July/August 2014 Issue

VANUATU: Most of what is known about the Lapita, the culture that colonized the remote South Pacific 3,000 years ago, comes from pots. Human remains are rare. Researchers have conducted isotopic studies on remains from the largest known Lapita cemetery—68 burials—for insight into their diet. They found that it was some time before crops were established as a significant part of the menu. The earliest colonists relied instead on a forager’s diet of fish, turtles, fruit bats, and free-range but domesticated pigs and chickens.—SAMIR S. PATEL

MONGOLIA: Adverse climate changes are often cited in the declines of civilizations—see the Indus, Ancestral Pueblo, Bronze Age Mesopotamia, Classic Maya, Tang Dynasty, and more. Surely good weather also made a mark on history. According to a study of tree rings in gnarled, ancient Siberian pines, Mongolia was pleasant—warm and wet—from 1211 to 1230, coinciding with the rise of Genghis Khan. More rain would have meant more grass, which meant more livestock, wealth, and warhorses—the engines of the Mongol army.—SAMIR S. PATEL

KAZAKHSTAN: Bands of nomadic herders were stepping stones for the spread of crops between opposite ends of Asia 5,000 years ago—the seeds of what would become the Silk Road. Archaeobotanical analysis at their seasonal camps shows that the pastoralists had access to both wheat from Central and Southwest Asia and millet from East Asia. The seeds were found only among cremation burials, so they might have served some ritual purpose. The nomads’ own agricultural tradition appears to have started 1,500 years later.—SAMIR S. PATEL