PAST & FUTURE MILLET FOODWAYS (MILWAYS),
No. 101087964 (PI: Giedre Motuzaite Matuzeviciute Keen).
The MILWAYS project will use broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum) – and will bridge a large geographic territory tracking the earliest millet dispersals across eastern-central Europe from the mid. 2nd mill. BCE onwards along the south-north axis all the way to millet cultivation limit. MILWAYS will utilize the high carbon isotope values of millet, resulting from its C4-photosynthetic pathway in conjunction with the distinct miliacin biomarker in order to identify its consumption, with respect to shifting climates, human mobility, demographic categories of sex, age and changes of plant use across historical times.
European Research Council, Consolidator Grant 2022 (ERC CoG 101087964 ) – Start date: 1 June. 2023
Regional focus:
East and Central Europe that includes: Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Moldova, Ukraine.
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METHODS
WP 1 Project coordination and management
WP 2 Earliest wave of broomcorn millet spread north
This work aims to detect the earliest signs of millet use and to identify how millet consumption varied among individuals of different sex, age, and social classes, and determine if the millet eaters were local or non-local and what biological sex they belonged to.
WP 2.4 Chronological attribution of pre-Bronze age shards with millet impressions
WP 3 Analysis of climate change and links with millet cultivation
This WP will determine the relationship between climate and agricultural behaviours of past populations and reconstruct the ecological conditions that facilitated the spread of millet in the past.
WP 3.3 Pollen analysis and radiocarbon dating
WP 4 Millet cultivation history though historical and archaeobotanical datasets
This WP will reconstruct the history of millet cultivation and variation in its exploitation and status during the historical period though a detailed investigation of historical and archaeological sources. This newly reconstructed history will be analysed in the light of climatic records, changes in the exploitation of other foods and technological advancements.
WP 4.2 Social and environmental aspects of millet use though time via archaeobotanical research
WP 5 Millet adaptation in marginal environments though physiology
This work package will determine the interplay of cultural, environmental and plant physiological factors in millet cultivation in northern latitudes by studying millet crop adaptation at different day length regimes between 55-60°N during June-September months. This sub-package will use laboratory controls on millet accessions stored in gene banks from different geographical locales and conduct phenotyping determination for the influence of day length and temperature on millet flowering which are the key limiting factors to crops dispersal in northernly latitudes26,88.
WP 6 Future millet exploitation strategies
Drawing on the results of all the prior work packages, I will dissect the interplay between human diet, geographical origins and cultural versus climatic factors in crop adoption and abandonment over time, generating cultural and ecological models that could be used to form cultivation strategies for millet and other novel or forgotten crops for future exploitation by humanity.
PROJECT DISSEMINATION
Editor of a special issues
- Motuzaitė Matuzevičiūtė, G., Liu, X. Editor of a special Issue "Millet and Pseudocereals: New Insights into Archaeobotany, Plant Domestication and Global Foodways". MDPI: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/agronomy/special_issues/millet_archaeobotany_domestication_foodways.
Publications
- Motuzaitė Matuzevičiūtė, G. 2024. Broomcorn millet: From Past to Future. Archaeology of Food and Foodways. DOI: 10.1558/aff.27126.
- Shoda, S., Murakami, N., Ananyevskaya, E., Lukpanova, Y., Talbot, H.M., Craig, O.E., Motuzaitė Matuzevičiūtė, G. 2024. Steppe Nomads and Millet Porridge. In: New Developments in Archaeological Sciences in East Asia, edited by Yoneda M., Sasaki Y., Gakuhari T. Tokyo: Yuzankaku, p. 88-96 (in Japanese). ISBN: 9784639029700.
- Motuzaitė Matuzevičiūtė, G., Laužikas, R. 2023. A Brief History of Broomcorn Millet Cultivation in Lithuania. Agronomy, 13(8), 2171. DOI: 10.3390/agronomy13082171.
Invited lectures
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Giedrė Motuzaitė Matuzevičiūtė: Mitai ir realybė apie mūsų protėvių paleomitybą: trumpa Homo sapience "sėkmės" istorija. The Leaders Club, Hotel Vilonas, Vilnius (Lithuania). June 6, 2023.
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Giedrė Motuzaitė Matuzevičiūtė: δ2H isotope analysis for reconstructing the past environments of millet cultivation, in ERC_StG RAINDROPS workshop Recent advances on stable isotope analysis on modern and archaeological plant remains. Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Campus Ciutadella, Barcelona (Spain). June 16, 2023.
- Giedrė Motuzaitė Matuzevičiūtė: Just a minor crop? The past and future foodways of broomcorn millet in Europe. KEW Gardens, Londonas (UK). July 13, 2023.
- Giedrė Motuzaitė Matuzevičiūtė: Panel discussion on "Food security and the bioeconomy". Vilnius conference (https://vilniusconference.lt/). Vilnius (Lithuania). September 8, 2023.
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Giedrė Motuzaitė Matuzevičiūtė: A Biomolecular approach to millet journey across time and space. ISBA 10: New Horizons in Biomolecular Archaeology Estonian National Museum, Tartu (Estonia). September 13, 2023.
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