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Following their early domestication, broomcorn millet and rice (in East Asia) and wheat and barley (in South-west Asia) were subsequently adopted across Eurasia during the Bronze Age/early historic period. The precise timing and dispersal routes for this trans-Eurasian exchange, however, remain unclear. Here, the authors present archaeobotanical evidence from sites on the Caspian Sea's southern coast, demonstrating that broomcorn millet reached West Asia by c. 2050 BC and rice by c. 120 BC. These dispersals relate to two waves of globalisation and were based on two different mechanisms: an 'infiltration' model (broomcorn millet) and a 'leapfrog' model (rice). The results contribute to our understanding of the continental-scale connectivity of the late prehistoric/ early historic periods. Keywords: Eurasia, Silk Route, Panicum miliaceum, Oryza sativa, Triticum timopheevii, agriculture, crop dispersal, Introduction The transmission and exchange of innovations such as domesticated species, metallurgical technologies and prestige goods have played a significant role in human history, contributing to diverse local trajectories of [...]

Established chronologies indicate a long-term 'Hoabinhian' hunter-gatherer occupation of Mainland Southeast Asia during the Terminal Pleistocene to Mid-Holocene (45 000-3000 years ago). Here, the authors re-examine the 'Hoabinhian' sequence from north-west Thailand using new radiocarbon and luminescence data from Spirit Cave, Steep Cliff Cave and Banyan Valley Cave. The results indicate that hunter-gatherers exploited this ecologically diverse region throughout the Terminal Pleistocene and the Pleistocene-Holocene transition, and into the period during which agricultural lifeways emerged in the Holocene. Hunter-gatherers did not abandon this highland region of Thailand during periods of environmental and socioeconomic change. Keywords: Mainland Southeast Asia, Thailand, Pleistocene-Holocene transition, hunter-gatherer, radiocarbon offset, Introduction The highland regions of Mainland Southeast Asia are home to some of the earliest and longest records of hunter-gatherer activity. Recent studies from southern China indicate that hunter-gatherers had [...]

The earliest claim for domesticated rice in Island Southeast Asia (4960-3565 cal BP) derives from a single grain embedded in a ceramic sherd from Gua Sireh Cave, Borneo. In a first assessment of spikeletbase assemblages within pottery sherds using quantitative microCT analysis, the authors found no additional rice remains within this sherd to support the early date of rice farming; analysis of a more recent Gua Sireh sherd (1990-830 cal BP), however, indicates that 70 per cent of spikelet bases are from domesticated rice. This technique offers a high degree of contextual and temporal resolution for approaching organic-tempered ceramics as well-preserved archaeobotanical assemblages. Keywords: Island Southeast Asia, Borneo, archaeobotany, rice domestication, microCT, Introduction The archaeobotanical record of early (pre-3000 cal BP) domesticated rice (Oryza sativa) in Island Southeast Asia largely relies on the presence in pottery sherds of husk impressions and inclusions, [...]

Lying on the north-west coast of Sri Lanka, the ancient port of Mantai was ideally situated as a 'hub 'for trade between East and West from the first millennium BC onwards. Excavations at the site were interrupted by civil war in 1984, delaying publication of these results and leading to the underestimation of Mantai's importance in the development of Early Historic Indian Ocean trade. Renewed excavations in 2009--2010 yielded extensive archaeobotanical remains, which, alongside an improved understanding of the site's chronology, provide important new insights into the development of local and regional trade routes and direct evidence for early trade in the valuable spices upon which later empires were founded.Keywords: Indian Ocean, Early Historic, trade, spices, archaeobotany, Oryza sativa, IntroductionSri Lanka's central position within the Indian Ocean allowed the island to become a highly important port of call for merchant ships from the early days of Indian Ocean trade [...]

New evidence from archaeological investigations in north-east Thailand shows a transition in rice farming towards wetland cultivation that would have facilitated greater yields and surpluses. This evidence, combined with new dates and palaeoclimatic data, suggests that this transition took place in the Iron Age, at a time of increasingly arid climate, and when a number of broader societal changes become apparent in the archaeological record. For the first time, it is possible to relate changes in subsistence economy to shifts in regional climate and water-management strategies, and to the emergence of state societies in Southeast Asia.Keywords: Thailand, Southeast Asia, Iron Age, rice farming, weed flora, agricultural intensification, archaeobotany, IntroductionThe civilisation of Angkor and its Southeast Asian contemporaries adapted to an unstable monsoon climate, with intense precipitation from April to October, and virtually no rainfall for the rest of [...]

Late prehistoric archaeological research in Myanmar is in a phase of rapid expansion. Recent work by the Mission Archeologique Francaise au Myanmar aims to establish a reliable Neolithic to Iron Age culture-historical sequence, which can then be compared to surrounding regions of Southeast Asia. Excavations at Nyaung'gan and Oakaie in central Myanmar have provided 52 new AMS dates, which allow the creation of Myanmars first reliable prehistoric radiometric chronology. They have also identified the Neolithic to Bronze Age transition in central Myanmar, which is of critical importance in understanding long-range interactions at the national, regional and inter-regional level. This research provides the first significant step towards placing late prehistoric Myanmar in its global context. Keywords: Southeast Asia, Myanmar, Late Neolithic, Bronze Age, Introduction Myanmars location makes it pivotal to tracing cultural, genetic, linguistic and technological links between South, East and Southeast Asia. Investigations of its prehistory, however, are in their infancy, with [...]

Plant macrofossils from the sites of Khao Sam Kaeo and Phu Khao Thong on the Thai-Malay Peninsula show evidence of cross-cultural interactions, particularly between India to the west and Southeast Asia to the east. Archaeobotanical analysis of various cereals, beans and other crops from these assemblages sheds light on the spread and adoption of these species for local agriculture. There is also early evidence for the trade of key commodities such as cotton. The plant remains illustrate a variety of influences and networks of contact across South and Southeast Asia during the late first millennium BC. Keywords: Southeast Asia, Silk Route, first millennium BC, archaeobotany, cereals, pulses, entrepot, trade, Introduction Exchange routes and coastal sites that form part of a trade network have been the subject of much academic scholarship, especially those pertaining to the Indo-Roman trade (Miller 1969; [...]

The cultivation of rice has had a major impact on both societies and their environments in Asia, and in China in particular. Phytolith assemblages from three Neolithic sites in the Lower Yangtze valley reveal that in early rice fields the emphasis was on drainage to limit the amount of water and force the rice to produce seed. It was only in the later third millennium BC that the strategy changed and irrigated paddies came into use. The results demonstrate that plant remains, including weed assemblages, can reveal wetter or drier growing conditions, showing changes in rice cultivation from flooded and drained fields to large, intensively irrigated paddies. Keywords: China, Neolithic, cultivation, archaeobotany, irrigation, ecology, Introduction More than half of the world's population today relies on rice as its main staple food, and the expansion of rice farming has had a major impact on Asian [...]

This paper rewrites the early history of Britain, showing that while the cultivation of cereals arrived there in about 4000 cal BC, it did not last. Between 3300 and 1500 BC Britons became largely pastoral, reverting only with a major upsurge of agricultural activity in the Middle Bronze Age. This loss of interest in arable farming was accompanied by a decline in population, seen by the authors as having a climatic impetus. But they also point to this period as the time of construction of the great megalithic monuments, including Stonehenge. We are left wondering whether pastoralism was all that bad, and whether it was one intrusion after another that set the agenda on the island. Keywords: Britain, Neolithic, Bronze Age, cereals, hazelnuts, arable farming, pastoralism, monumentality, Introduction Gordon Childe classically defined the Neolithic as the transition to agriculture, linking all aspects of Neolithic life from cereals to ceramics into a single cultural package (Childe 1952). For [...]

Here is a major research project that is peopling the Indian Ocean with prehistoric seafarers exchanging native crops and stock between Africa and India. Not the least exciting part of the work is the authors' contention that the prime movers of this maritime adventure were not the great empires but a multitude of small-scale entrepreneurs. Keywords: India, Sri Lanka, Island Southeast Asia, Neolithic, Bronze Age, millet, banana, chicken, Introduction The study of prehistory resembles a complex jigsaw and for much of the last half century Peter Bellwood has been at work finding and fitting pieces together, especially as [...]

The Neolithic period in South India is known for its ashmounds, superseded (in its Iron Age) by megalith builders with craft specialisation. Thanks to a major radiocarbon dating programme and [...]

Prompted by a recent article by Jiang and Liu in Antiquity (80, 2006), Dorian Fuller and his co-authors return to the question of rice cultivation and consider some of the difficulties involved in identifying the transition from wild to domesticated rice. Using data from Eastern China, they propose that, at least for the Lower Yangtze region, the advent of rice domestication around 4000 BC was preceded by a phase of pre-domestication cultivation that began around 5000 BC. This rice, together with other subsistence foods like nuts, acorns and waterchestnuts, was gathered by sedentary hunter-gatherer-foragers. The implications for sedentism and the spread of agriculture as a long term process are discussed. Keywords: East Asia, China, Yangtze region, sixth millennium BC, fifth millennium BC, rice, foraging, cultivation, origins of agriculture, Presumed domestication In some legal traditions, people are presumed innocent until proven guilty. In the study of agricultural origins it is perhaps prudent to presume plants are wild until evidence [...]

Cuisine, argues the author, is like language--it can be adopted, adapted or modified through time. The evidence from actual words for food is also used, together with seed assemblages and types of pottery to chronicle changing food cultures in Neolithic and later India. While some new food ideas (like African millets) were incorporated into existing agricultural practice as substitute crops, others such as the horsegram and mungbean appear to have moved from south to north with their pots (and probably the appropriate recipes) as a social as well as a dietary innovation. Keywords: Neolithic, India, palaeobotany, agriculture, food culture, culinary practice, Introduction We all recognise that culinary practice, or cuisine, selected foods and the way they are prepared and flavoured is regionally and culturally distinctive. We have a sense of what [...]

Published by Cambridge University Press, 26 October 2018.In the article by Brass et al. (2018), the affiliation and funding information supplied for Iwona Kozieradzka-Ogunmakin was incorrect. The correct affiliation is [...]

The systematic collection of archaeobotanical evidence through flotation at Harappa has the potential to make important contributions to our understanding of the subsistence base of the Indus civilization (Miller & [...]