Landscape footprints of peopling and colonisation from the Late Bronze Age to Antiquity in the coastal hinterland of Emporion-Emporiae, NE Iberia

The Empordà plain attests to a remarkable mixture of Late-Holocene cultural exchanges and colonial processes. This includes the founding of Emporion, the earliest Greek colony in Iberia, and of the Roman city of Emporiae. This study aims at assessing landscape changes related to indigenous and colonial settlement in this unique scenario where the shaping of cultural landscapes occurred within a dynamic coastal ecosystem. We carried out a high-temporal resolution palaeoenvironmental study in Els Estanys, a palaeowetland located in the vicinity of Emporion-Emporiae. Palynological, sedimentological and geochemical indicators were coupled with available archaeological and archaeobotanical data-sets. Between 1100 and 800 cal BC, the settling of Urnfield Late Bronze societies resulted in the sustained clearance of woodlands and moderate agropastoral exploitation of coastal ranges. During this period, marine-influenced lagoonal areas were poorly exploited. During the Iron Age (800–450 cal BC), a threshold in the landscape construction of the area occurred with the first pastoral exploitation of lagoonal areas, intensified cereal cultivation, controlled burning, and enhanced deforestation following the settlement of Iberian groups. Greek colonisation (580–200 cal BC), did not trigger intensified farming exploitation or landscape clearance, nor did it imply the introduction of new land uses or crops in the hinterland. Exploitation of the latter continued relying on cereal cultivation and grazing, as before, suggesting the permanence of indigenous landscapes and practices in the hinterland. To the contrary, urban and periurban landscapes played a significant role in the construction of the colonial landscape with the introduction of olive groves likely as ornamental trees. Roman conquest and colonisation of the area constituted a new threshold in the occupation and management of the hinterland with (1) intensified rural settlement; (2) expansion of wet pastures and removal of littoral woodlands; (3) development of diversified cropping activities; and (4) development of mining and smelting activities.

Eco-geographic patterns of child malnutrition in India and its association with cereal cultivation: An analysis using demographic health survey and agriculture datasets

Background: High prevalence of maternal malnutrition, low birth-weight and child malnutrition in India contribute substantially to the global malnutrition burden. Rural India has disproportionately higher levels of child malnutrition. Stunting and wasting are the primary determinants of child malnutrition and their district-level distribution shows clustering in different geographies and regions. Cereals, particularly millets, constitute the bulk of protein intake among the poor, especially in rural areas in India where high prevalence of wasting persists. Methods: The last round of National Family Health Survey (NFHS4) has disaggregated data by district, enabling a more fine-scale characterisation of the prevalence of markers of malnutrition. We used data from NFHS4 and agricultural statistics datasets to analyse relationship of prevalence of malnutrition at the district level and area under cereal cultivation. We analysed malnutrition through data on under-5 stunting and wasting by district. Results: Stunting and wasting patterns across districts show a distinct geographical and age distribution; districts with higher wasting showed relatively higher prevalence before six months of age. Wasting prevalence at district level was associated with higher cultivation of millets, with a stronger association seen for jowar and other millets (Kodo millet, little millet, proso millet, barnyard millet and foxtail millet). District level stunting was associated with higher district level cultivation of all crops (except other millets). The analysis was limited by lack of fine-scale data on prevalence of low birth-weight and type of cereal consumed. Conclusions: Better cereal cultivation and consumption data will be needed to confirm causal pathways contributing to potential ecogeographic patterns. The cultivation of other millets has a strong association with prevalence of wasting. State-of-the-art studies that improve our understanding of bio-availability of amino acids and other nutrients from the prevalent dietary matrices of rural poor communities will be needed to confirm causal pathways contributing to potential eco-geographic patterns.

Cereals, Rituals, and Social Structure

From the end of the Paleolithic Period onwards, cultivated cereals have interacted with ritual practices and social patterning through a variety of channels: the agrarian cycle provides a society with an array of stories and practices that are enshrined into its system of local knowledge; representations associated with grains develop into everyday practices; and cereal cultivation favorizes (or is triggered by) specific political forms, thus becoming embedded into the rituals through which political entities assert their legitimacy. Interactions between cereals, rituals, and social forms are informed by the characteristics proper to each staple cereal (maize, wheat, rice, sorghum, and millet, among others): the length of the maturation cycle, the degree of solidarity required from the rural community, the environmental requirements linked to its cultivation, its process of transformation into alcohol—all these factors inform the way a cereal inserts itself into a ritual and social complex. Starting with the changes in farming methods that coincided with the First Industrial Revolution, technological, social, and cultural transformations have been seemingly working toward the elimination or transmutation of cereal-based rituals. However, the timing, intensity, and effects of such transformations have differed widely from region to region. Besides, critical observation highlights the fact that these rituals are often hybridized, a phenomenon that repeatedly happened in history. Furthermore, current social processes affecting both producers and consumers may lead to a progressive ritualization of new beliefs and ways of proceeding.

Savanna on the Nile

This paper provides an overview of changing agricultural systems from the Neolithic to the Post-Meroitic Period in the greater Nubian region. There remain major gaps in the archaeobotanical evidence, and larger samples collected by systematic sieving and flotation are few and far between. Gaps in our knowledge include the initial establishment of the summer, sub-Saharan cereal cultivation system, but other important trends are much clearer, such as the arrival of the classic Egyptian winter cereal cultivation system of Near Eastern origin in the Late Neolithic at least in Lower Nubia; the latter of which complemented established pastoral traditions providing for the emergent political economy. The northward spread of the summer savannah crop system during the first few centuries ce formed the basis for subsequent intensification through the adoption of the cattle-powered saqia. Diversification and intensification through an integration of the summer and winter crop systems along with the development of a cash crop industry facilitated the development of Meroitic state. These processes also may have played an important role in economic changes in the Late Meroitic to Post-Meroitic transition, including the devolution of the Meroitic state. In addition to representing a long-term frontier of overlapping agricultural systems, Nubia was a frontier in cooking traditions, a crossroads between a world of bread in the North and one of liquid preparations, porridges, and beers in the South.

Timing and Pace of Neolithisation in the Dutch Wetlands (c. 5000–3500 cal. BC)

This article presents an overview of the current evidence on the process of Neolithisation in the Dutch wetlands. Over the years, several models have been proposed with different perspectives on the timing and pace of the process: a long transition, an early short transition, and a late short transition. The applicability of any of these models is, of course, dependent of the evidence. In this article, we briefly discuss recently obtained data from the Netherlands on vegetation disturbance (woodland clearing), soil disturbance (tillage), cereal cultivation, animal husbandry, and the use of ceramics. The data discussed involve palynological, sedimentary, micromorphological, archaeobotanical, zooarchaeological, as well as lipid analyses. Hence, it is concluded that from the mid fifth millennium cal. BC onwards, various aspects of a more “Neolithic lifestyle” become apparent in the archaeological record, including cereal cultivation on a structural, but small-scale basis in wetland environments. However, despite the “gradual” tendency that can be observed, the evidence is as yet inconclusive with regard to any of the models, due to persisting limitations of the datasets, potential regional variability, and aspects of scale. A new project, the Emergence of Domestic Animals in the Netherlands (EDAN), aims at a better understanding of animal husbandry through aDNA and isotope analyses, within a framework of statistical chronological modelling. We expect this project to enhance the debate greatly.

Does cereal, protein and micronutrient availability hold the key to the malnutrition conundrum? An exploratory analysis of cereal cultivation and wasting patterns of India

Background: High prevalence of maternal malnutrition, low birth-weight and child malnutrition in India contribute substantially to the global malnutrition burden. Rural India has disproportionately higher levels of child malnutrition. Stunting and wasting are the primary determinants of child malnutrition and their district-level distribution shows clustering in different geographies and regions. Methods: The last round of National Family Health Survey (NFHS4) has disaggregated data by district, enabling a more nuanced understanding of the prevalence of markers of malnutrition. We used data from NFHS4 and agricultural statistics datasets to analyse relationship of area under cereal cultivation with the prevalence of malnutrition at the district level. We analysed malnutrition through data on under-5 stunting and wasting; maternal malnutrition was assessed through prevalence of women’s low BMI and short stature by district. Results: Stunting and wasting patterns across districts show a distinct geographical and age distribution; districts with higher wasting showed relatively high prevalence of 40% before six months of age. Wasting was associated with higher cultivation of millets, with a stronger association seen for jowar and other millets (Kodo millet, little millet, proso millet, barnyard millet and foxtail millet). Stunting was associated with cultivation of all crops except other millets. Low women’s BMI was seen associated with cultivation of rice and millets. The analysis was limited by lack of fine-scale data on prevalence of low birth-weight and type of cereal consumed. Conclusions: Multi-site observational studies of long-term effects of type of cereals consumed could help explain the ecogeographic distribution of malnutrition in India. Cereals, particularly millets constitute the bulk of protein intake among the poor, especially in rural areas in India where high prevalence of wasting persists.

Time of nitrogen supply in yield, industrial and chemical quality of oat grains

ABSTRACT The timing of nitrogen application in oats can improve the efficiency of use of the nutrient and the expression of productivity and quality of grains. The objective of the study was to indicate the best time of application of nitrogen in oats, considering different conditions of nitrogen dose in the sowing/topdressing in the expression of productivity and the effects on the indicators of industrial and chemical quality of grains, considering the main succession systems of cereal cultivation in Brazil. The experiment was conducted in 2018, in Augusto Pestana, RS, Brazil. The design was randomized blocks with four repetitions, in a 3 × 4 factorial scheme, with three doses of nitrogen at sowing (0, 30 and 60 kg ha-1), changing the topdressing dose by the total supply of 70 and 100 kg ha-1 in succession system soybean/oats and corn/oats, respectively, with the timings of supply in topdressing at 0, 10, 30 and 60 days after emergence. The total doses were defined looking for grain yield expectations of 4000 kg ha-1. In the management of nitrogen in oats, the absence of the nutrient at sowing and application of the total dose in topdressing around 30 days after emergence provides advantageous results, improving productivity and indicators of industrial and chemical quality of grains.

Does cereal, protein and micronutrient availability hold the key to the malnutrition conundrum? An exploratory analysis of cereal cultivation and wasting patterns of India

Background: High prevalence of maternal malnutrition, low birth-weight and child malnutrition in India contribute substantially to the global malnutrition burden. Rural India has disproportionately higher levels of child malnutrition. Stunting and wasting are the primary determinants of malnutrition and their district-level distribution shows clustering in different geographies and regions. Methods: The last round of National Family Health Survey (NFHS4) has disaggregated data by district, enabling a more nuanced understanding of the prevalence of markers of malnutrition. We used data from NFHS4 and agricultural statistics datasets to analyse relationship of cereal cultivation with the prevalence of child malnutrition. We studied the current science on growth-related nutrient-sensing pathways to explain this pattern. Results: Stunting and wasting patterns across districts show a distinct geographical and age distribution; districts with higher wasting showed early prevalence of 40% at six months of age. Wasting was associated with higher cultivation of millets, with a stronger association seen for jowar and other millets. Low maternal BMI in districts with higher wasting could be linked to the consumption of millets as staple. We conceptualised a hypothetical schematic pathway linking early origin of wasting in children with millet-based diet, driven by inhibition of critical intra-cellular pathways controlling growth covering pre-natal, post-natal and early childhood. The analysis was limited by lack of fine-scale data on prevalence of low birth-weight and type of cereal consumed. Conclusions: Multi-site observational studies of long-term effects of type of cereals consumed could help explain the ecogeographic distribution of malnutrition in India. Cereals, particularly millets constitute the bulk of protein intake among the poor, especially in rural areas in India where wasting persists. Policies and programs targeting malnutrition need to address type of cereal consumed in order to impact childhood malnutrition in parts of India where subsistence cultivation of millets for staple consumption is prevalent.