Phytoliths as indicators of plant water availability: the case of millets cultivation in the Indus Valley civilization

The interpretation of crop water management practices has been central to the archeological debate on agricultural strategies and is crucial where the type of water strategy can provide fundamental explanations for the adoption and use of specific crops. Traces of water administration are difficult...

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Autores: D'Agostini, Francesca, Ruiz Pérez, Javier, Madella, Marco, Vadez, Vincent, Kholova, Jana, Lancelotti, Carla
Formato: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2023
País:España
Recursos:Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Repositorio:Repositorio Digital de la UPF
OAI Identifier:oai:repositori.upf.edu:10230/56200
Acesso em linha:http://hdl.handle.net/10230/56200
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.revpalbo.2022.104783
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palavra-chave:Phytolith
Water availability
C₄
Indus valley civilization
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spelling Phytoliths as indicators of plant water availability: the case of millets cultivation in the Indus Valley civilizationD'Agostini, FrancescaRuiz Pérez, JavierMadella, MarcoVadez, VincentKholova, JanaLancelotti, CarlaPhytolithWater availabilityC₄Indus valley civilizationThe interpretation of crop water management practices has been central to the archeological debate on agricultural strategies and is crucial where the type of water strategy can provide fundamental explanations for the adoption and use of specific crops. Traces of water administration are difficult to detect and are mostly indirect, in the form of water harvesting or distribution structures. Attempts have been made to infer plant water availability directly from archaeobotanical remains. Current evidence suggests that the ratio of sensitive to fixed phytolith morphotypes can be used as a proxy for water availability in C₃ crops, as well as in sorghum and maize. Nevertheless, the controversy on whether genetically and environmentally controlled mechanisms of biosilica deposition are directly connected to water availability in C₄ crops is open, and several species remain to be tested for their phytolith production in relation to water levels. This research aims at clarifying whether leaf phytolith assemblages and concentration, silica skeleton size and ratio of sensitive to fixed morphotypes can be related to different water regimes in Eleusine coracana Gaertn., Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br., and Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench. We cultivated 5 traditional landraces for each species in lysimeters, under different watering conditions and analyzed their phytolith content/production in leaves. Results show higher proportions of long cells, bulliforms and stomata produced in well watered conditions. The model built on the basis of phytolith composition has been then applied to interpret archeological phytolith assemblages recovered from a single phase at four different sites of the Indus Civilisation: Harappa, Kanmer, Shikarpur and Alamgirpur. The results show that most probably C4 crops grew under water stress conditions, providing new data on the interpretation of ancient agricultural management in the Indus Valley.We would like to thank all the GEMS team (ICRISAT) who helped during the fieldwork, particularly Rekha Baddam and Suresh Naidu as well as Dr. Krithika Anbazhagan and Dr. Sunita Choudhary whose suggestions have been invaluable and benefited the success of the study. Thanks are due to Alessandra Varalli for her support and guidance and to Carolina Jiménez-Arteaga for the fruitful discussions on millets. This work is part of the RAINDROPS project founded by the European Research Council (ERC-Stg-2017) under the grant agreement 759800. Universitata Pompeu Fabra health and safety measurements have been followed during both the fieldwork and the laboratory work. RAINDROPS has received ethical approval from the Institutional Committee for Ethical Review of Projects (CIREP) at Universitat Pompeu Fabra (ethics certificate n. 2017/7662/I). The work for this paper was carried out when F.D., J.R.P., M.M. and C.L. were members of the CaSEs (UPF), a Research Group of the Catalan Agency for Research (AGAUR SGR 212).Elsevier202320232023info:eu-repo/semantics/articleinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersionapplication/pdfapplication/pdfhttp://hdl.handle.net/10230/56200http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.revpalbo.2022.104783reponame:Repositorio Digital de la UPFinstname:Universitat Pompeu FabraInglésReview of Palaeobotany and Palynology. 2023 Feb;309:104783info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EC/FP7/759800© 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessoai:repositori.upf.edu:10230/562002026-06-12T07:21:37Z
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Phytoliths as indicators of plant water availability: the case of millets cultivation in the Indus Valley civilization
title Phytoliths as indicators of plant water availability: the case of millets cultivation in the Indus Valley civilization
spellingShingle Phytoliths as indicators of plant water availability: the case of millets cultivation in the Indus Valley civilization
D'Agostini, Francesca
Phytolith
Water availability
C₄
Indus valley civilization
title_short Phytoliths as indicators of plant water availability: the case of millets cultivation in the Indus Valley civilization
title_full Phytoliths as indicators of plant water availability: the case of millets cultivation in the Indus Valley civilization
title_fullStr Phytoliths as indicators of plant water availability: the case of millets cultivation in the Indus Valley civilization
title_full_unstemmed Phytoliths as indicators of plant water availability: the case of millets cultivation in the Indus Valley civilization
title_sort Phytoliths as indicators of plant water availability: the case of millets cultivation in the Indus Valley civilization
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv D'Agostini, Francesca
Ruiz Pérez, Javier
Madella, Marco
Vadez, Vincent
Kholova, Jana
Lancelotti, Carla
author D'Agostini, Francesca
author_facet D'Agostini, Francesca
Ruiz Pérez, Javier
Madella, Marco
Vadez, Vincent
Kholova, Jana
Lancelotti, Carla
author_role author
author2 Ruiz Pérez, Javier
Madella, Marco
Vadez, Vincent
Kholova, Jana
Lancelotti, Carla
author2_role author
author
author
author
author
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Phytolith
Water availability
C₄
Indus valley civilization
topic Phytolith
Water availability
C₄
Indus valley civilization
description The interpretation of crop water management practices has been central to the archeological debate on agricultural strategies and is crucial where the type of water strategy can provide fundamental explanations for the adoption and use of specific crops. Traces of water administration are difficult to detect and are mostly indirect, in the form of water harvesting or distribution structures. Attempts have been made to infer plant water availability directly from archaeobotanical remains. Current evidence suggests that the ratio of sensitive to fixed phytolith morphotypes can be used as a proxy for water availability in C₃ crops, as well as in sorghum and maize. Nevertheless, the controversy on whether genetically and environmentally controlled mechanisms of biosilica deposition are directly connected to water availability in C₄ crops is open, and several species remain to be tested for their phytolith production in relation to water levels. This research aims at clarifying whether leaf phytolith assemblages and concentration, silica skeleton size and ratio of sensitive to fixed morphotypes can be related to different water regimes in Eleusine coracana Gaertn., Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br., and Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench. We cultivated 5 traditional landraces for each species in lysimeters, under different watering conditions and analyzed their phytolith content/production in leaves. Results show higher proportions of long cells, bulliforms and stomata produced in well watered conditions. The model built on the basis of phytolith composition has been then applied to interpret archeological phytolith assemblages recovered from a single phase at four different sites of the Indus Civilisation: Harappa, Kanmer, Shikarpur and Alamgirpur. The results show that most probably C4 crops grew under water stress conditions, providing new data on the interpretation of ancient agricultural management in the Indus Valley.
publishDate 2023
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2023
2023
2023
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
format article
status_str publishedVersion
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv http://hdl.handle.net/10230/56200
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.revpalbo.2022.104783
url http://hdl.handle.net/10230/56200
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.revpalbo.2022.104783
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv Inglés
language_invalid_str_mv Inglés
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology. 2023 Feb;309:104783
info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EC/FP7/759800
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
rights_invalid_str_mv http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv application/pdf
application/pdf
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv Elsevier
publisher.none.fl_str_mv Elsevier
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv reponame:Repositorio Digital de la UPF
instname:Universitat Pompeu Fabra
instname_str Universitat Pompeu Fabra
reponame_str Repositorio Digital de la UPF
collection Repositorio Digital de la UPF
repository.name.fl_str_mv
repository.mail.fl_str_mv
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