Abstract
The mountain foothills of inner Asia have served as a corridor of communication and exchange for at least five millennia, using historically documented trade routes such as the Silk Road and the Tea-Horse Road. Recent research has illustrated the important role that this mountain corridor played in the dispersal of crops and farming technology between northeast and southwest Asia 5,000 to 1,000 years ago. However, the role of the mountain valleys along the southern rim of the Pamirs and Himalaya in facilitating crop dispersals has not yet been fully explored. Notably, ongoing debates over secondary dispersals of Hordeum (barley) and Triticum (wheat) into China and the routes of dispersal for the East Asian crops Oryza sativa (rice), Prunus persica (peach) and P. armeniaca (apricot) into northern India are continuing topics of inquiry. In this article, we add to these discussions by focusing on archaeobotanical remains from the Barikot site (ca. 1200 bce–50 ce) in the Swat valley of northern Pakistan. The Swat valley is an ancient settlement zone in the Hindu Kush-Karakoram foothills, whose cultural features have always had a strong link with inner Asia. The archaeobotanical assemblage illustrates that a diverse array of crops, with origins across Asia, were cultivated around the same settlement. Additionally, these farmers likely implemented seasonal cropping cycles and irrigation that required various labour inputs and water management regimes.
Highlights
Human populations around the world congregate in biologically rich ecotonal zones; as such, mountain foothills often represent cultural hotspots (Turner et al 2011).Communicated by F
We further explore three questions: 1, what water-demanding crops were cultivated in this semi-arid region; 2, were crop rotation cycles used; and 3, what role did arboriculture play in the economy
The Barikot settlement site is located in the Swat valley of northern Pakistan and it was occupied during the 1st millennium bce
Summary
Human populations around the world congregate in biologically rich ecotonal zones; as such, mountain foothills often represent cultural hotspots (Turner et al 2011).Communicated by F. Archaeological research across inner Asia has consistently shown high human population density throughout these ecotones between hills and lowlands, especially in river valleys or alluvial floodplains (Spengler et al 2013; Frachetti et al 2018). These river valleys have served as agricultural experimentation zones for millennia (Spengler 2019). Farmers grew both southwest and northeast Asian crops in these foothills for the first time in the late 3rd millennium bce, representing some of the earliest agriculture in Central Asia (Spengler et al 2014; Spate et al 2017; Zhou et al 2020)
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