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New AMS 14C dates track the arrival and spread of broomcorn millet cultivation and agricultural change in prehistoric Europe.
Journal article

New AMS 14C dates track the arrival and spread of broomcorn millet cultivation and agricultural change in prehistoric Europe.

  • Filipović D Institute for Prehistoric and Protohistoric Archaeology, Kiel University, Johanna-Mestorf-Str. 2-6, 24118, Kiel, Germany. d.filipovic@ufg.uni-kiel.de.
  • Meadows J Centre for Baltic and Scandinavian Archaeology (ZBSA), Schleswig-Holstein State Museums Foundation, Schloss Gottorf, 24837, Schleswig, Germany. jmeadows@leibniz.uni-kiel.de.
  • Corso MD Institute for Prehistoric and Protohistoric Archaeology, Kiel University, Johanna-Mestorf-Str. 2-6, 24118, Kiel, Germany.
  • Kirleis W Institute for Prehistoric and Protohistoric Archaeology, Kiel University, Johanna-Mestorf-Str. 2-6, 24118, Kiel, Germany.
  • Alsleben A Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur, Geschwister-Scholl-Straße 2, 55131, Mainz, Germany.
  • Akeret Ö Integrative Prähistorische und Naturwissenschaftliche Archäologie IPNA, Basel University, Spalenring 145, 4055, Basel, Switzerland.
  • Bittmann F Lower Saxony Institute for Historical Coastal Research, Viktoriastraße 26/28, 26382, Wilhelmshaven, Germany.
  • Bosi G Dipartimento di Scienze della Vita, Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Via Giuseppe Campi 287, 41125, Modena, Italy.
  • Ciută B Facultatea de Istorie şi Filologie, Universitatea "1 Decembrie 1918" Alba Iulia, Strada Unirii 15-17, 510009, Alba Iulia, Romania.
  • Dreslerová D Institute of Archaeology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Letenská 4, 118 01, Praha 1, Czech Republic.
  • Effenberger H Effenberger Archäobotanik, 21423, Drage, Germany.
  • Gyulai F Department of Nature Conservation and Landscape Ecology, Szent István University, Páter Károly utca 1, Gödöllő, 2103, Hungary.
  • Heiss AG Austrian Archaeological Institute (ÖAI), Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW), Franz Klein-Gasse 1, 1190, Vienna, Austria.
  • Hellmund M Landesamt für Denkmalpflege und Archäologie Sachsen-Anhalt-Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte, Richard-Wagner-Str. 9, 06114, Halle (Saale), Germany.
  • Jahns S Brandenburgisches Landesamt für Denkmalpflege und Archäologisches Landesmuseum Ortsteil Wünsdorf, Wünsdorfer Platz 4-5, 15806, Zossen, Germany.
  • Jakobitsch T Austrian Archaeological Institute (ÖAI), Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW), Franz Klein-Gasse 1, 1190, Vienna, Austria.
  • Kapcia M Władysław Szafer Institute of Botany, Polish Academy of Sciences, Lubicz 46, 31-512, Kraków, Poland.
  • Klooß S Archäologisches Landesamt Schleswig-Holstein, Brockdorff-Rantzau-Straße 70, 24837, Schleswig, Germany.
  • Kohler-Schneider M Department für Integrative Biologie, Universität für Bodenkultur, Gregor-Mendel-Straße 33, 1180, Vienna, Austria.
  • Kroll H Independent Researcher, Projensdorfer Str. 195, 24106, Kiel, Germany.
  • Makarowicz P Faculty of Archaeology, Adam Mickiewicz University, Uniwersytetu Poznańskiego 7, 61-614, Poznań, Poland.
  • Marinova E Landesamt für Denkmalpflege am Regierungspräsidium Stuttgart, Fischersteig 9, 78343, Gaienhofen-Hemmenhofen, Germany.
  • Märkle T Landesamt für Denkmalpflege am Regierungspräsidium Stuttgart, Fischersteig 9, 78343, Gaienhofen-Hemmenhofen, Germany.
  • Medović A Museum of Vojvodina, Dunavska 35-37, 21101, Novi Sad, Serbia.
  • Mercuri AM Dipartimento di Scienze della Vita, Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Via Giuseppe Campi 287, 41125, Modena, Italy.
  • Mueller-Bieniek A Władysław Szafer Institute of Botany, Polish Academy of Sciences, Lubicz 46, 31-512, Kraków, Poland.
  • Nisbet R Dipartimento di Studi sull'Asia e sull'Africa Mediterranea, Università Ca' Foscari, Dorsoduro 3462, 30123, Venezia, Italy.
  • Pashkevich G National Museum of Natural Sciences of the National Academy of Sciences in Ukraine, Bul. Bohdan Khmelnitsky 15, Kyiv, 01030, Ukraine.
  • Perego R Laboratory of Palynology and Palaeoecology CNR IGAG, Piazza della Scienza 1, 20126, Milan, Italy.
  • Pokorný P Centre for Theoretical Study, Charles University Prague and Czech Academy of Sciences, Jilská 1, 110 00, Prague 1, Czech Republic.
  • Pospieszny Ł Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Bristol, 43 Woodland Road, Bristol, BS8 1UU, UK.
  • Przybyła M Institute of Archaeology, Jagiellonian University, Ul. Gołębia 11, 31-007, Kraków, Poland.
  • Reed K Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford, 34 Broad Street, Oxford, OX1 3BD, UK.
  • Rennwanz J Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Rubież 46, 61-612, Poznań, Poland.
  • Stika HP Department of Molecular Botany, Institute of Biology, University of Hohenheim, Garbenstraße 30, 70599, Stuttgart, Germany.
  • Stobbe A Institute of Archaeological Sciences, Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, Norbert-Wollheim-Platz 1, 60629, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
  • Tolar T ZRC SAZU, Institute of Archaeology, Novi trg 2, 1000, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
  • Wasylikowa K Władysław Szafer Institute of Botany, Polish Academy of Sciences, Lubicz 46, 31-512, Kraków, Poland.
  • Wiethold J Institut national de recherches archéologiques préventives (Inrap), Direction régionale Grand Est, 12, rue de Méric, CS 80005, 57063, Metz cedex 2, France.
  • Zerl T Institute for Pre- and Protohistory, University of Köln, Weyertal 125, 50923, Köln, Germany.
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  • 2020-08-15
Published in:
  • Scientific reports. - 2020
Multidisciplinary
English Broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum L.) is not one of the founder crops domesticated in Southwest Asia in the early Holocene, but was domesticated in northeast China by 6000 BC. In Europe, millet was reported in Early Neolithic contexts formed by 6000 BC, but recent radiocarbon dating of a dozen 'early' grains cast doubt on these claims. Archaeobotanical evidence reveals that millet was common in Europe from the 2nd millennium BC, when major societal and economic transformations took place in the Bronze Age. We conducted an extensive programme of AMS-dating of charred broomcorn millet grains from 75 prehistoric sites in Europe. Our Bayesian model reveals that millet cultivation began in Europe at the earliest during the sixteenth century BC, and spread rapidly during the fifteenth/fourteenth centuries BC. Broomcorn millet succeeds in exceptionally wide range of growing conditions and completes its lifecycle in less than three summer months. Offering an additional harvest and thus surplus food/fodder, it likely was a transformative innovation in European prehistoric agriculture previously based mainly on (winter) cropping of wheat and barley. We provide a new, high-resolution chronological framework for this key agricultural development that likely contributed to far-reaching changes in lifestyle in late 2nd millennium BC Europe.
Language
  • English
Open access status
gold
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Persistent URL
https://sonar.ch/global/documents/98710
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