Corridor pathway as a major conduit for cereal introductions [28]. Some of the earliest documented grain crop evidence in the eastern steppe region appears in northwestern Xinjiang at the end of the fourth millennium BC [29], followed by the early to mid-third millennium BC in southeastern and eastern Kazakhstan [30][31][32][33], and the mid-to late second millennium BC in central and northern Kazakhstan and southern Siberia [34][35][36]. The cultigens in question are a combination of eastern and western domesticates and, when combined, make up a particularly resilient resource assemblage.…”