The integration of millet into the diet of Central Asian populations in the third millennium BC

Stable isotope analyses demonstrate that C 4 plants played an important dietary role in Eurasian prehistory. Uncertainty remains, however, about when and how crops were integrated into the diet of Central Asian populations. Here, authors present ? 13 15 N stable analysis human animal bone collagen from Kyrgyzstan, revealing plant—likely broomcorn millet—consumption third millennium BC. Combining this evidence with AMS radiocarbon dating peptide fingerprinting demonstrates millet was consumed by humans animals during earliest episodes westward spread crop plant. The results contribute to debates timing means which domesticated millets dispersed across Eurasia.