Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-dfsvx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T23:17:29.647Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Some recent Discoveries of Millet (Panicum Miliaceum L. and Setaria italica (L.) P. Beauv.) at Excavations in Turkey and Iran

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

Mark Nesbitt  and
G. D. Summers
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Although a relatively unimportant crop in the Near East, millet has an especially interesting history that may throw some light on the cultural relationships of the Middle–Late Bronze Ages and the Iron Age. Thus the prompt, separate, publication of a large deposit of foxtail millet (Setaria italica (L.) P. Beauv.), recently identified from an Iron Age level at Tille Höyük, seems justified. This is the first find of the cereal in such large quantities—definitely as a crop—from the Near East or Greece. The rest of the plant remains from this level will be published in conjunction with the rich samples that are expected to be found in the massive Late Bronze Age burnt level at Tille. The opportunity is also taken in this paper to present other previously unpublished millet samples, from second millennium B.C. levels at Haftavan Tepe, northwestern Iran, and from Hellenistic, Roman and Medieval levels at Aşvan Kale, eastern Turkey.

A full discussion of these criteria will be included in the first author's forthcoming publication of the Aşvan plant remains. Knörzer (1971) has published a useful key to millet seeds. Three genera of millets (all belonging to the tribe Paniceae of the grass family) have grains of the relatively wide, large embryoed type discussed here.

Type
Research Article
Information
Anatolian Studies , Volume 38 , December 1988 , pp. 85 - 97
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute at Ankara 1988

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Baytop, A. 1969. “The genus Setaria in Turkey.” Istanbul Üniversitesi Eczacılık Fakültesi Mecmuası (Journal of Faculty of Pharmacy of Istanbul University) 5(1): 34–45.Google Scholar
Bedigian, D. 1985. “Is še-gišs-ì sesame or flax?”. Bulletin on Sumerian Agriculture 2: 159–78.Google Scholar
Bray, F. 1984. Science and civilization in China, Volume 6. Biology and biological technology. Part II. Agriculture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Burney, C. A. 1970. “Excavations at Haftavan Tepe 1968: first preliminary report.” Iran 8: 157–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burney, C. A. 1975. “Excavations at Haftavan Tepe 1973: fourth preliminary report.” Iran 13: 149–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burney, C. A. 1976. “Haftavan Tepe.” Iran 14: 157–8.Google Scholar
Chang, K. C. 1973. “Radiocarbon dates from China: some initial interpretations.” Current Anthropology 14(5): 525–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Columella, . De re rustica. Volumes I–III. London: Heinemann, Loeb Library. 1941–1955.Google Scholar
Costantini, L. and Biasini, L.. 1984. VI. 2. resti vegetali dei saggi a Qal'eh Ismail Aqa e a Tappeh Giljar. In (Pecorella, P. E. and Salvini, M.) Tra lo Zagros e L'Urmia: ricerche storiche ed archeologiche nell'Azerbaigian Iraniano. Rome: Edizioni dell'Ateneo, pp. 397–402.Google Scholar
Edwards, M. 1981. “Pottery from Haftavan VIB (Urmia Ware).” Iran 19: 101–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Edwards, M. 1983. Excavations in Azerbaijan (North-western Iran). Haftavan, period VI. Oxford: BAR International Series 182.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Edwards, M. 1986. “‘Urmia ware’ and its distribution in North-western Iran in the second millennium B.C.: a review of the results of excavations and surveys.” Iran 24: 57–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Germer, R. 1985. Flora des pharaonischen Ägypten. Mainz: Philipp von Zabern. Deutsches Archäologisches Institut Abteilung Kairo, Sonderschrift 14.Google Scholar
Gimbutas, M. 1974. “Achilleion: a Neolithic mound in Thessaly; preliminary report on 1973 and 1974 excavations.” Journal of Field Archaeology 1: 277–302.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gunda, B. 1983. “Cultural ecology of old cultivated plants in the Carpathian area.” Ethnologia Europaea 13: 146–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Halstead, P. and Jones, G.. 1980. “Bio-archaeological remains from Assiros Toumba.” BSA 75: 265–7.Google Scholar
Hawkins, J. D. 1980/1983. Kummuḫ. RLA 6: 338–40.Google Scholar
Helbaek, H. 1966. Appendix 1. The plant remains from Nimrud. In (Mallowan, M. E. L.) Nimrud and its remains, Volume II. London: Collins, pp. 613–20.Google Scholar
Hillman, G. C. 1985. “Traditional husbandry and processing of archaic cereals in recent times: the operations, products and equipment that might feature in Sumerian texts. Part II: the free-threshing cereals.” Bulletin on Sumerian Agriculture 2: 1–31.Google Scholar
Ho, Ping-Ti. 1977. The indigenous origins of Chinese agriculture. In (Reed, C. A., ed.) Origins of agriculture. The Hague: Mouton, pp. 412–84.Google Scholar
Hopf, M. 1962. Bericht über die Untersuchung von Samen und Holzkphlenresten von der Argissa-Magula aus den präkeramischen bis mittelbronzezeitlichen Schichten. In (Milojcic, V., Boessneck, J. and Hopf, M.), Die Deutschen Ausgrabungen auf der Argissa-Magula in Thessalien I. Bonn: Rudolf Habelt, pp. 101–10.Google Scholar
Janushevitch, Z. V. 1976. Cultivated plants in the southwestern USSR according to palaeobotanical investigations. Moscow. (Cited by van Zeist 1980).Google Scholar
Jones, G. 1981. “Crop processing at Assiros Toumba—a taphonomic study.” Zeitschrift für Archäologie 15: 105–11.Google Scholar
Jones, G. 1982. “Cereal and pulse remains from Protogeometric and Geometric Iolkos, Thessaly.” Anthropologika 3: 75–8.Google Scholar
Jones, G. 1987. “Agricultural practice in Greek prehistory.” BSA 82: 115–23.Google Scholar
Jones, G., Wardle, K. A., Halstead, P. and Wardle, D.. 1986. “Crop storage at Assiros.” Scientific American 254: 84–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knörzer, K-H. 1971. “Eisenzeitliche Pflanzenfunde im Rheinland.” Bonner Jahrbücher 171: 40–58.Google Scholar
Körber-Grohne, U. 1987. Nutzpflanzen in Deutschland: Kulturgeschichte und Biologie Stuttgart: Theiss.Google Scholar
Kroll, H. 1982. “Kulturpflanzen von Tiryns.” AA: 467–85.Google Scholar
Kroll, H. 1983. Kastanas: Ausgrabungen in einem Siedlungshügel der Bronze- und Eisenzeit Makedoniens 1975–1979: die Pflanzenfunde. Berlin: Volker Spiess.Google Scholar
Kroll, H. 1984a. Bronze Age and Iron Age agriculture in Kastanas, Macedonia. In (van Zeist, W. and Casparie, W., eds.) Plants and ancient man. Rotterdam: Balkema, pp. 243–6.Google Scholar
Kroll, H. 1984b. “Zum Ackerbau gegen Ende der Mykenischen Epoche in der Argolis.”AA: 211–22.Google Scholar
Lisitsina, G. N. 1984. The Caucasus—a centre of ancient farming in Eurasia. In (van Zeist, W. and Casparie, W., eds.) Plants and ancient man. Rotterdam: Balkema, pp. 285–92.Google Scholar
Merlin, M. D. 1984. On the trail of the ancient opium poppy. London and Toronto: Associated University Presses.Google Scholar
Miller, N. F. 1982. Economy and environment of Malyan, a third millennium B.C. urban center in southern Iran. Ph.D. thesis, University of Michigan, Department of Anthropology.Google Scholar
Mitchell, S. 1980. Aşvan Kale: Keban rescue excavations, eastern Anatolia. Oxford: BAR International Series 80, British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara Monograph No. 1.Google Scholar
Piotrovsky, B. B. 1966. Il regno di Van Urartu. Rome: Edizioni dell'Ateneo.Google Scholar
Pliny, . Natural History. Volumes I–X. London: Heinemann, Loeb Library. 1938–1962.Google Scholar
Spurr, M. S. 1983. “The cultivation of millet in Roman Italy.” PBSR 51: 1–15.Google Scholar
Summers, G. D. 1982. A study of the architecture, pottery and other material from Yanik Tepe, Haftavan Tepe VIII and related sites. Ph.D. thesis submitted to the Department of Archaeology, University of Manchester (England).Google Scholar
Summers, G. D. in press. Tille Höyük: control of an Euphrates crossing. 34th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale, Istanbul 1987.Google Scholar
Tosi, M. 1975. “Hasanlu Project 1974: palaeobotanical survey.” Iran 13: 185–6.Google Scholar
Vickery, K. F. 1936. Food in early Greece. Illinois.Google Scholar
Voigt, M. M. 1983. Hajji Firuz Tepe, Iran: the neolithic settlement. Pennsylvania: University Museum.Google Scholar
de Wet, J. M. J., Oestry-Stidd, L. L. and Cubero, J.I.. 1979. “Origins and evolution of foxtail millets (Setaria italica).” Journal d'Agriculture Traditionnelle et de Botanique Appliquée 26: 53–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Zeist, W. 1980. Aperçu sur la diffusion des végétaux cultivés dans la region méditerranéenne. In Colloque de la Fondation L. Emberger sur “la mise en place, l'évolution et la caractérisation de la flore et la végétation circumméditerranéenne”. Naturalis Monspeliensia, No. Hors Série, pp. 129–45.Google Scholar
van Zeist, W. and Bakker-Heeres, J. A. H.. 1975. Prehistoric and early historic plant husbandry in the Altınova plain, southeastern Turkey. In (van Loon, M. N., ed.) Korucutepe I. Amsterdam: North Holland, pp. 225–57.Google Scholar