People already lived in a globalized world 3,500 years ago. This is the conclusion of researchers from the University of Kiel (CAU). They have been able to reconstruct in detail the diffusion of common millet and have discovered that the grain was already widespread from Asia to Central Europe at that time.
Easy to grow, short-lived and drought-resistant:common millet (Panicum miliaceum ) is one of the most valuable crops for the food supply in the world today. The peoples of the Bronze Age already appreciated these advantages, in almost all the world. This has been discovered by a team led by Professor Wiebke Kirleis, deputy spokesperson for the Collaborative Research Center (CRC) 1266 "Dimensions of Transformation" at the University of Kiel.
The Institute for Pre and Protohistoric Archeology's research on "Human-Environment Interactions in Prehistoric and Archaic Societies" has been published in the recently edited volume Millet and What Else? The Wider Context of the Adoption of Millet Cultivation in Europe .
The advantages of millet:today and then
This volume on the prehistoric spread of millet provides historical context for a recently rediscovered cereal. Not without reason, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) designated the year 2023 as “International Year of Millet”. In times of increasing global warming, millet, as a drought-resistant cereal, is supposed to ensure food for the population when other cereals fail.
Due to its short growing period of only three months, it can be used as an emergency crop in northern Europe when late frosts have destroyed other cereals. It is also easy to store. The small grains are packed in shells, which protects them from insects and fungi. Millet is also easier to prepare than other grains. It does not need to be cooked for a long time, but can be prepared by soaking it in a leather bag or in a container of hot water. This makes it a "superfood on the go" for both nomadic horsemen and sedentary farmers.
Globalization in the Bronze Age
These advantages led to a spread of common millet that is unparalleled. The resistance of millet convinced people all over the world at that time. After many years of domestication in China, it spread west in the Bronze Age , explains Dr. Dragana Filipović, associate researcher at the Institute of Pre- and Protohistoric Archaeology. We have been able to show that millet reached the northern Black Sea region around 1600 BC. and to the Po Valley, in northern Italy, around 1500. Around 1400 B.C. crossed the Alps and by 1200 finally reached northern Europe . Millet was an important source of food security throughout much of Bronze Age Europe.
We can learn something fundamental from the globalization of the Bronze Age explains Professor Kirleis. During the Bronze Age, the supply of bronze collapsed at one point, but the metal was not essential to life. Instead, the grain, which was previously imported through transregional networks, was grown by the population itself in all regions. So the supply of millet was still assured .
Supra-regional relations are of extraordinary importance, they trigger innovations and contribute to international understanding. However, the Bronze Age cases with millet and bronze illustrate the advantages of autarkic sourcing over complex trade chains. The people of the Bronze Age lived in an interconnected world just like us, but they were this important step ahead of us. They already knew that essential needs had to be met with local options Wiebke Kirleis continues. This guarantees the basis of a good life .