156 research outputs found
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
On Overcoming Barriers to Application of Neuroinflammation Research
Throughout history, new ideas in medicine or science have met initial resistance by entrenched medical or scientific communities. Barriers to medical innovation fall into six main categories as listed here in order of historical chronology: (1) Theological, (2) Academic, (3) Scientific, (4) Financial, (5) Governmental, and (6) Commercial. Researchers in the field of neuroinflammation often encounter such obstacles that may include denialism. Despite these barriers, recognition of the therapeutic potential of targeting neuroinflammation for treatment of stroke, traumatic brain injury, Alzheimer’s disease, spinal pain, and a variety of additional brain disorders has accelerated in the past 10 years. Consequently, a paradigm shift in scientific thinking regarding neuroinflammation as a therapeutic target is now underway
Agriculture in the Karakum: An archaeobotanical analysis from Togolok 1, southern Turkmenistan (ca. 2300–1700 B.C.)
Southern Central Asia witnessed widespread expansion in urbanism and exchange, between roughly 2200 and 1500 B.C., fostering a new cultural florescence, sometimes referred to as the Greater Khorasan Civilization. Decades of detailed archeological investigation have focused on the development of urban settlements, political systems, and inter-regional exchange within and across the broader region, but little is known about the agricultural systems that supported these cultural changes. In this paper, we present the archaeobotanical results of material recovered from Togolok 1, a proto-urban settlement along the Murghab River alluvial fan located in southeastern Turkmenistan. This macrobotanical assemblage dates to the late 3rd - early 2nd millennia B.C., a time associated with important cultural transformations in southern Central Asia. We demonstrate that people at the site were cultivating and consuming a diverse range of crops including, barley, wheat, legumes, grapes, and possibly plums and apples or pears. This, together with the associated material culture and zooarchaeological evidence, suggest a regionally adapted mixed agropastoral economy. The findings at Togolok 1 contribute to the ongoing discussion of dietary choices, human/landscape interactions, and the adaptation of crops to diverse ecosystems in prehistoric Central Asia
Changes in [alpha]-adrenoceptor number and function in brains of morphine-dependent rats
The effects of long-term treatment of rats with morphine sulfate were assessed upon the specific binding of [3H]clonidine to [alpha]2-adrenoceptors on neural membranes isolated from various brain areas and upon the function of presynaptic [alpha]2-adrenoceptors during field stimulation of hippocampal slices. Rats were injected with morphine every 8 h for 14 days with doses which started at 10 mg/kg per injection i.p., and which increased every 3 days to a final dose of 100 mg/kg per injection on the last 2 days. At 8 and 32 h after the last injection the Bmax for [3H]clonidine binding to neural membranes from various brain areas was significantly decreased. At the same times, the fractional release of [3H]noradrenaline during field stimulation of hippocampal slices was increased and the sensitivity of the hippocampal slice to clonidine was reduced which indicated the development of a functional subsensitivity of the presynaptic [alpha]2-adrenoceptor. These changes in receptor function persisted at 72 h after the last morphine injection although at this time there were marked increases over control values in [3H]clonidine binding to membranes from all rat brain areas except the caudate nucleus. These findings suggest that changes in [alpha]2-adrenoceptor number and function which develop during long-term morphine administration might play an important role in opiate dependence.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/28045/1/0000484.pd
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
A Journey to the West: The Ancient Dispersal of Rice Out of East Asia.
Funder: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human HistoryRice is one of the most culturally valued and widely grown crops in the world today, and extensive research over the past decade has clarified much of the narrative of its domestication and early spread across East and South Asia. However, the timing and routes of its dispersal into West Asia and Europe, through which rice eventually became an important ingredient in global cuisines, has remained less clear. In this article, we discuss the piecemeal, but growing, archaeobotanical data for rice in West Asia. We also integrate written sources, linguistic data, and ethnohistoric analogies, in order to better understand the adoption of rice outside its regions of origin. The human-mediated westward spread of rice proceeded gradually, while its social standing and culinary uses repeatedly changing over time and place. Rice was present in West Asia and Europe by the tail end of the first millennium BC, but did not become a significant crop in West Asia until the past few centuries. Complementary historical, linguistic, and archaeobotanical data illustrate two separate and roughly contemporaneous routes of westward dispersal, one along the South Asian coast and the other through Silk Road trade. By better understanding the adoption of this water-demanding crop in the arid regions of West Asia, we explore an important chapter in human adaptation and agricultural decision making
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 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
Early Pastoral Economies and Herding Transitions in Eastern Eurasia
While classic models for the emergence of pastoral groups in Inner Asia describe mounted, horse-borne herders sweeping across the Eurasian Steppes during the Early or Middle Bronze Age (ca. 3000–1500 BCE), the actual economic basis of many early pastoral societies in the region is poorly characterized. In this paper, we use collagen mass fingerprinting and ancient DNA analysis of some of the first stratified and directly dated archaeofaunal assemblages from Mongolia’s early pastoral cultures to undertake species identifications of this rare and highly fragmented material. Our results provide evidence for livestock-based, herding subsistence in Mongolia during the late 3rd and early 2nd millennia BCE. We observe no evidence for dietary exploitation of horses prior to the late Bronze Age, ca. 1200 BCE – at which point horses come to dominate ritual assemblages, play a key role in pastoral diets, and greatly influence pastoral mobility. In combination with the broader archaeofaunal record of Inner Asia, our analysis supports models for widespread changes in herding ecology linked to the innovation of horseback riding in Central Asia in the final 2nd millennium BCE. Such a framework can explain key broad-scale patterns in the movement of people, ideas, and material culture in Eurasian prehistory
Author Correction: Early Pastoral Economies and Herding Transitions in Eastern Eurasia (Scientific Reports, (2020), 10, 1, (1001), 10.1038/s41598-020-57735-y)
This Article contains a typographical error in the Introduction section under subheading ‘Understanding Early Horse Domestication and Transport’ where, “Historical records refer to horse-mounted warriors in western Asia by the 8th century BCE, while archaeological finds from localities like Arzhan 2 in southern Tuva show specialized horse equipment (bronze snaffle bits) and equine vertebral pathologies linked with mounted riding in Central Asia by the late 9th century BCE31.” should read: “Historical records refer to horse-mounted warriors in western Asia by the 8th century BCE, while archaeological finds from localities like Arzhan in southern Tuva show specialized horse equipment (bronze snaffle bits) and equine vertebral pathologies linked with mounted riding in Central Asia by the late 9th century BCE31.”
- …