Millet cultivation history in the French Alps as evidenced by a sedimentary molecule

We report on the detection, in a sediment core drilled in Lake Le Bourget (French Alps), of a fossil molecule (miliacin) that was synthesized by broomcorn millet cultivated in the watershed, and then exported to the sediment. The variation in abundance of this molecule allows us reconstructing the history of millet cultivation around Lake Le Bourget. Our results support the introduction of millet around −1700 BC in the region. After an intensive cultivation during the Late Bronze Age, the failure of millet cropping during the Hallstatt period coincides with a phase of climatic deterioration. Millet cultivation recovers during the Roman and Mediaeval periods before falling most probably due to the introduction of more productive cereals. These pioneering results constitute the first continuous record of an agrarian activity covering the last 6000 years and emphasize the close relationships between local hydrology, land use and agro-pastoral activities around Lake Le Bourget.     

Evaluating soil resilience in long-term cultivation: a study of pre-Columbian terraces from the Paca Valley, Peru

This study evaluated the soil properties of pre-Hispanic stone-walled terraces by comparing soil quality along terraced catenas in the Paca Valley, a tributary of the Mantaro Valley, Peru. Micromorphological and bulk analyses of terrace soils revealed that despite terracing soil horizonation largely followed the catena. Upland terraced fields had deeper A-horizons with higher biotic activity than uncultivated controls, but less fine material and greater carbonate accumulation. Midslope fields were highly variable in depth and soil properties reflecting considerable substrate and anthropogenic variations in this growing zone. Silts and clay accumulated in valley bottom terraces where pedofeatures indicate an ongoing downhill movement of fine material. The distribution of soil separates down Paca hillsides demonstrates that terraces help moderate, rather than control, the erosion of key soil fractions required for long-term agricultural productivity. This study illustrates how the loss of fine material is partly mitigated by soil consolidation in dense topsoil peds, microaggregates and saprolite. These aggregates are retained by terraces and contribute to deep soil profiles. Nevertheless, many fields show signs of degradation, especially from insufficient organic matter amendment. In addition to farming itself, buried soils and associated artefacts in valley bottom fields indicate mass soil movement, a likely result of disruption caused by Inca road and terrace construction. The poor soil quality of many upland terraces also confirms that stone-walled terraces were constructed on mediocre substrates for farming, indicating a high labour investment for marginal agricultural returns in these areas. Overall, Paca Valley terraces improve topsoil retention and promote deep soil profiles. However, these fields present quite varied growing substrates. It is also apparent that over the last millennium, soil depletion from cultivation has compromised soil quality through loss of fine material and organic matter. Shifts in farming practice away from pre-Hispanic practices such as long-fallow and middening appear to exacerbate this trend.     

Founder effect, drift, and adaptive change in domestic crop use in early Neolithic Europe

We document and quantify a significant reduction in crop diversity in the early central European Neolithic using a large multi-site database of archaeobotantical remains we compiled from published Neolithic sites across southwest Asia and Europe. Two hypotheses are proposed to account for the observed changes: one which claims that the different environmental conditions of central Europe selected for a different set of crop choices and strategies than in use in southeast and Mediterranean Europe; and a null hypothesis that explains the change as a drift process associated with a small founding population that subsequently undergoes rapid expansion. Through an agent-based simulation model, we test the null hypothesis and demonstrate that the drop in diversity exceeds that predicted by a drift process. We conclude by re-evaluating the possible adaptive changes underlying crop use in early Neolithic Europe.     

清代“塔里雅沁回子”东迁呼伦贝尔开垦种田始末

乾隆年间,为了解决呼伦贝尔驻防官兵生计贫困的问题,清廷曾挑选部分“塔里雅沁回子”东迁到呼伦贝尔地方开垦种田,并向索伦、巴尔虎等官兵教习灌溉耕作技术。清政府在呼伦贝尔开垦种田的尝试,虽然仓促收场,但是这一次尝试,对农业灌溉技术在呼伦贝尔地区的传播,仍具有一定的积极影响。本依据中国第一历史档案馆所存军机处满档案,对“塔里雅沁回子”迁至呼伦贝尔地方开垦种田的起因、经过和结果进行了探讨。     

Pars Pro Toto Observation: Historical Anthropology in the Textual Field of Rasulid Yemen

This essay addresses the suggestion made over a century ago by F. W. Maitland that anthropology must choose between being history and being nothing. At the time Maitland was correct in criticizing the simplistic unilinear evolutionary schemes of Edward Tylor and Lewis Henry Morgan. My own career combines ethnography among Yemeni farmers in the late 1970s with ongoing analysis of thirteenth- and fourteenth-century Yemeni agricultural texts, demonstrating the value of drawing on both kinds of research to better understand the history of agriculture in Yemen. Details from the textual corpus are provided to supplement observations made in the field. My approach to agricultural and tax record texts from Yemen's Rasulid period is described as an example of what anthropology and history can contribute to each other. I argue that the choice is not between specific disciplines but rather the application of sound methods that seek to approximate reality rather than dogmatically recreate it. Anthropology and history have much to gain, as Evans-Pritchard once noted, in learning from each other. Anthropology is approached as a research field that has no preconceived borders, but one that necessitates learning from past methodological and theoretical trends, whether from within the formal discipline or from without.     

International Harvester,the U.S. South,and the makings of international development in the early 20th century

This article draws on insights into the making of an American empire and the formative nature of the early 20th century in order to interrogate the international imaginations and national practices of International Harvester Corporation, one of the United States' largest international corporations. Based on archival research, it documents how International Harvester imagined its new international markets as the inevitable extension of their national expansion, and the transformations that their products would bring to their new consumers similar to the transformations that those products were bringing to farmers living in the United States, particularly African-Americans in the American South. In addition, this article explores how International Harvester's interventions in the American South deployed tactics of governance that contributed to what became a dominant set of practices of postwar international development, in particular, the problematizing of a space/region, and the rendering of its solution as a technical one. This case study suggests that some of the practices that characterize American international development have their roots in the early 20th century, particularly in the American South.     

A microarchaeological approach for the study of pits

Abstract

The study of the technology underlying pre-industrial storage structures has an interest from an anthropological and archaeological perspective, in terms of the evolution of key cultural and cognitive capabilities, often related to the transition to food production.

Microarchaeological techniques offer a unique perspective on the study of pre-industrial storing technologies. In this work, examples are presented from two archaeological contexts in different climatic and socio-ecological situations during the Holocene in S Asia and SW Europe. Microarchaeological techniques used in this study include micromorphology, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and phytolith analyses. The comparative study of two pits highlights key aspects of the decision-making process involved in technological solutions of storage: ? The choice of a location for the construction of a given storage facility is highly affected by contextual climatic, microclimatic, soil and bioturbative factors

? The time taken to consume stored foodstuffs seems to affect technological investment as much as the intrinsic conservation requirements of the stored taxa

? The use of fire to hygienise pits implies that such structures were not conceived for single use

? Pre-industrial storage systems can be seen as modular structures, which components (e.g. topographical location, sediment type, lining type, hygienisation techniques and cover) can be recombined to improve storage performance for different climatic settings and foodstuffs.

     

石寨山文化农业述略

以考古发现及既有研究成果为基础,可对战国秦汉时期滇池区域石寨山文化农业面貌进行讨论。石寨山文化有完整的农业技术体系。该文化居民有一套完整的以锄、铲、镰、斧等为代表生产工具体,且工具种类的使用具有倾向性,牛耕还尚未运用到农业生产中,稻、麦、粟复种的作物结构已形成,掌握一定的灌溉以及粮食储存技术,并且还可能有一套较为完整的农业仪式。     

Ancient DNA in archaeological wheat grains: preservation conditions and the study of pre-Hispanic agriculture on the island of Gran Canaria (Spain)

The recovery of ancient DNA from archaeological wheat samples under different preservation conditions was assessed using a number of genetic markers. It was possible to amplify nuclear DNA from desiccated grains but not from charred. The desiccated grain was from a pre-Hispanic grain silo in Gran Canaria and showed excellent DNA preservation, enabling the amplification of the ribosomal DNA markers IGS and ITS, the upstream region of the HMW-glutenin locus and single-locus nuclear microsatellites. Our results demonstrated the presence of both durum and bread wheat in an assemblage of naked grain. We were also able to identify different genotypes in durum wheat and compare these with extant landraces, providing insights into the agrarian practices of the ancient Canarians and the origin of their crops.     

Environmental change,agricultural innovation,and the spread of cotton agriculture in the Old World

Recent excavations at the site of Kara-tepe in northwestern Uzbekistan revealed evidence for the production of cotton (Gossypium sp.) in domestic contexts dated to ca. 300–500 AD. These archaeobotanical remains help to document the spread of Old World cotton production, and predate the existing evidence for its cultivation in Central Asia. The context in which these remains were found—in temperate Eurasia at a time of intense environmental and social change—suggests that the spread of cotton agriculture to this region occurred when new plant varieties were incorporated into domestic production regimes as part of local adaptive strategies. The development and transmission of cotton as a global cultigen was initiated by these small-scale innovations aimed at the expansion of economically and environmentally sustainable subsistence practices in Central Asia. Subsequent worldwide transmission occurred when emerging empires helped to spread cotton agriculture more widely across the Old World.