Project description
Solving ancient agriculture’s mystery
As humanity faces the urgent challenge of securing food sources amid climate fluctuations, the critical role of crop diversification comes to the forefront. However, gaps in our understanding persist regarding the adoption and abandonment of staple foods over time. Previous studies shed light on primary crop dispersals, yet the reasons behind the integration and subsequent abandonment of new foods remain remarkably unclear. Funded by the European Research Council, the MILWAYS project seeks to bridge this research gap through an in-depth historical examination of broomcorn millet. The project uses innovative methodologies to trace the plant’s journey across eastern-central Europe, unravelling the intricate interplay of cultural and climatic factors in past staple food dynamics.
Objective
Crop diversification critically mitigates agricultural risk for humanity. Identifying the environmental and cultural factors influencing the adoption and abandonment of staple foods through time is essential to an informed discussion about present-day food security and adaptation to a changing global climate. Past studies on ancient agriculture have identified the routes and timing of primary crop dispersals, but we possess a remarkably narrow understanding on how and why new foods were integrated and later abandoned by societies, and why certain crops remained restricted to distinct geographical regions.
The MILWAYS project is perfectly poised to fill this alarming gap in knowledge, though a multi-faceted investigation of a specific crop - broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum) - which, due to its unique biochemical properties, is traceable across space and time. Making use of multi-disciplinary cutting edge research methodologies, MILWAYS will bridge a large geographic territory and track the earliest millet dispersals across eastern-central Europe from the mid. 2nd mill. BCE onwards all the way to past millet cultivation limit. MILWAYS will utilize the high carbon isotope values of millet, resulting from its C4-photosynthetic pathway in conjunction with the distinct miliacin biomarker in order to identify its consumption, with respect to shifting climates, human mobility, demographic categories of sex, age and changes of plant use across historical times.
Along with transforming the approaches on how we study past agriculture, MILWAYS will: a) Identify the interplay of cultural versus climatic factors in past staple food adoption and abandonment; b) Develop novel methodologies to the study of past diets and climates that are highly transferable to the study of other crops; c) Better understand millet environmental adaptation in northern latitudes; d) Create models of past and future crop exploitation strategies.
Fields of science
Keywords
Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC GrantsHost institution
01513 Vilnius
Lithuania