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Food globalization in southern Central Asia: archaeobotany at Bukhara between antiquity and the Middle Ages

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Mir Makhamad,  Basira
Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, Max Planck Society;
Domestication and Anthropogenic Evolution Research Group, Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, Max Planck Society;

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Spengler III,  Robert N.
Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, Max Planck Society;
Domestication and Anthropogenic Evolution Research Group, Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, Max Planck Society;

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Citation

Mir Makhamad, B., Stark, S., Mirzaakhmedov, S., Rahmonov, H., & Spengler III, R. N. (2023). Food globalization in southern Central Asia: archaeobotany at Bukhara between antiquity and the Middle Ages. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, 15(8): 124, pp. 1-18. doi:10.1007/s12520-023-01827-z.


Cite as: https://hdl.handle.net/21.11116/0000-000D-7C38-A
Abstract
The Silk Road is a modern name for a globalization phenomenon that marked an extensive network of communication and exchange in the ancient world; by the turn of the second millennium AD, commercial trade linked Asia and supported the development of a string of large urban centers across Central Asia. One of the main arteries of the medieval trade routes followed the middle and lower Zarafshan River and was connected by mercantile cities, such as Samarkand and Bukhara. Bukhara developed into a flourishing urban center between the fourth and sixth centuries AD, served as the capital of the Samanid court between AD 893 and 999, and remained prosperous into the Qarakhanid period (AD 999–1220), until the Mongol invasion in AD 1220. We present the first archaeobotanical study from this ancient center of education, craft production, artistic development, and commerce. Radiocarbon dates and an archaeological chronology that has been developed for the site show that our samples cover a range between the third and eleventh centuries AD. These samples from Bukhara represent the richest systematically collected archaeobotanical assemblage thus far recovered in Central Asia. The assemblage includes spices and both annual and perennial crops, which allowed Sogdians and Samanids to feed large cities in river oases surrounded by desert and arid steppe and supported a far-reaching commercial market in the first millennium AD.