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From ecological opportunism to multi-cropping: Mapping food globalisation in prehistory

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Liu, X 
Jones, PJ 
Motuzaite Matuzeviciute, G 
Hunt, HV 
Lister, DL 

Abstract

Many of today's major food crops are distributed worldwide. While much of this ‘food globalisation’ has resulted from modern trade networks, it has its roots in prehistory. In this paper, we examine cereal crops that moved long distances across the Old World between 5000 and 1500 BC. Drawing together recent archaeological evidence, we are now able to construct a new chronology and biogeography of prehistoric food globalisation. Here we rationalize the evidence for this process within three successive episodes: pre-5000 BC, between 5000 and 2500 BC, and between 2500 and 1500 BC. Each episode can be characterized by distinct biogeographical patterns, social drivers of the crop movements, and ecological constraints upon the crop plants. By 1500 BC, this process of food globalisation had brought together previously isolated agricultural systems, to constitute a new kind of agriculture in which the bringing together of local and exotic crops enables a new form of intensification.

Description

Keywords

Anthropocene, Paleogeography, Global, Archaeobotany, Food globalisation in prehistory, Millet, Wheat and barley, Rice, Sorghum

Journal Title

Quaternary Science Reviews

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0277-3791
1873-457X

Volume Title

206

Publisher

Elsevier
Sponsorship
European Research Council (249642)
The authors are grateful to the European Research Council, under grant 249642, “Food Globalisation in Prehistory” (FOGLIP, PI: M. K. Jones); the Leverhulme Trust, under grant f/09717/C, “Pioneers of Pan-Asian Contact”(PPAC, PI: M. K. Jones); the National Science Foundation, under grant 1826727, “The origins and spread of millet cultivation” (PI: X. Liu); the Rae and Edith Bennett Travelling Scholarship (P. J. Jones); the International Center for Energy, Environment and Sustainability (InCEES, PI: X. Liu), Washington University in St Louis; and the European Social Fund, under grant 09.3.3-LMT-K-712 “Improvement of researchers' qualification by implementing world-class R&D projects” (PI: G. Motuzaite Matuzeviciute) and Darwin College, Cambridge for financial support.