Plant food in the diet of the Early Iron Age pastoralists of Altai: Evidence from dental calculus and a grinding stone

Abstract

Archaeological studies have hypothesized that the diversification of production activities was an important adaptive strategy of seasonally mobile herders in the Eurasian steppe belt. The aim of this study, based on the extraction of starches and phytoliths from dental calculus and a grinding stone, was to determine the composition of plant food in the diet of ancient Altai pastoralists. Specimens of dental calculus (n = 43) and a fragment of muller, attributed to the Early Iron Age (5th c. BC – 5th c. AD) archaeological cultures of the Forest-Steppe Altai and Altai Mountains (Russia) were examined. For the analysis of extracted residuals, both optical and scanning electron microscopies were used. Seven plant species were identified in dental calculus, two of them were found on the grinding stone as well. The results of the study suggest that the Early Iron Age Altai pastoralists incorporated small-scale farming and foraging into their subsistence strategy. They consumed cultivated cereals, peas, and wild edible plants. The most important plant components of their diet were millet and underground storage organs (bulbs, roots) of wild edible plants, including kandyk (Erythronium sibiricum), lily (Lily martagon), and peony (Paeonia anomala). Young green herbs, such as nettle (Urtica dioica) and cow parsnip (Heracleum dissectum), were also consumed, though the range of green food in the analysed group can be underestimated. Millet was possibly a prestige food. The wild edible plants seem to have been gathered to diversify the pastoralist diet rather than as a “famine food”.