The wind that shakes the barley: the role of East Asian cuisines on barley grain size

ABSTRACT

This paper investigates the eastern movements of barley grains and their morphological variations in prehistory. By combining previously published and newly collected archaeobotanical grain measurements (n = 2,176), we explore the roles of culinary traditions underlying the morphological traits observed. We find that barley diminished in size as it moved from its origin in southwestern Asia to Central and East Asia between the third millennium BC and first millennium BC. In particular, the grains in Monsoonal China became greatly reduced in comparison to other regions as the crop was incorporated into eastern small grain cuisines. The reverse pattern is observed in the high-altitude Tibetan environment, which is attributed to the practicalities of cooking under low vapour pressure conditions. These results, demonstrating that barley moved eastward but western grinding and baking traditions did not, reveal the complexity of the eastern culinary system and raise awareness of decoupling of grains and their associated cuisines.

KEYWORDS:

• Barley
• food globalization
• ancient culinary practices
• grain size
• prehistory

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the National Science Foundation, under grant 1826727 [The Origins and Spread of Millet Cultivation] for financial support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Additional information

Funding

National Science Foundation, 1826727, “The origins and spread of millet cultivation”.

Notes on contributors

Melissa M. Ritchey

Melissa M. Ritchey, MA is a PhD student at the Department of Anthropology, Washington University in St. Louis.

Yufeng Sun

Yufeng Sun, MA is a PhD candidate at the Department of Anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis.

Giedre Motuzaite Matuzeviciute

Giedre Motuzaite Matuzeviciute, PhD, is senior researcher at Lithuanian Institute of History, Vilnius.

Shinya Shoda

Shinya Shoda, PhD, is a senior researcher and head of International Cooperation Section at the Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, and honorary visiting fellow at University of York.

Anil K. Pokharia

Anil K. Pokharia, PhD, is a senior scientist at the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences, Lucknow.

Michael Spate

Michael Spate, PhD, is a post-doctoral researcher at Department of Archaeology, University of Sydney.

Li Tang

Li Tang, MA, is a PhD student at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany

Jixiang Song

Jixiang Song, PhD, is an associate professor at Department of Archaeology, Sichuan University

Haiming Li

Haiming Li, PhD, is an assistant professor at the Institution of Chinese Agricultural Civilization, Nanjing Agricultural University.

Guanghui Dong

Guanghui Dong, PhD, is a professor at the Research School of Arid Environment and Climate Change, Lanzhou University.

Petra Vaiglova

Petra Vaiglova, PhD, is a post-doctoral researcher at the Department of Anthropology, Washington University in St. Louis.

Michael Frachetti

Michael Frachetti is a professor of archaeology at the Department of Anthropology, Washington University in St. Louis and a professor at the School of Cultural Heritage, Northwest University, Xi'an, China.

Xinyi Liu

Xinyi Liu, PhD, is an associate professor of archaeology at the Department of Anthropology, Washington University in St. Louis.