On the role of millet in the Don forest-steppe region population diet in the Bronze and Early Iron Age according to bioarchaeological studies

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to find out in what historical period millet penetrates the forest-steppe Don region (Central Black Earth Region) and becomes the basis of the plant diet of region population. For this purpose, an isotope analysis was carried out on 25 samples of human remains, as well as the bones of four animals discovered in burials of the Pre-Scythian period. The studied materials come from the Bronze Age — Early Iron Age (3rd millennium BC — 8th century BC) barrow field — Filatovka (Lipetsk region) and the Sarmatian period (1st–2nd centuries) cemetery without mounds of the Maloye Storozhevoye hillfort (Voronezh region). For comparison, we used nitrogen and carbon stable isotopes data for individuals of the Bronze Age and Early Iron Age of Don forest-steppe region, obtained earlier. The first traces of the systematic millet consumption were recorded among people from Pre-Scythian period (8th–7th centuries BC) burials. In Scythian times, millet formed the basis of preferences in plant foods for a significant part of the studied individuals, and by the beginning of our era in the analyzed materials, millet displaces other plant crops from the nutritional complex, which we consider as a cultural adaptation to the conditions of climate aridization.

Keywords

• cultural adaptation
• trophic models
• nitrogen and carbon stable isotope analysis
• don forest-steppe region
• late bronze and early iron age populations