Author: Yufeng Sun
School: Washington University in St. Louis
Year: 2023
Abstract:
One of the most remarkable developments in Eurasian archaeology in the last 15 years has been the evidence of movements of domesticated crops and livestock across continents thousands of years before the historical "silk road." Considerable intellectual energy has been devoted to understanding the chronology and routes of a process considered as "food globalization in prehistory," which has generated much recent discussions. However, less is known about the context in which farming dispersals arose and the role of human agency in both the globalization and domestication process. Human engagement in food production and consumption is both biological and social, with moral implications.
The expressive and communicative aspect of food is often used to signify social boundaries, including hierarchy, exclusion, and performance. Such dynamics are more commonly explored in cultural anthropology with regard to more recent times. They have been less investigated in projected archaeology, despite great potential when inquiry is directed by productive questions.
This dissertation focuses on domestication and the underlying social process of early cultivation of foxtail (Setaria italica) and broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum). Both species were first cultivated in northern China and expanded across Asia by the second millennium BC.
I investigated the everyday practices related to the cultivation, production, and consumption of millets, with a focus on morphological variations and isotopic properties shaped by culinary traditions and labor organizations in ancient northern China. To explore the underlying cultural and culinary conditions of millet domestication and early dispersals, I compiled over 3000 millet measurements from 145 archaeological sites across China and neighboring regions dating from 5000-2000 BCE.
The findings suggest that millet grains increased in size as they dispersed from their North China origin to Inner Asian Mountains and the Tibetan Plateau. This suggests that there was a geographic separation between the grains and the cooking techniques that were associated with them. As millet moved towards the west, larger grains became more common in the grinding-and-baking system of Inner Asia, whereas smaller grains were preferred in the East Asian tripod steaming-and-boiling cooking systems.
This division is consistent with the modern genetic variations of millet taxa based on their stickiness. This investigation revealed the tension between the fluidity of food materials and the rigidity of culinary traditions as food habits, the latter of which were inculcated and perpetuated through every practice and insusceptible to cultural change.
To investigate millet cultivation strategies corresponding to labor organizations in changing historical conditions, I engaged with recent archaeological discoveries in the Chifeng region to explore how millet cultivation strategies were shaped by social conditions. I conducted plant isotope analysis on archaeological millet samples from over 20 sites dating to a broad span of time periods from the Neolithic to the historic Liao Dynasty (around 8000 BP to 1000 BP).
The results indicate that during the Lower Xiajiadian Culture in the second millennium BCE, an intensive agricultural system with high labor input per unit of area was employed, possibly due to the growth of the population during that time. In contrast, during the Upper Xiajiadian and Warring State periods in the first millennium BCE, an extensive system is observed with relatively less labor input per area unit, as documented by depleted soil conditions. The observed pattern corresponded to a period of settlement disaggregation, likely indicating growing pastoral activities in subsistence strategies, as suggested by the material connection with the nomadic groups in the eastern Eurasian Steppe.
To further articulate the crop management strategies with finer details, I chose to focus my archaeological investigation at Erdaojingzi (ca. 3500 BP), a well-preserved Lower Xiajiadian cultural site. Combined crop processing analysis and stable isotopic analysis demonstrated a household-based economy concerning restricted sharing among family members, resonating with traditional smallholders in ethnographic records. In addition, isotopic and morphological evidence conjointly revealed multi-seasonal harvesting strategy as household-based land tenure ship in the Bronze Age. It is the first time these processes were documented in archaeology with convincing measurables.
