Introduction to the Special Issue: "Introduction and intensification of agriculture in Central Eurasia and adjacent regions"

For well over a century, scholars from across the social and biological sciences have been trying to understand the origins and spread of agriculture. This debate is often intertwined with discussions of climate change and human environmental impact. Over the past decade, this debate has spread into Central Eurasia, from western China to Ukraine and southern Russia to Turkmenistan, a part of the world often thought to have been largely dominated by pastoralists. A growing interest in the prehistory of Central Eurasia has spurred a new chapter in the origins of agriculture debate; archaeobotanical research is showing how important farming practices in this region were in regard to the spread of crops across the Old World. While early people living in Central Eurasia played an influential role in shaping human history, there is still limited understanding of the trajectories of social evolution among these populations. In March 2015, 30 leading scholars from around the globe came together in Berlin, Germany, to discuss the introduction and intensification of agriculture in Central Eurasia and adjacent regions. At the German Archaeological Institute in Berlin (Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, DAI), these scholars presented novel data on topics covering East, South, and Central Asia, spanning a wide realm of methodological approaches. The present special edition volume deals with a selection of the papers given at this conference, and it marks a significant step toward recognizing the contribution of Central Eurasian populations in the spread and development of agricultural systems over the course of the Holocene

Barley (Hordeum vulgare) in the Okhotsk culture (5th–10th century AD) of northern Japan and the role of cultivated plants in hunter-gatherer economies

This paper discusses archaeobotanical remains of naked barley recovered from the Okhotsk cultural layers of the Hamanaka 2 archaeological site on Rebun Island, northern Japan. Calibrated ages (68% confidence interval) of the directly dated barley remains suggest that the crop was used at the site ca. 440–890 cal yr AD. Together with the finds from the Oumu site (north-eastern Hokkaido Island), the recovered seed assemblage marks the oldest well- documented evidence for the use of barley in the Hokkaido Region. The archaeobotanical data together with the results of a detailed pollen analysis of contemporaneous sediment layers from the bottom of nearby Lake Kushu point to low-level food production, including cultivation of barley and possible management of wild plants that complemented a wide range of foods derived from hunting, fishing, and gathering. This qualifies the people of the Okhotsk culture as one element of the long-term and spatially broader Holocene hunter–gatherer cultural complex (including also Jomon, Epi-Jomon, Satsumon, and Ainu cultures) of the Japanese archipelago, which may be placed somewhere between the traditionally accepted boundaries between foraging and agriculture. To our knowledge, the archaeobotanical assemblages from the Hokkaido Okhotsk culture sites highlight the north-eastern limit of prehistoric barley dispersal. Seed morphological characteristics identify two different barley phenotypes in the Hokkaido Region. One compact type (naked barley) associated with the Okhotsk culture and a less compact type (hulled barley) associated with Early–Middle Satsumon culture sites. This supports earlier suggestions that the “Satsumon type” barley was likely propagated by the expansion of the Yayoi culture via south-western Japan, while the “Okhotsk type” spread from the continental Russian Far East region, across the Sea of Japan. After the two phenotypes were independently introduced to Hokkaido, the boundary between both barley domains possibly existed ca. 600–1000 cal yr AD across the island region. Despite a large body of studies and numerous theoretical and conceptual debates, the question of how to differentiate between hunter–gatherer and farming economies persists reflecting the wide range of dynamic subsistence strategies used by humans through the Holocene. Our current study contributes to the ongoing discussion of this important issue

Cellular and molecular regulation of tumor necrosis factor-alpha production by pentoxofylline

Tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF), a mononuclear phagocyte (MO)-derived peptide, is increasingly being recognized for its pleomorphic immunologic effects. A number of investigations have demonstrated that lipopolysaccharide (LPS) can induce TNF synthesis, yet mechanisms that regulate TNF expression at the cellular and molecular levels have not been fully elucidated. In this study, we present data demonstrating pentoxifylline, a methylxanthine, is efficacious in suppressing LPS-induced MO-derived TNF at the level of both TNF mRNA accumulation and TNF supernatant bioactivity. Pentoxifylline, at a dose of 1 x 10-5M, suppressed the production of both biologically active TNF and TNF mRNA expression by more than 50%. Furthermore, additional methylxanthines and dibutyryl cAMP have similar effects on TNF expression. These data support the mechanism for this suppressive effect is via the generation of intracellular cAMP.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/27135/1/0000128.pd

Economic Diversification Supported the Growth of Mongolia’s Nomadic Empires

Populations in Mongolia from the late second millennium B.C.E. through the Mongol Empire are traditionally assumed, by archaeologists and historians, to have maintained a highly specialized horse-facilitated form of mobile pastoralism. Until recently, a dearth of direct evidence for prehistoric human diet and subsistence economies in Mongolia has rendered systematic testing of this view impossible. Here, we present stable carbon and nitrogen isotope measurements of human bone collagen, and stable carbon isotope analysis of human enamel bioapatite, from 137 well-dated ancient Mongolian individuals spanning the period c. 4400 B.C.E. to 1300&thinsp;C.E. Our results demonstrate an increase in consumption of C4 plants beginning at c. 800 B.C.E., almost certainly indicative of millet consumption, an interpretation supported by archaeological evidence. The escalating scale of millet consumption on the eastern Eurasian steppe over time, and an expansion of isotopic niche widths, indicate that historic Mongolian empires were supported by a diversification of economic strategies rather than uniform, specialized pastoralism. </div

Summary of the barley assemblage in the Hamanaka 2, Rebun Island, northern Japan.

<p>Absolute and relative amounts of naked barley <i>Hordeum vulgare</i> var. <i>nudum</i>) seeds (incl. <i>Hordeum</i>/<i>Triticum</i> type) and identified pottery types per cultural layer. Given age ranges are based on radiocarbon dates of barley seeds (<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0174397#pone.0174397.t002" target="_blank">Table 2</a>) with black and white bars indicating 68% and 95% confidence interval, respectively.</p

A selection of compact naked barley grains from Okhotsk culture layers of the Hamanaka 2 site, Rebun Island, northern Japan.

<p>Depicted grains are representative of the barley-bearing cultural layers (IIIa–e) covering the time period ca. 430–960 cal yr AD. Each of the six specimens is shown in ventral (a), dorsal (b), and lateral (c) views.</p

Simplified pollen diagram representing the section dating between 50 cal yr BC and 1540 cal yr AD (67 pollen spectra) of the sediment core RK12 from Lake Kushu, Rebun Island.

<p>Chronology of prehistoric cultures in northern Hokkaido comprises Epi-Jomon (EJ; ca. 100 cal yr BC–500 cal yr AD including the Susuya tradition ca. 100–500 cal yr AD), Okhotsk culture (OK; ca. 500–950 cal yr AD), and Proto-Ainu/Formative Ainu (PA; ca. 950–1600 cal yr AD) (according to [<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0174397#pone.0174397.ref026" target="_blank">26</a>] and [<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0174397#pone.0174397.ref027" target="_blank">27</a>]).</p

Sample-specific total counts of selected macrobotanical remains and floated litres from the Okhotsk culture layer units of Hamanaka 2.

<p>Sample-specific total counts of selected macrobotanical remains and floated litres from the Okhotsk culture layer units of Hamanaka 2.</p

Location maps of the study region, Hamanaka 2, the RK12 coring site and other archaeobotanical records discussed in the text.

<p>Map compilation showing (A) the location of the study region in the northwest Pacific region; (B) the southern Primor’e Region (Russia); (C) the Hokkaido and northern Tohoku regions; (D) Rebun Island; and (E) the northern part of Rebun with Lake Kushu (white cross indicates location of the RK12 coring site) and the Hamanaka 2 archaeological site. Dots illustrate the locations of Okhotsk culture (yellow), Satsumon culture (green), Heian period (blue), and the RFE Iron Age–Eastern Xia State (red) barley records used for seed morphological comparison (see <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0174397#pone.0174397.s003" target="_blank">S3 Table</a> for site names and further details). Red circles in (C) show the location of the 194 Okhotsk culture sites listed in the Hokkaido archaeological site database (<a href="http://www2.wagamachi-guide.com/hokkai_bunka/" target="_blank">http://www2.wagamachi-guide.com/hokkai_bunka/</a>). The dashed line marks the proposed boundary of where the two barley morphotypes dominate. Bathymetry of Lake Kushu (0.5 m isolines) is based on survey data provided by T. Haraguchi (Osaka City University). Topographic maps are based on data from the elevation Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) V4.1 [<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0174397#pone.0174397.ref024" target="_blank">24</a>]. Isolines for the terrestrial area in (E) are drawn from a topographic map [<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0174397#pone.0174397.ref025" target="_blank">25</a>].</p