The first comprehensive archaeobotanical analysis of prehistoric agriculture in Kyrgyzstan

Abstract

We present here the first comprehensive archaeobotanical investigation from the prehistoric farming settlement of Chap I (1065–825 cal bce), located in a high altitude valley in the central Tien Shan mountains, Kyrgyzstan. A total of 40,651 plant remains (seeds, chaff and other plant parts) have been identified, making this archaeobotanical study the first of its kind from Kyrgyzstan to enable a wider discussion on cultivated crop taxa including diversity of varieties and morphotypes within the same crop species, along with crop cultivation and processing practices. Additionally, the analysis of wild plant taxa permits a significant interpretation of crop weeds and the surrounding landscape ecology at the site. The crop assemblage at the site is dominated by Hordeum vulgare (naked and hulled barley) varieties, consisting of thousands of individual grains and chaff fragments recovered from all analysed contexts. The other crops consist of Triticum (free-threshing and possibly glume wheats), Panicum miliaceum (broomcorn millet), Setaria italica (foxtail millet) and Pisum sativum (pea). The wild plant spectrum suggests an open landscape created by humans, dominated by water and nitrogen demanding plants that were growing in a well-watered, possibly irrigated landscape at an altitude of 2,000 m a.s.l. The weed taxa also suggest that possibly both summer and winter crops were cultivated. Finally, we provide illustrations of recovered plant remains and list crop identification criteria, aiming to facilitate future archaeobotanical research in Central Asia.