Prehistoric Millet Cuisine: Diversity across Eurasia

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Archaeology of Food and Foodways: Emerging Trends and New Perspectives" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum) was first domesticated in northern China and spread both to east and to west during the mid-Holocene. Recent developments in biomolecular analytical techniques have enabled archaeologists to investigate prehistoric millet cuisines by examining the organic residues absorbed by the pottery. While the detection of miliacin, which is considered as the biomarker of broomcorn millet grains, in the pottery itself, and in charred deposits on the inner walls (foodcrusts), provides direct evidence of millet cooking using pottery, compound-specific carbon isotope analysis on the same extracts also detects other ingredients mixed with the millet, such as animal fats or dairy products. By doing so, this paper highlights the clear regional difference in millet cuisine in Bronze Age–Iron Age Eurasia, from the east in Japan and Korea, and west in Kazakhstan.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Archaeology of Food and Foodways: Emerging Trends and New Perspectives   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38744.0