Naomi F Miller

Agricultural development in western Central Asia in the Chalcolithic and Bronze Ages

This paper lays out archaeobotanical evidence of cereals and fruits from 5th–2nd millennium B.C. sites in Turkmenistan (Anau, Gonur) and Uzbekistan (Djarkutan). Our current research program (1989-present) focuses on systematic recovery of botanical remains in their stratigraphic context. The cereals from these sites includeHordeum vulgare L. ssp.vulgare (6-row barley) andTrilicum aestivum L. s.l. (bread wheat). The presence of plump grains of 6-row barley and bread wheat may indicate that small-scale irrigation was practised at Anau as early as the Chalcolithic period. The possibility is also raised that these plump-grained types may have come from the east rather than through northern Iran. Fruit pit remains ofVilis vinifera L. (grape) andPislacia (pistachio) make their first significant appearance in Bronze Age deposits.

A survey in the Jabbul Plain

The 1996 and 1997 seasons of the Hopkins-Amsterdam project in the Jabbul plain, western Syria, have generated new results on Bronze Age urbanism at Tell Umm el Marra and elucidated longer-term settlement patterns in the Jabbul region. Excavation results have documented the foundation of Umm el-Marra as a regional center in the Early Bronze Age, provided new data on a period of decentralization in Middle Bronze I, and supplied evidence of the regeneration of urbanism in MB II. Faunal and archaeobotanical analysis broaden our understanding of these developments, attesting to an economy overwhelmingly dependent on the steppe environment, with an emphasis on large-scale onager hunting in MB II, Finally, a regional survey provides data on long-term demographic and socioeconomic trends, furnishing an expansive time range and spatial context for our understanding of developmental patterns in the region. The survey results supply new information on the limits of the Uruk expansion, cycles of Bronze Age urbanization, changing patterns of steppe exploitation, and demographic and agricultural extensification in the Byzantine and Early Islamic periods.The 1996 and 1997 seasons of the Hopkins-Amsterdam project in the Jabbul plain, western Syria, have generated new results on Bronze Age urbanism at Tell Umm elMarra and elucidated longer-term settlement patterns in theJabbul region. Excavation results have documented the foundation of Umm el-Marra as a regional center in the Early Bronze Age, provided new data on a period of decentralization in Middle Bronze I, and supplied evidence of the regeneration of urbanism in MB II. Faunal and archaeobotanical analysis broaden our understanding of these developments, attesting to an economy overwhelmingly dependent on the steppe environment, with an emphasis on large-scale onager hunting in MB II. Finally, a regional survey provides data on long-term demographic and socioeconomic trends, furnishing an expansive time range and spatial context for our understanding of developmental patterns in the region. The survey results supply new information on the limits of the Uruk expansion, cycles of Bronze Age urbanization, changing patterns of steppe exploitation, and demographic and agricultural extensification in the Byzantine and Early Islamic periods.*

Sweeter than wine?: The use of the grape in early western Asia

Emotional news for lovers of a dry white wine. The blissful Hippocrene was composed from wild grapes from the sixth millennium BC in the lands of its natural habitat. But, as the author shows, the cultivation, domestication and selective breeding of the grape following in the Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age was aimed primarily at the enjoyment of its sweetness.

From Food and Fuel to Farms and Flocks The Integration of Plant and Animal Remains in the Study of the Agropastoral Economy at Gordion, Turkey

The site of Gordion, Turkey, provides a case study of the integrated use of archaeobiological data. Associations between botanical and faunal remains suggest a continuum of land‐use practices. At one end, high ratios of the seeds of wild plants versus cultivated cereal grains (calculated as count/weight) and high proportions of the bones of sheep, goat, and deer are signatures of a subsistence economy focused on pastoral production. At the other, low wild/cereal ratios along with high proportions of the bones of cattle, pig, and hare indicate an economy more focused on agriculture. Based on the millennium‐long sequence analyzed, the most sustainable land use around the ancient settlement emphasized pastoral production; only during the wealthy Middle Phrygian period did high population support greater reliance on agriculture.

Millet cultivation across Eurasia: Origins, spread, and the influence of seasonal climate

The two East Asian millets, broomcorn (Panicum miliaceum) and foxtail millet (Setaria italica), spread across Eurasia and became important crops by the second millennium BC. The earliest indisputable archaeobotanical remains of broomcorn millet outside of East Asia identified thus far date to the end of the third millennium BC in eastern Kazakhstan. By the end of the second millennium BC, broomcorn millet cultivation had spread to the rest of Central Eurasia and to Eastern Europe. Both millets are well suited to an arid ecology where the dominant portion of the annual precipitation falls during the warm summer months. Indeed, the earliest sites with millet remains outside of East Asia are restricted to a narrow foothill ecocline between 800 and 2000 m a.s.l., where summer precipitation is relatively high (about 125 mm or more, from May through October). Ethnohistorically, millets, as fast-growing, warm-season crops, were commonly cultivated as a way to reduce agricultural risk and were grown as a low-investment rain-fed summer crop. In Eurasian regions with moist winters and very low summer precipitation, the prevailing agricultural regime had long depended on winter wheat (Triticum aestivum) and barley (Hordeum vulgare) cultivated with supplemental irrigation. We propose that the secondary wave of millet cultivation that spread into the summer-dry regions of southern Central Asia is associated with an intensification of productive economies in general, and specifically with the expansion of centrally organized irrigation works.

Science in Archaeology: A Review

Author(s): Patrick E. McGovern, Thomas L. Sever, J. Wilson Myers, Eleanor Emlen Myers, Bruce Bevan, Naomi F. Miller, S. Bottema, Hitomi Hongo, Richard H. Meadow, Peter Ian Kuniholm, S. G. E. Bowman, M. N. Leese, R. E. M. Hedges, Frederick R. Matson, Ian C. Freestone, Sarah J. Vaughan, Julian Henderson, Pamela B. Vandiver, Charles S. Tumosa, Curt W. Beck, Patricia Smith, A. M. Child, A. M. Pollard, Ingolf Thuesen, Catherine Sease Source: American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 99, No. 1 (Jan., 1995), pp. 79-142 Published by: Archaeological Institute of America Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/506880 Accessed: 16/07/2009 14:57

What mean these seeds: A comparative approach to archaeological seed analysis

Since uncharred seeds recovered from archaeological deposits may be modern intrusions, researchers must evaluate each uncharred seed assemblage before assigning archaeological significance to it. When depositional circumstances are established, seed remains can yield primary data about diet, farming practices, and the spread of imported cultigens. Three uncharred seed assemblages are evaluated— one from Morven (Princeton, New Jersey) and two from the Calvert site (Annapolis, Maryland). The Morven seeds are modern. Seeds from a dry crawl space at the Calvert site probably date to the late 18th century, but rodent disturbance could have introduced more recent materials. Waterlogged seeds from a sealed 18th century well most securely reflect 18th century debris.

Agropastoralism and archaeobiology: Connecting plants, animals and people in west and central Asia

Abstract One of the more intractable problems that archaeobiologists struggle with is how to characterise ancient subsistence systems when the plant and animal remains that we study are incommensurate in so many ways. Three examples from the upper Euphrates and Iran illustrate how changes in plant remains are associated with changes in animal exploitation. Two of them consider the agropastoral continuum on sites dating to the pre-pottery Neolithic (eighth to sixth millennium BC) and to the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age (fourth to third millennium BC) in the dry-farming zone along the Euphrates. The third example considers how changes in woodland allow one to infer the presence of pastoralists in the southern Zagros even in the absence of nomad campsites.

Plant forms in jewellery from the Royal Cemetery at Ur

Among the spectacular finds Sir Leonard Woolley reported from the Royal Cemetery at Ur, the head-dress and “diadem” found in Puabis tomb are among the best known. Parts of these items look like plants, and many plants had symbolic value to the ancient Sumerians in addition to their practical importance for food, fodder, fuel and all manner of material culture. Insofar as the Ur ornaments refer to real plants, it is therefore important to know what those plants are. Plant classifications at the level of genus (e.g., oak [ Quercus ], rose [ Rosa ], date [ Phoenix ]) are frequently consistent cross-culturally, which suggests that the way humans process sense data from the natural world is similar, and that the features of plants salient for identification and classification have both a reality in nature and a reality in human perception. That is why we can even hope to recognize stylized and abstracted versions of plants and animals created by people of different times and places, such as those of ancient Sumer. Meaning, being culturally constructed, cannot be dealt with so simply; for example, we may accurately identify the horse depicted in Lascaux, but not know why it was painted. Fortunately, our database for ancient Mesopotamia is so rich archaeologically and textually that we can reasonably try to interpret a representation once we have identified it. The new exhibit mounted by the University of Pennsylvania Museum, “Treasures from the Royal Tombs of Ur”, and publication of the associated catalogue prompted the current reconsideration of the material. Detailed justification for previous identifications and new identifications for some of the plants represented in the ornaments from the Royal Cemetery are presented.

Intensive agriculture and land use at Roman Gordion, central Turkey

Few archaeobotanical studies of Roman agricultural practices and their environmental impact in Anatolia (modern Turkey) have been published. New data from Roman levels at Gordion, a multi-period urban centre in central Anatolia, indicate that free-threshing wheat, most likely Triticum aestivum (bread wheat), was the focus of agricultural practice, in contrast to earlier periods when a more diverse agricultural system included greater amounts of barley and pulses. Evidence for increased levels of irrigation and wood fuel use relative to dung, along with regional overgrazing, provide further evidence for significant change in land-use practices during the Roman period. The emphasis on T. aestivum cultivation coupled with extensive grazing had significant environmental implications, leading to severe overgrazing and soil erosion on a regional scale. Historical sources and limited data from other Roman period sites suggest that similar patterns of agriculture may have been practiced across central Anatolia during the Roman period. We propose that this may have been due to externally imposed demands for taxation or military tribute in the form of wheat, and conclude that these demands led to the adoption of an unsustainable agricultural system at Gordion.