Ancient nomads spread earliest domestic grains along Silk Road, study finds

EurekAlert! ^ | April 1, 2014 | Gerry Everding

[SunkenCiv]

Charred grains of barley, millet and wheat deposited nearly 5,000 years ago at campsites in the high plains of Kazakhstan show that nomadic sheepherders played a surprisingly important role in the early spread of domesticated crops throughout a mountainous east-west corridor along the historic Silk Road...

"Ancient wheat and broomcorn millet, recovered in nomadic campsites in Kazakhstan, show that prehistoric herders in Central Eurasia had incorporated both regional crops into their economy and rituals nearly 5,000 years ago, pushing back the chronology of interaction along the territory of the 'Silk Road' more than 2,000 years," Frachetti said...

...several strains of ancient grains and peas had made their way across Eurasia thousands of years earlier than previously documented.

While these crops have been known to exist much earlier in ancient China and Southwest Asia, finding them intermingled in the Bronze Age burials and households of nomadic pastoralists provides some of the earliest concrete signs for east-west interaction in the vast expanse of Eurasian mountains and the first botanical evidence for farming among Bronze Age nomads.

Bread wheat, cultivated at least 6,000 years ago in Southwest Asia, was absent in China before 2500 B.C. while broomcorn millet, domesticated 8,000 years ago in China, is missing in southwest Asia before 2000 B.C. This study documents that ancient grains from eastern China and soutwest Asia had made their way to Kazakhstan in the center of the continent by 2700-2500 B.C. (nearly 5,000 years ago).

[SunkenCiv]

a panoramic view of the Byan Zhurek valley and setting near Tasbas. Credit: Michael Frachetti/Washington University in St. Louis (2011)

[SunkenCiv]

(file from David Derrick files)

[SunkenCiv]

[1010RD]

My question is who was spreading all the foreign grains?

[SunkenCiv]

check out the “Silk Road” or “Tocharians” keywords.

[Little Bill]

I might be interesting to think about the amount of money that these nomads could extort for providing feed to the spice trader's.

You have a captive market. Don't under estimate the lure of easy cash and you can always raid them later.

[Sacajaweau]

You forgot about the flying carpets?

Then there's ali baba and the dudes who were running the black market gig.

[GOP Poet]

bookmark

[MUDDOG]

Charred grains of barley, millet and wheat deposited nearly 5,000 years ago

And a still edible Hostess Twinkie.

[blam]

Tocharians

I just read an article stating that the earliest cheese ever discovered was found with these folks.

[blam]

Here:

Lumps of Oldest Cheese Found on Mummies Necks, Chests

[SunkenCiv]

Yup. Whereas cheese is, at best, rotten milk, and best eaten at room temperature, I'll take a rain check on sampling this stuff. :') [ Art of cheese-making is 7,500 years old ]

[SunkenCiv]

That sentence is an oxymoron. :’D

[SunkenCiv]

Whoops, this is the one I meant to link, both are recent: Ancient mummies found buried with world's oldest cheese.

[blam]

Thanks.

I missed both of those.

[SunkenCiv]

It happens to me all the time.

http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/cheesemaking/index

[SunkenCiv]

New article / paper about this, click the link to visit the page at EurekAlert.

Map of millet and wheat/barley consumption over time: a) 1000-500 cal BC, b) 500-200 cal BC, and c) 200 BC-AD 400. Credit: I. Reese and A. R. Ventresca Miller, 2017

[SunkenCiv]

http://freerepublic.com/tag/millet/index

Earliest spread of millet agriculture outside China linked to herding livestock
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-09/ku-eso090619.php