Earliest millet cultivation reflects steppe connections, dietary flexibility, and resilience in Bronze Age northern Greece.

Abstract

This paper explores early broomcorn millet (hereafter millet) cultivation in Greece during the Bronze Age. The primary archaeobotanical data for this study derive from the site of Skala Sotiros on the island of Thasos in northern Greece. The site provides unique insights into localized Bronze Age agricultural practices, revealing both divergence from southern Greece agricultural systems and potential influences from exchange networks that linked northern Greece to the southern Balkans and the Pontic steppe-Black Sea region. Systematic sampling of the Bronze Age layers at Skala Sotiros has yielded a diverse assemblage with a notable abundance of millet (Panicum miliaceum), a crop almost absent from contemporary southern Greece. Recent radiocarbon dates on millet grains from Skala Sotiros contribute new evidence toward understanding the routes through which millet could have been introduced into the region during the Bronze Age. This study explores the interplay of environmental and cultural factors in the dispersal of millet in Greece, considering environmental stress, cultural dynamics, population movements, and interaction networks. The extensive review of archaeobotanical data across Greece demonstrates how the cultivation of millet may have served as a culinary identity signifier, providing further evidence of differences between northern and southern Greece.