New evidence for supplementary crop production, foddering and fuel use by Bronze Age transhumant pastoralists in the Tianshan Mountains

Abstract

The nature of economies and the movement of agricultural crops across Eurasia in the Bronze Age have been the subject of significant research interest in recent years. This study presents and discusses new results of flotation, radiocarbon and carbon stable isotope analyses from the seed assemblage at the Adunqiaolu site (northwestern Xinjiang), in combination with archaeological evidence. Archaeobotanical evidence, including carbonized foxtail millet, broomcorn millet, and naked barley, documents the diversity of local cereal consumption during the mid-second millennium BC. Our results suggest that crops were not grown locally, however, but in the lower Boertala Valley, supporting the argument that Adunqiaolu was a winter camp. These new sets of data constitute an important contribution to the discussion on cereal dispersal across the Tianshan Mountains in the Bronze Age.

The integration of millet into the diet of Central Asian populations in the third millennium BC

“…and Setaria spp. (Motuzaite Matuzeviciute et al 2018, 2020a, 2021. Both stable isotope and archaeobotanical results show that locally cultivated millet and ruderal C 4 grasses constituted an important component of animal fodder that was probably fed to animals during the winter months at lower elevation winter camps.…”

“…The earliest archaeobotanically identified instances of wild and domestic millets (such as Panicum miliaceum, Setaria italica, Setaria viridis and Echinochloa spp.) have only been found on sites in Kyrgyzstan dated to the Final Bronze Age/Early Iron Age (Motuzaite Matuzeviciute et al 2018, 2021. At these sites, the appearance of C 4 grasses probably represents weeds growing in broomcorn millet fields, but not endemic vegetation of the Tien Shan (Motuzaite Matuzeviciute et al 2021).…”

“…In western China, the earliest-known broomcorn millet grains come from the Tongtiandong site, and have been directly radiocarbon dated to 2199-1981 cal BC and 1616-1456 cal BC (Zhou et al 2020). In fact, across the Xinjian region, the earliest broomcorn millets all date to the period between 2000 and 1600 BC (Tian et al 2021). At the Xiaohe site near Turpan, for example, broomcorn millet is directly dated to 2011-1756 and 1605-1401 cal BC (Flad et al 2010).…”

“…2020). In fact, across the Xinjian region, the earliest broomcorn millets all date to the period between 2000 and 1600 BC (Tian et al 2021). At the Xiaohe site near Turpan, for example, broomcorn millet is directly dated to 2011–1756 and 1605–1401 cal BC (Flad et al .…”

Landscape and Settlement over 4 Millennia on the South Side of Lake Issyk kul, Kyrgyzstan: Preliminary Results of Survey Research in 2019-2021

“…Since the 1990s archaeologists have used basic survey methods for finding and inventorying archaeological sites in the Tian Shan mountains and surrounding region for the Iron and Bronze Age materials in the neighboring Republic of Kazakhstan [12][13][14][15][16][17]. In the Western Tian Shan, ethnoarchaeological observations on the seasonal movements of pastoral tranhumants, have noted the use of winter and spring/autumn camps, thus suggesting that the Bronze Age agropastoral site of Adunoqiaolu was occupied also during winter months [18,19]. Survey research at Juuku Valley serves as an excellent contrast to previous archaeological survey research on the alluvial fans of the northern Tian Shan range [12,14,15].…”