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Filipović, Dragana; Meadows, John; Corso, Marta Dal; Kirleis, Wiebke; Alsleben, Almuth; Akeret, Örni; Bittmann, Felix; Bosi, Giovanna; Ciută, Beatrice; Dreslerová, Dagmar; Effenberger, Henrike; Gyulai, Ferenc; Heiss, Andreas G.; Hellmund, Monika; Jahns, Susanne; Jakobitsch, Thorsten; Kapcia, Magda; Klooß, Stefanie; Kohler-Schneider, Marianne; Kroll, Helmut; Makarowicz, Przemysław; Marinova, Elena; Märkle, Tanja; Medović, Aleksandar; [...]

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

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  • Media type: E-Article
  • Title: New AMS 14C dates track the arrival and spread of broomcorn millet cultivation and agricultural change in prehistoric Europe
  • Contributor: Filipović, Dragana; Meadows, John; Corso, Marta Dal; Kirleis, Wiebke; Alsleben, Almuth; Akeret, Örni; Bittmann, Felix; Bosi, Giovanna; Ciută, Beatrice; Dreslerová, Dagmar; Effenberger, Henrike; Gyulai, Ferenc; Heiss, Andreas G.; Hellmund, Monika; Jahns, Susanne; Jakobitsch, Thorsten; Kapcia, Magda; Klooß, Stefanie; Kohler-Schneider, Marianne; Kroll, Helmut; Makarowicz, Przemysław; Marinova, Elena; Märkle, Tanja; Medović, Aleksandar; [...]
  • imprint: Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2020
  • Published in: Scientific Reports
  • Language: English
  • DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-70495-z
  • ISSN: 2045-2322
  • Origination:
  • Footnote:
  • Description: <jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>Broomcorn millet (<jats:italic>Panicum miliaceum</jats:italic> L.) is not one of the founder crops domesticated in Southwest Asia in the early Holocene, but was domesticated in northeast China by 6000 <jats:sc>bc</jats:sc>. In Europe, millet was reported in Early Neolithic contexts formed by 6000 <jats:sc>bc</jats:sc>, 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 <jats:sc>bc</jats:sc>, 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 <jats:sc>bc</jats:sc>, and spread rapidly during the fifteenth/fourteenth centuries <jats:sc>bc</jats:sc>. 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 <jats:sc>bc</jats:sc> Europe.</jats:p>
  • Access State: Open Access