The place of millet in food globalization during Late Prehistory as evidenced by new bioarchaeological data from the Caucasus

Abstract

Two millets, Panicum miliaceum and Setaria italica, were domesticated in northern China, around 6000 BC. Although its oldest evidence is in Asia, possible independent domestication of these species in the Caucasus has often been proposed. To verify this hypothesis, a multiproxy research program (Orimil) was designed to detect the first evidence of millet in this region. It included a critical review of the occurrence of archaeological millet in the Caucasus, up to Antiquity; isotopic analyses of human and animal bones and charred grains; and radiocarbon dating of millet grains from archaeological contexts dated from the Early Bronze Age (3500–2500 BC) to the 1st Century BC. The results show that these two cereals were cultivated during the Middle Bronze Age (MBA), around 2000–1800 BC, especially Setaria italica which is the most ancient millet found in Georgia. Isotopic analyses also show a significant enrichment in 13C in human and animal tissues, indicating an increasing C4 plants consumption at the same period. More broadly, our results assert that millet was not present in the Caucasus in the Neolithic period. Its arrival in the region, based on existing data in Eurasia, was from the south, without excluding a possible local domestication of Setaria italica.

Diverse dietary practices across the Early Bronze Age ‘Kura-Araxes culture’ in the South Caucasus

“…The direct evidence of plant consumption and processing sheds a new light on subsistence strategies of Kura-Araxes mountainous zones and illustrates the first evidence of processing of leafy plants identified in lipid residues from Armenia and the region of Caucasus. The δ 13 C 16:0 values (-29.0 to -21.3‰) for plant derived fatty acids, together with the presence of long-chain n -alkanes, unequivocally confirm the processing of C 3 grasses, C 4 salt marshes, and aquatic/water-stressed plants largely available near rivers and Lake Sevan, confirming the archaeobotanical sources commonly cultivated [ 71 , 79 , 80 , 115 ]. More specifically, P aq values illustrate that aquatic macrophytes are common near Mokhra-Blur and Shengavit settlements in the Ararat Plain, indicating the processing of aquatic plant species from freshwater rivers and lakes [ 58 , 101 ].…”

A multi-proxy bioarchaeological approach reveals new trends in Bronze Age diet in Italy

“…It seems that the Caucasus area represents a key zone for the spread of millets into Europe because millet intake is recorded from the first half of the 2nd millennium BC 128 , 129 . The identification of an ‘Isotopic Millet Road’ from China to Central Europe and the Mediterranean reveals that C 4 dietary signatures reflect early links, in the form of migration and/or resource transfer, between the Bronze Age inhabitants of China and Europe 130 .…”

Pig management in the Neolithic Near East and East Asia clarified with isotope analyses of bulk collagen and amino acids

“…It is assumed that the unique agricultural culture and domestication of pigs emerged in the Near East and independently in East Asia (Price, 2021). Wheat, barley, legumes, and nuts were the dominant cultivated C 3 plants in the Neolithic Near East, and Neolithic populations were thought to eat few C 4 plants (Martin et al, 2021). Therefore, δ 13 C col is not a valid indicator of domesticated pigs that ate human leftovers or feces in the Near East.…”