PAST & FUTURE MILLET FOODWAYS

Descripción del proyecto

Resolución del misterio de la agricultura antigua

A medida que la humanidad se enfrenta al reto urgente de asegurar las fuentes de alimentos en medio de las fluctuaciones climáticas, el papel crítico de la diversificación de cultivos pasa a un primer plano. Sin embargo, siguen existiendo lagunas en nuestra comprensión sobre la adopción y el abandono de alimentos básicos a lo largo del tiempo. Estudios anteriores arrojan luz sobre las dispersiones de cultivos primarios, pero las razones que subyacen a la integración y el abandono posterior de nuevos alimentos permanecen extraordinariamente poco claras. El equipo del proyecto MILWAYS, financiado por el Consejo Europeo de Investigación, pretende colmar esta laguna investigadora mediante un examen histórico en profundidad del mijo común. El equipo utiliza metodologías innovadoras para rastrear el viaje de la planta a través de Europa central y oriental, desentrañando la intrincada interacción de factores culturales y climáticos en la dinámica de los alimentos básicos del pasado.

Objetivo

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.