Author:
Bates J.,Petrie C.A.,Singh R.N.
Abstract
Abstract
Several major cereal groups have been identified as staples used by the pre-urban, urban and post-urban phase populations of the Indus Civilisation (3200–1500 BCE): wheat, barley, a range of small hulled millets and also rice, though their proportional exploitation is variable across space and over time. Traditional quantification methods examine the frequency, intensity and proportionality of the use of these crops and help ascertain the ‘relative importance’ of these cereals for Indus populations. However, this notion of ‘importance’ is abstracted from the daily lives of the people using these crops and may be biased by the differential production (as well as archaeological survival) of individual cereals. This paper outlines an alternative approach to quantifying Indus cereals by investigating proportions of calories. Cereals are predominantly composed of carbohydrates and therefore provided much of the daily caloric intake among many late Holocene farming populations. The four major cereal groups cultivated by Indus farmers, however, vary greatly in terms of calories per grain, and this has an impact on their proportional input to past diets. This paper demonstrates that, when converted to proportions of calories, the perceived ‘importance’ of cereals from five Indus sites changes dramatically, reducing the role of the previously dominant small hulled millet species and elevating the role of Triticoid grains. Although other factors will also have affected how a farmer perceived the role and importance of a crop, including its ecological tolerances, investments required to grow it, and the crop’s role in the economy, this papers suggests that some consideration of what cereals meant in terms of daily lives is needed alongside the more abstracted quantification methods that have traditionally been applied.
Funder
Arts and Humanities Research Council
Rouse-Ball Research Fund
Cambridge India Partnership Fund
Division of Archaeology Fieldwork Fund
Trinity College, University of Cambridge (GB) Projects Fund
UK-India Education and Research Initiative
British Academy (GB) Stein Arnold Fund
Isaac Newton Trust
McDonald Institute for Archaeology Fund, University of Cambridge
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Subject
Archeology,Anthropology,Archeology
Reference78 articles.
1. Ali Y, Atta BM, Akhter J, Monneveux P, Lateef Z (2008) Genetic variability, association and diversity studies in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) germplasm. Pak J Bot 40:2087–2097
2. Appadurai A (1981) Gastro-politics in Hindu South Asia. Am Ethnol 8:494–511
3. Bates, J. (2016) Social organisation and change in Bronze Age South Asia: a multi-proxy approach to urbanisation, deurbanisation and village life through phytolith and macrobotanical analysis. PhD Thesis, University of Cambridge.
4. Bates J, Petrie CA, Singh RN (2017a) Approaching rice domestication in South Asia: new evidence from Indus settlements in northern India. J Archaeol Sci 78:193–201. doi:
10.1016/j.jas.2016.04.018
5. Bates J, Petrie CA, Singh RN (2017b) Exploring Indus crop processing: combining phytolith and macrobotanical analyses to consider the organisation of agriculture in northwest India c. 3200–1500 BC. Veg Hist Archaeobot 26(1):25–41. doi:
10.1007/s00334-016-0576-9
Cited by
14 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献