Brainfood: Neolithic microbiomes, Transeurasian languages, Rice history, Chinese Neolithic, Indo-European origins, Chalcolithic stews, Indus Valley hydrology, Bronze Age opium, Cassava storage
- Ancient oral microbiomes support gradual Neolithic dietary shifts towards agriculture. The adoption of agriculture was gradual.
- Triangulation supports agricultural spread of the Transeurasian languages. The ancestors of the speakers of 98 related languages — including Japanese, Korean, Tungusic, Mongolic and Turkic — were the first millet farmers gradually spreading across Northeast Asia.
- Modelling the chronology and dynamics of the spread of Asian rice from ca. 8000 BCE to 1000 CE. Deep breath. Rice domestication originated in eastern China (7430 BCE) and northeastern South Asia (6460 BCE). Then gradually spread in 2 waves: (1) in the 4th-3rd millennia BCE to the rest of China and SE Asia, associated with millet cultivation (Transeurasian speakers?), and (2) in 1st BCE-1st CE to Liao River region, Central Asia, and Africa.
- Plant foods consumed at the Neolithic site of Qujialing (ca. 5800-4200 BP) in Jianghan Plain of the middle catchment of Yangtze River, China. Not just rice and millets but also job’s tears, lotus roots, yam, acorns and beans.
- Indo-European cereal terminology suggests a Northwest Pontic homeland for the core Indo-European languages. The speakers of Proto-Indo-European, on the other hand, gradually making their way from the steppes, were not farmers.
- Revealing invisible stews: new results of organic residue analyses of Beveled Rim Bowls from the Late Chalcolithic site of Shakhi Kora, Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Not by bread alone… Iconic, hastily-made, throw-away pottery bowls from 3500 BCE were not bread moulds but rather held tasty stews. No job’s tears and lotus roots, alas, though.
- Phytoliths as indicators of plant water availability: The case of millets cultivation in the Indus Valley civilization. Sorghum and millets were growing under water stress at several Mature Harappan (2500–1900 BCE) sites. But they could take it.
- Opium trade and use during the Late Bronze Age: Organic residue analysis of ceramic vessels from the burials of Tel Yehud, Israel. People were getting high in the 14th century BCE. And who can blame them, after millennia of domesticating plants and gradually spreading around the world.
- Adaptations of Pre-Columbian Manioc Storage Techniques as Strategies to Adapt to Extreme Climatic Events in Amazonian Floodplains. Some current agricultural practices can be seen in the archaeological record. And not just getting high on opium.
- See you in the new year, everyone!
Brainfood: Silkworm, Donkey, Cat, Chicken, Neolithic, Shamans, Locusts
- High-resolution silkworm pan-genome provides genetic insights into artificial selection and ecological adaptation. The silkworm was domesticated 5000 years ago in the middle Yellow River (along with millets?), but was improved independently and in different directions in China and Japan.
- The genomic history and global expansion of domestic donkeys. The donkey was domesticated in the Horn of Africa 7000 years ago and then developed in different directions in Africa and Eurasia. Covered in the NY Times, no less.
- Your horse is a donkey! Identifying domesticated equids from Western Iberia using collagen fingerprinting. Turns out you can tell horses and donkeys apart easily and cheaply from ancient collagen in archaeological remains.
- Genetics of randomly bred cats support the cradle of cat domestication being in the Near East. Humans were domesticated by cats in the eastern Mediterranean basin about 12,000 years ago.
- The history of the domestic cat in Central Europe. Wait, the Near Eastern wildcat, from which all domestic cats are derived, could have been in central Europe before the Neolithic.
- Missing puzzle piece for the origins of domestic chickens. Recent dating of chicken domestication from archaeological remains in Thailand at 1650–1250 BC underestimates the timescale. By a lot.
- Was the Fishing Village of Lepenski Vir Built by Europe’s First Farmers? And did they have cats?
- Shamanism at the transition from foraging to farming in Southwest Asia: sacra, ritual, and performance at Neolithic WF16 (southern Jordan). You need shamans to help you cope with all that animal domestication.
- Contributions of black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia L.) to livelihoods of peri-urban dwellers in the Free State Province of South Africa. Wait, black locusts are not animals? Hmm, they do seem to have some things in common with cats though.
Nibbles: Trevor Williams, ICRISAT genebank, Irish seedbank, Domestication video, COP27 genebank webinar, Pasturelands, Big Food report, Mesopotamian cooking
- The late Prof. Trevor Williams, one of the pioneers of genebanking, in the news.
- The President of Niger visits a genebank, makes the news.
- Irish seedbanking in the news.
- Dr Mark Chapman on how to study domestication using seeds in genebanks.
- COP27 webinar on using seeds in genebanks for climate change adaptation.
- Pasturelands: sometimes genebanks are not enough. Though even then I bet they can help.
- Big Food still not doing much to support genebanks, despite reports such as this.
- A book on ancient Mesopotamian cooking. Who can think of the best link to genebanks?
A global overview of domestication
I think I may have missed the PNAS paper “Current perspectives and the future of domestication studies” when it came out in 2014. I certainly can’t seem to find it on the blog here. But I’m glad it got mentioned recently on Twitter because it has something I’ve been searching for on and off for a while now: a reasonably up-to-date timeline of crop and livestock domestication. Which I’m therefore happy to reproduce here. I’d love to read a global narrative of the history of domestication linking all these together.