Ancient Mesopotamian discovery transforms knowledge of early farming


Date:
January 11, 2022
Source:
Rutgers University
Summary:
Researchers have unearthed the earliest definitive evidence of
broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum) in ancient Iraq, challenging
our understanding of humanity's earliest agricultural practices.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Rutgers researchers have unearthed the earliest definitive evidence
of broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum) in ancient Iraq, challenging
our understanding of humanity's earliest agricultural practices. Their
findings appear in the journal Scientific Reports.


========================================================================== "Overall, the presence of millet in ancient Iraq during this earlier time period challenges the accepted narrative of agricultural development in
the region as well as our models for how ancient societies provisioned themselves," said Elise Laugier, an environmental archaeologist and
National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellow in the School of Arts
and Sciences at Rutgers University-New Brunswick.

Broomcorn millet is an "amazingly robust, quick-growing and versatile
summer crop" that was first domesticated in East Asia, Laugier added. The researchers analyzed microscopic plant remains (phytoliths) from Khani
Masi, a mid-late second millennium BCE (c. 1500-1100 BCE) site in the
Kurdistan region of Iraq.

"The presence of this East Asian crop in ancient Iraq highlights
the interconnected nature of Eurasia during this time, contributing
to our knowledge of early food globalization," Laugier said. "Our
discovery of millet and thus the evidence of summer cultivation
practices also forces us to reconsider the capacity and resilience of
the agricultural systems that sustained and provisioned Mesopotamia's
early cities, states and empires." The discovery of broomcorn millet
in ancient Mesopotamia was surprising for environmental and historical
reasons. Until now, researchers thought that millet wasn't grown in Iraq
until the construction of later 1st millennium BCE imperial irrigation
systems. Millet generally requires summer precipitation to grow, but
Southwest Asia has a wet-winter and dry-summer climate, and agricultural production is based almost entirely on crops grown during the winter,
such as wheat and barley.

Agricultural production is thought to be the basis for supporting and provisioning Mesopotamian cities, states and empires. The researchers'
new evidence that crops and food were, in fact, grown in summer months
means that previous studies likely vastly under-appreciated the capacities
and resilience of ancient agricultural food-system societies in semi-arid ecosystems.

The new study is also part of growing archaeological research showing that
in the past, agricultural innovation was a local initiative, adopted as
part of local diversification strategies long before they were used in
imperial agricultural intensification regimes -- new information that
could have an impact on how agricultural innovations move forward today.

"Although millet isn't a common or preferred food in semi-arid Southwest
Asia or the United States today, it is still common in other parts of Asia
and Africa," Laugier said. "Millet is a hearty, fast-growing, low-water requiring and nutritious gluten-free grain that could hold a lot of
potential for increasing the resilience capacities of our semi-arid food systems. Today's agricultural innovators should consider investing in
more diverse and resilient food systems, just as people did in ancient Mesopotamia." Laugier, a visiting scientist at Rutgers who received
her Ph.D. and began her research on this topic at Dartmouth College,
said the research team hopes to make phytolith analysis more common in
the study of ancient Iraq because it could challenge assumptions about
the history and practice of agriculture in the region.

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Rutgers_University. Original written
by Emily Everson Layden. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Related Multimedia:
* Khani_Masi_plain_in_the_Garmian_Province,_Kurdistan_Region_of_Iraq ========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Elise Jakoby Laugier, Jesse Casana, Dan Cabanes. Phytolith
evidence for
the pastoral origins of multi-cropping in Mesopotamia (ancient
Iraq).

Scientific Reports, 2022; 12 (1) DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-03552-w ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/01/220111153706.htm

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