Abstract
This paper lays out archaeobotanical evidence of cereals and fruits from 5th–2nd millennium B.C. sites in Turkmenistan (Anau, Gonur) and Uzbekistan (Djarkutan). Our current research program (1989-present) focuses on systematic recovery of botanical remains in their stratigraphic context. The cereals from these sites includeHordeum vulgare L. ssp.vulgare (6-row barley) andTrilicum aestivum L. s.l. (bread wheat). The presence of plump grains of 6-row barley and bread wheat may indicate that small-scale irrigation was practised at Anau as early as the Chalcolithic period. The possibility is also raised that these plump-grained types may have come from the east rather than through northern Iran. Fruit pit remains ofVilis vinifera L. (grape) andPislacia (pistachio) make their first significant appearance in Bronze Age deposits.
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Miller, N.F. Agricultural development in western Central Asia in the Chalcolithic and Bronze Ages. Veget Hist Archaebot 8, 13–19 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02042837
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02042837