Throughout history, humans cultivated thousands of plant species for food, often integrating diverse, resilient crops adapted to local climates and cultural preferences. However, today, we have forgotten most of those species and rely fully on a few water and nutrient-demanding crops. Understanding the factors that shaped the adoption, spread, and eventual abandonment of staple crops in the past is therefore critical to informing sustainable food systems and agricultural adaptation strategies today.
Broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum), domesticated in northern China over 7,000 years ago, represents one of the least understood examples of crop dispersal and adaptation. As the first major cereal to spread across Eurasia, millet reached as far north as 60°N latitude—an exceptional feat for a thermophilic C4 plant. Despite its proven resilience, short growth cycle, and superior nutritional profile, millet’s cultivation and status in Europe declined sharply in modern times, with the crop now virtually absent from regions where it once thrived.
The MILWAYS project addresses this knowledge gap by investigating the environmental, cultural, and physiological factors that influenced millet’s integration and decline across Europe from the 2nd millennium BCE to modern times. Through a highly interdisciplinary and innovative approach, MILWAYS seeks to uncover why, how, and by whom millet was adapted, rejected, or abandoned, and to explore its potential as a climate-resilient crop for the future.
Millet’s unique biochemistry makes it ideal for tracing across time and space. Its C4 photosynthesis results in higher carbon isotopic values than C3 plants, and it contains the durable miliacin biomarker, both detectable in various anthropic contexts. MILWAYS combines these signals with archaeological, demographic, and paleoclimate data to reconstruct millet’s history at an unprecedented resolution. The project also links millet’s physiological adaptation to its geographic spread by studying its performance under different daylight and temperature conditions in controlled experiments. Historical texts and archaeobotanical data provide cultural context, showing how millet’s status shifted from staple to marginal food and how these changes correlated with climate fluctuations, migration, and evolving cultures.
The MILWAYS project has four main scientific objectives:
1. Identify the mechanisms of crop adoption and abandonment over time: By linking human dietary patterns, mobility, demographics (age, sex, social status), and environmental change on a local scale, the project will uncover how cultural and climatic factors shaped millet use.
2. Develop novel methodologies for studying past diets and climates: Combining stable isotopes, biomarkers, proteomics, palaeoclimate reconstruction, and archaeobotanical evidence, MILWAYS introduces cutting-edge, integrative methods transferable to other crops and contexts.
3. Advance understanding of millet physiology and its adaptation limits: Controlled experiments and genetic studies of millet landraces will clarify how the crop adapted to high latitudes, informing strategies to exploit its potential under current and future climatic conditions.
4. Build predictive models of crop exploitation for sustainable food systems: Using historical, environmental, and cultural data, the project will develop models to guide re-integration of neglected, resilient crops like millet into modern agriculture.
Geographically, MILWAYS focuses on eastern-central Europe, from Ukraine and Moldova through Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia, up to the climatic limit of historical millet cultivation near Estonia. This region encompasses key zones of early millet adoption and areas where its decline remains poorly understood, providing a unique opportunity to study the interaction of environmental thresholds and cultural choices.
MILWAYS reveals the complex interactions between humans, crops, and environments by analysing the causes of biodiversity change over thousands of years. Along with developing novel methodologies in studying past human diet, MILWAYS provides a comprehensive understanding of millet’s role in past food systems and its potential for the future. By investigating why millet succeeded or failed in various cultural and environmental settings, the project addresses critical questions about food security, biodiversity, and climate adaptation. Findings will inform sustainable agriculture by identifying neglected, low-input crops suited to marginal environments and changing climates.
