Scientific Reports, can be found online here]]>
Tag: Farming
www.plos.org Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons user: PHP Ninja ]]>
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons user: Zde ]]>
www.journals.plos.org Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons user: Jialiang Gao ]]>
Was it for walrus? Viking Age settlement and medieval walrus ivory trade in Iceland and Greenland. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons user: Turelio ]]>
Panicum miliaceum and Setaria italica),” the team wrote in their report, published in the upcoming edition of the Journal of Archaeological Science. Intriguingly, there was very little evidence of C4 plants in the diets of individuals from Bronze Age northern Kazakhstan. In later periods, C4 plants were a major component in human diets across the region, but at this early stage – around 1,800 BCE – it appears that southern Kazakhstan was populated by agricultural societies. “The wide variety of stable isotope results, both within and between contemporary sites from the southern regions of Kazakhstan, indicates a diversity of food choice,” the team explained. The team’s research presents the earliest directly dated isotopic analysis of millet consumption outside of China. Their research suggests that millet was a significant dietary component for a substantial number of individuals in Bronze Age southern Kazakhstan, indeed, millet made up such a large proportion of their diet that it was detectable in analysis of human bone collagen. The evidence for substantial millet consumption in southern Kazakhstan – particularly when taken with the absence of the crop in the north during the same period – suggests that this region may have been the route for the spread of millet crops from China. This hypothesis, the team notes, warrants further archaeobotanical research. What the team have revealed conclusively is the great variation in human diet. Southern Kazakhstan during the Bronze Age had a great many different sources of food which has left an indelible mark in the bones of people who inhabited the area. The evidence of millet also implies that Bronze Age southern Kazakhstan could have been a very important area between China and further West, meaning that the region could have been the first area to properly cultivate the crop outside of China. For more information: www.sciencedirect.com Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons user: Kurt Stüber]]>
Journal of Archaeological Research, attempts to examine why the pig disappeared from the human subsistence system in the Middle East. Redding’s research is important for our understanding of the historical reasons behind cultural practices which prohibit the consumption of pork. Wild pigs were indigenous to the Middle East and occurred throughout the area. “From archaeological faunal data, we now know that wild pigs were present in the Early Neolithic of Egypt in the Fayyum and the Nile Delta,” Redding writes in his report. These wild pigs spread and their domestication followed, with the first attempts to domesticate the animals in the Middle East occurring around 11,000 BCE. Earlier research had found that domestic pigs were common in the Fertile Crescent between 5,000 and 2,000 BCE. As pigs are not useful work animals and do not provide secondary resources such as wool or eggs, it is clear that pigs were being eaten in the area until at least the first millennium BCE. Why this changed has been a puzzle for researchers. One of the reasons why pigs did not continue being consumed in the Middle East could have been their water needs. Pigs are unable to cool themselves with sweat glands and require substantial amounts of drinking water, much more than cattle or goats. This constant need for water makes pigs “difficult to move in arid and semiarid environments, since they must be moved from water source to water source and only in cooler weather,” Redding notes. This would not have presented much of a problem, however, as pigs were used in a subsistence manner, rather than traded for profit. Redding proposes that pigs may have been replaced by another domestic animal: the chicken. Chickens would have presented a significant challenge to the continued farming of pigs, as they had competing food and labour needs. In this situation, humans would have had to make a decision between pigs and chickens. Chickens have several advantages over pigs. First, they are a more efficient source of protein than pigs; chickens require 3,500 litres of water to produce one kilo of meat, pigs require 6,000. Secondly, chickens produce eggs, an important secondary product which pigs do not offer. Third, chickens are much smaller and can thus be consumed within 24 hours; this eliminates the problem of preserving large quantities of meat in a hot climate. Finally, chickens could be used by nomads. While neither chickens nor pigs can be herded in the same way as cattle, chickens are small enough to be transported. “Under these circumstances, the chicken becomes a major protein resource,” Redding states. The chicken, therefore, provided Middle Eastern populations with a more efficient protein resource. Pigs became a redundant animal in the subsistence system, but they were not entirely replaced. “Indeed, contrary to expectations based on the religious prohibition of the pig, it never disappeared from the Middle East,” Redding concludes. For more information: www.springer.com Image courtesy of Wikimedia commons user: Fæ ]]>