Abstract
Large scale sampling for plant remains at Miri Qalat indicates that agriculture based on naked wheat and naked and hulled barley was practised between the 4th and the 2nd millennia B.C. Other cultivated plants identified areLens culinaris (lentil),Pisum sativum (pea),Linum usitatissimum (flax),Vilis vinifera (grape) andCoriandrum salivum (coriander). The only summer crop,Sesamum indicum (sesame), appears during the second half of the 3rd millennium. Gathered edible fruits includeCordia, Grewia andNannorrhops ritchieana.Phoenix dactylifera (dates) may also have been gathered rather than cultivated.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Baquar SR (1995) Trees of Pakistan. Their natural history, characteristics and utilization. Royal Book Company, Karachi, Pakistan
Bedigian D, Harlan JR (1986) Evidence for cultivation of sesame in the ancient world. Econ Bot 40: 137–154
Besenval R (1992a) Recent archaeological surveys in Pakistani Makran. In Jarrige C (ed) South Asian Archaeology 1989, Prehistory Press, Madison, Wisconsin, pp 25–35
Besenval R (1992b) Le peuplement ancien du Kech-Makran: travaux récents. Paléorient 18/1: 103–107
Besenval R (1994) The 1992–1993 field-seasons at Miri Qalat: new contributions to the chronology of Protohistoric settlement in Pakistani Makran. In: Parpola A, Koskikallio P (eds) South Asian Archaeology 1993, Annales Academiae Scientiarum Fennicae, Helsinki, pp 81–91
Besenval R (1995) Le peuplement de l'ancienne Gédrosie, de la protohistoire à la période islamique: travaux archéologiques récents dans la Makran pakistanais. Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres: 513–535
Besenval R (1997a) Chronology of the ancient occupation in Makran: results of the 1994 season at Miri Qalat (Pakistani Makran). In: Allchin B (ed) South Asian Archaeology 1995, Cambridge, pp 265–283
Besenval R (1997b) Entre le Sud-Est iranien et la plaine de l'Indus: le Kech-Makran. Recherches archéologiques sur le peuplement ancien d'une marche des confins indo-iraniens. In: Arts Asiatiques, Annales du musée Guimet et du musée Cernuschi 52, L'Ecole française d'Extrême-Orient, pp 5–36
Besenval R, Marquis P (1993) Excavations at Miri Qalat (Pakistani Makran): results of the first field-season (1990). In: Gail AJ, Mevissen GJR (eds) South Asian Archaeology 1991, Steiner, Stuttgart, pp 31–48
Brandis D (1911) Indian trees. An account of trees, shrubs, woody climbers, bamboos and palms indigenous or commonly cultivated in the British Indian Empire. Constable, London
Buxó R (1997) Arqueologia de las plantas: La explotación económica de las semillas y los frutos en el marco mediterráneo de la Peninsula Ibérica. Critica, Grijalbo, Mondadori, Barcelona
Chabal L (1997) Forêts et sociétés en Languedoc (Néolithique finale, Antiquité tardive) L'anthracologie, méthode et paléoécologie. Documents d'Archéologie Française, Editions de la Maison des Sciences de l'Homme, Paris
Charles MP (1989) Agriculture in lowland Mesopotamia in the Late Uruk/Early Dynastic period. Doctoral thesis, Institute of Archaeology, University College London
Costantini L (1979) Plant remains at Pirak, Pakistan. In: Jarrige J-F, Santoni M, Enault JF (eds) Fouilles de Pirak vol. 1, Boccard, Paris, pp 326–333
Costantini L (1981) Palaeoethnobotany at Pirak: a contribution to the 2nd millennium B.C. agriculture of the Sibi-Kacchiplain. In: Härtel H (ed) South Asian Archaeology 1979, Reimer, Berlin, pp 271–277
Costantini L (1984) The beginning of agriculture in the Kachi plain: the evidence of Mehrgarh. In: Allchin B (ed) South Asian Archaeology 1981, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 29–33
Costantini L (1990) Harappan agriculture in Pakistan: the evidence of Nausharo. In: Taddei M (ed) South Asian Archaeology 1987, Istituto italiano per il Medio ed il Estremo Orientale, Rome, pp 321–332
Costantini L (1991) Agricoltora e ambiente della piana di Mehrgarh (Pakistan) durante il IV–III millenio a.C. In: Queiroga F, Dinis AP (eds) Paleoecologia e Arqueologia 2, Vila Nova de Famalicão, pp 173–186
Costantini L, Costantini-Biasini L (1985) Agriculture in Baluchistan between the 7th and the 3rd millennium BC. Newsletter of Baluchistan Studies 2: 16–30
Guest E (1966) Flora of Iraq Volume 1. Ministry of Agriculture, Baghdad
Harris DR, Gosden C (1996) The beginnings of agriculture in western Central Asia. In: Harris DR (ed) The origins and spread of agriculture and pastoralism in Eurasia. UCL, London, pp 370–389
Jones G, Halstead P (1995) Maslins, mixtures and monocrops: on the interpretation of archaeobotanical crop samples of heterogenous composition. J Arch Sci 22: 103–114
Kajale M (1991) Current status of Indian palaeoethnobotany: introduced and indigenous food plants with a discussion of the historical and evolutionary development of Indian agriculture and agricultural systems in general. In: Renfrew JM (ed) New light on early farming: recent developments in palaeoethnobotany. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, pp 155–189
Kislev ME (1988) Nabal Hemar Cave: desiccated plant remains, an interim report. Atiqot 38. Department of Antiquities and Museums, Jerusalem: 76–81
Meadow R H (1996) The origins and spread of agriculture and pastoralism in northwestern South Asia. In: Harris DR (ed) The origins and spread of agriculture and pastoralism in Eurasia. University College (UCL), London, pp 390–412
Miller AG, Morris M (1988) Plants of Dhofar, the southern region of Oman, traditional and economic uses. Office of The Adviser for Conservation of the Environment, Diwan of Royal Court, Sultanate of Oman
Nesbitt M (1993a) Ancient crop husbandry at Kaman-Kalehöyük: 1991 archaeobotanical report. In: Mikasa T (ed) Essays on Anatolian archaeology. Bulletin of the Middle Eastern Culture Center in Japan VII. Harrasowitz, Wiesbaden, pp 75–97
Nesbitt M (1993b) Archaeobotanical evidence for early Dilmun diet at Saar, Bahrain. Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy 4: 20–47
Rowley-Conwy (1987) Remains of date (Phoenix dactilifera) from Failaka, Kuwait. In: Højlund F et al. (eds) Failaka/Dilmun, The second Millenium settlement, volume 2: the Bronze Age pottery. Jyske Arkæologisk Selskabs Skrifter 17/2, pp 181–183
Vats MS (1940) Excavations at Harappa. Manager of Publications, Government of India, Delhi
Vishnu-Mittre, Savithri R (1982) Food economy of the Harappans. In: Possehl G L (ed) Harappan civilization — a contemporary perspective. Oxford and IBH, New Delhi, pp 205–221
Weber SA (1991) Plants and Harappan subsistence. Oxford and IBH, New Delhi
Willcox G (1992) Some differences between crops of near Eastern origin and those from the tropics. In: Jarrige C (ed) South Asian archaeology 1989. Monographs in World Archaeology 14, Prehistory Press, Madison, pp 292–300
Zohary D, Spiegel-Roy P (1975) Beginnings of fruit growing in the Old World. Science 187: 319–327
Zohary D, Hopf M (1994) Domestication of plants in the Old World. The origin and spread of cultivated plants in West Asia, Europe and the Nile Valley. 2nd edn, Clarendon Press, Oxford
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Tengberg, M. Crop husbandry at Miri Qalat Makran, SW Pakistan (4000–2000 B.C.). Veget Hist Archaebot 8, 3–12 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02042836
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02042836