Abstract
Abstract The Syr and Amu Darya deltas and the littoral zone of the eastern Aral Sea, from Khorezm to Kyzylorda, have attracted the attention of archaeologists for nearly a century. Since the well-known Tolstov expeditions, archaeologists have discussed the establishment of early defensive architecture and elaborate irrigation systems on the periphery of the hyper-arid Kyzyl Kum Desert. Scholars have argued over whether the ancient people in this region during the 1st mill. bc , which are often culturally ascribed to the Saka, were more nomadic or sedentary and what their political organization looked like. Thus far, archaeobotanical investigations in this region have been lacking, limiting discussions about cultural adaptation, social orders, and the dispersal routes for domesticated plants and animals. In this study, we provide the first evidence for both Hordeum vulgare (barley) and Panicum miliaceum / Setaria italica (millets) cultivation in this key cultural region, dating to the first half of the 1st mill. bc . We identified barley and millet impressions on ceramics from all sites that we studied in the region, including ceramics that archaeologists classify as both Saka and Chirik-Rabat. We argue that the ubiquity of these finds indicates a greater prominence of farming practices across the steppe ecozone than scholars have previously recognized.