Seeds of millet from the Sopka Bulochka archaeological site in Primorie

This article presents the results of archaeobotanical analysis of plant seeds from two clusters which were found visually in 2003 and 2004 during the excavations of dwellings in large multilayered site of Sopka Bulochka in Southern Primorie by the joint Russian-Korean Expedition. In total, over 16,000 seeds have been analyzed. The absolute majority of the seeds belonged to foxtail millet (Setaria italica subsp. italica). Only two seeds have been identified as broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum). The greatest part of the seeds analyzed were obtained from sample No. 1 from the floor of dwelling No. 1, belonging to the Krounovka culture of the Early Iron Age (2500-2000 BP). The accumulation of seeds was found under a carbonaceous layer near the burnt wooden structure and stone box-hearth. The seeds must have been originally kept in a wooden box or bag, and had been originally mistakenly identified as opium poppy (Papaver somniferum). Sample No. 2 from the upper part of the filling in dwelling No. 9, belonging to the Zaisanovka culture of the Late Neolithic (5200-3400 BP), contained only 15 caryopses of foxtail millet. Stratigraphic observations as well as morphological and dimensional similarity of foxtail millet seeds from two samples suggests that they belonged to the same period of the Krounovka culture. Findings of seeds of foxtail and broomcorn millet among the seeds of other cultivated plants are known from a number of sites of this period in Primorie (Korsakovskoye-II, Cherepakha-13, Shelomaev Klyuch). Relatively frequent finds of millet seeds at the sites of the Early Iron Age, including the site of Sopka Bulochka confirms a significant role of millet in the subsistence system among the carriers of the Krounovka archaeological culture.