What traveled along the Silk Roads with silk?
Apricot pits and nutshells help archaeologists trace trade links between valleys, mountain settlements and distant cuisines.
Nakhodka in a high mountain city
In medieval Tashbulak on the territory of modern Uzbekistan, researchers found remains of grapes, apples and melons, apricot and peach seeds, walnut and pistachio shells. The study was published in 2018. This set shows the diversity of food approximately a thousand years ago: people used fruit crops along with grains and legumes. Small finds add to the written evidence of trade.
The path from the valley up
The settlement is located at approximately 2100 meters. For many of the fruit crops discovered, this is above suitable growing sites, so the authors assume that the harvest is delivered from below. The result is a history of local exchange within a large network of routes. From one layer of finds it is impossible to reconstruct the exact path of each fruit, but you can see the connection between the mountain city and the agricultural areas.
The landscape also keeps traces of people
Max Planck's research program examines the foothills of Central Asia as an area of long-term interaction between forests, agriculture and pastoralism. People collected fruits, used wood, cleared areas and changed vegetation. Behind the modern picture of a mountain valley there are therefore different stages of farming. The juxtaposition of a completely untouched nature and a completely artificial garden does not convey this complex story well.
How to read the history of familiar products
Compare two scales: the origin of the plant and the spread of culture by people. Between them may lie centuries of selection, transportation and development of new places. Apricot in today's kitchen is a convenient reason to ask how these spaces are connected. But the archaeological narrative relates to the history of the species and the trade; The origin of a specific package is determined separately based on the batch information.
The main thing in practice
- Food archeology relies on material finds.
- The trade network included exchanges between neighboring valleys and mountains.
- The history of culture is broader than the country of current production.
Sources
- Origins and Spread of Eurasian Fruits Traced to the Ancient Silk Road — Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology
- Anthropogenic Landscapes of the Silk Road — Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology