BEIJING, CHINA—According to a statement released by Antiquity, an international team of scientists, including Hongen Jiang of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Harriet Hunt and Diane Lister of Kew Gardens and Cambridge University, and Xinyi Liu of Washington University in St. Louis, combined DNA analysis of broomcorn millet and a study of the pottery used to prepare it in the Xinjiang region of northwestern China between 1700 B.C. and A.D. 700. In eastern China, this domesticated grain was boiled and steamed to produce a wet and sticky result controlled by variations in its genes. The pottery used to cook millet in eastern China had a tripod base adapted for the boiling process. In Central Asia, however, grains were typically ground and baked into bread. None of the millet recovered in Xinjiang, however, had these “sticky” genes. Pottery used to prepare millet in Xinjiang had a rounded bottom, a design that came from the Altai Mountains to the north. The researchers concluded that although millet was carried westward and adopted as a staple food, vessels and cooking traditions were not. For more on the role of millet in ancient China’s regional cuisines, go to “You Are How You Cook.”
Millet Study Reflects Ancient Regional Cooking Traditions in China
News January 26, 2024
Recommended Articles
Features November/December 2024
The Many Faces of the Kingdom of Shu
Thousands of fantastical bronzes are beginning to reveal the secrets of a legendary Chinese dynasty
Digs & Discoveries May/June 2024
Hunting Heads
Digs & Discoveries September/October 2023
A More Comfortable Ride
-
Features November/December 2023
Assyrian Women of Letters
4,000-year-old cuneiform tablets illuminate the personal lives of Mesopotamian businesswomen
(Attraction Art/Adobe Stock) -
Letter from El Salvador November/December 2023
Uneasy Allies
Archaeologists discover a long-forgotten capital where Indigenous peoples and Spanish colonists arrived at a fraught coexistence
-
Artifacts November/December 2023
Sculpture of a Fist
(Museum of Fine Arts, Boston/Bridgeman Art Library) -
Digs & Discoveries November/December 2023
The Benin Bronzes’ Secret Ingredient