Rapid acceptance of the foreign food tradition in Bronze Age Europe

Not just metals, hierarchical societies, and fortified settlements: a new food also influenced the economic transformations of the Bronze Age some 3,500 years ago. This is demonstrated by frequent archaeological finds of the remains of broom millet (Panicum miliaceum L.), a cereal with small rounded grains. A major study by Collaborative Research Center 1266 at the University of Kiel (CAU) was published yesterday (August 13) in the journal Scientific reports. It shows how much millet entered the menu of Bronze Age Europe. Intensive commercial and communication networks facilitated the incredibly rapid spread of this new culture originating in the Far East.

“Wheat, corn and rice now dominate our grain crop. Millet is considered to be a niche crop primarily suitable for birdseed, ”explained Professor Wiebke Kirleis of CRC 1266. As this cereal is increasingly seen as a gluten-free food, however, this makes the results of l even more exciting study, she added.

Millet was domesticated in northeast China around 6000 BC and quickly became a staple crop. It is a drought-resistant, fast-growing cereal rich in minerals and vitamins. With a growing time of only 60 to 90 days from sowing to harvest, it was cultivated by both farmers and ranchers, and was consumed by humans and pets. For thousands of years pastoral groups spread millet westward from East Asia. The oldest millet in Central Asia comes from archaeological sites in Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and the Kashmir Valley, and is dated to around 2,500 BC.

“In Europe, oddly, millet broom has been found at many Neolithic sites, which date between 6500 and 2000 BC, depending on the region,” Kirleis said. Is it possible that millet was domesticated in China around the same time? Wheat, barley and our domestic animals were not introduced to Europe until thousands of years after being domesticated in the “Fertile Crescent” – an area stretching from the Persian Gulf to northern Syria to Jordan. Was there a special relationship with China? Doubts about this hypothesis arose following radiocarbon (14C) dating of a few grains of millet in 2013. These tiny grains had infiltrated older archaeological layers through root canals and earthworm activity. The date of appearance and cultivation of millet in Europe remains unknown.

A group of researchers from the Scales of Transformation Collaborative Research Center (CRC 1266), led by Wiebke Kirleis, attempted to answer this question. They not only researched the spread of millet cultivation in Europe, but also focused their attention on the acceptance by the prehistoric population of this exotic cereal and examined what agricultural and social phenomena were associated with this innovation.

As millet ripens within three months of sowing, it can be grown as a catch crop between the summer harvest and the winter sowing of wheat or barley in central and southern Europe. Further north, it was probably used as a reserve crop if the late frost had destroyed crops sown in the spring. The grain surpluses from the extra harvest have increased food security and supported a steadily growing population.

Working with nearly thirty research institutes across Europe, archaeobotanists Dragana Filipović and Marta Dal Corso from the team led by Wiebke Kirleis, as well as John Meadows from the Leibniz Laboratory for radiometric dating and stable isotope research of the University of Kiel and the Center for Baltic and Scandinavian Archeology (ZBSA) in Schleswig, millet radiocarbon dated from 75 prehistoric sites (6th-1st century BC). The results show that the cultivation of millet did not begin in the early Stone Age, but was first introduced around 1500 BC, and that the new culture spread incredibly quickly to much of the area. from Central Europe 3,500 years ago. “This indicates that there were extensive networks of commerce and communication during the Bronze Age. But the study also shows that millet was quickly and widely recognized as a versatile addition to the cuisine then dominated by starch producers and barley, ”Kirleis concluded.

Millet has evidently spread along established trade routes for bronze objects (including weapons), gold and amber. These food strategy transformation processes and their social dimensions are a key issue for CRC 1266. Future research by CRC 1266 will examine what social dynamics have been associated with the introduction of this new food in this distinct period of upheaval in European prehistory. , productive and connected world of the Bronze Age Europe was also a scene of conflict. The testimonies of battles and numerous fortifications bear witness to this.