![]() ![]() The proximity to both the Fertile Crescent a region important for the development of agriculture 13 and to Silk Road exchange routes 14 underlies the importance of these locations to processes of domestication, adaptation, and timing of distribution events. The Armenian Highlands, which includes Areni-1, and the Caucasus in general are interesting locations where wild relatives of many cereals are widely represented. Among the cereals recovered were grains that were identified morphometrically as P. Plant remains recovered from Areni-1 include vast quantities of well-preserved desiccated and charred seeds, fruits, stones (endocarps), and stems of both wild and cultivated plants 11. Excavations at Areni-1 have uncovered a long history of occupations spanning approximately 6000 years. italica moved towards Europe is not well understood but was likely driven by mobile pastoralists who migrated along the mountain foothill ecotone of Central Asia, a path that later became one of the Silk Road trade routes 2, 10.Īreni-1 is a three-chambered karstic cave (also known as Birds’ Cave: 39° 43′ 53″ N, 45° 12′ 13″ E), located on the left bank of the Arpa River basin, a tributary of the river Araxes, within the eastern portion of the modern village of Areni in southern Armenia. ![]() The timing and mechanism by which the cultivation of P. italica spread to much of Eurasia where these cereals became important food sources 2. From domestication centres in Northern China, the cultivation of P. italica was first domesticated in the same region at approximately 7000–4000 BCE 9. miliaceum was being farmed as early as 5880 BCE 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, while S. Both of these millets were domesticated in Northern China with archaeological evidence indicating that P. Two millets commonly grown throughout much of Eurasia in antiquity were P. and Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench, are characterised by their ability to be cultivated in a wide range of environments, requiring modest amounts of water, and having short growing seasons (60–90 days). Millet, along with other C4 pathway species such as Zea mays L., Saccharum officinarum L. belongs to the Chlorideae clade of Poaceae 3. The majority of cultivated millets belong to the Paniceae tribe of the Poaceae family and include Panicum miliaceum L., Cenchrus americanus (L.) R.Br., and Setaria italica (L.) P. Millet is a generic term that refers to a group of small seeded grasses that were important crops in the past and remain a significant source of food and fodder in many areas of the world today 1, 2. miliaceum grains from archaeological sites can preserve DNA for at least 1000 years and serve as a genetic resource to study the domestication of this cereal crop. miliaceum contained a relatively large number of variants, 11 SNPs, not found in the domesticated accessions. The chloroplast genomes of two wild (undomesticated) accessions of P. However, in phylogenies the chloroplast genomes separated into two clades, similar to what has been reported for nuclear DNA from P. Overall, the chloroplast genomes contained a low amount of diversity with domesticated accessions separated by a maximum of 5 SNPs and little inference on demography could be made. To investigate the demographic and evolutionary history of the Areni-1 millet, we used ancient DNA extraction, hybridization capture enrichment, and high throughput sequencing to assemble three chloroplast genomes from the medieval grains and then compared these sequences to 50 modern P. ![]() miliaceum grains that were identified morphologically and 14C dated to the medieval period (873 ± 36 CE and 1118 ± 35 CE). The rich botanical material found at Areni-1 includes P. ![]() One such locale is Areni-1 an archaeological cave site in Southern Armenia, where vast quantities archaeobotanical material were well preserved via desiccation. was domesticated in northern China at least 7000 years ago and was subsequentially adopted in many areas throughout Eurasia. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |