Editing Millet (section)

=== East Asia ===

Proso millet (''Panicum miliaceum'') and foxtail millet (''Setaria italica'') were important crops beginning in the [[Early Neolithic]] of China. Some of the earliest evidence of millet cultivation in China was found at [[Cishan culture|Cishan]] (north), where proso millet husk [[phytoliths]] and biomolecular components have been identified around 10,300–8,700 years ago in [[storage pit (archaeology)|storage pits]] along with remains of pit-houses, pottery, and stone tools related to millet cultivation.<ref name="Lu">{{cite journal |pmid=19383791 |year=2009 |last1=Lu |first1=H. |last2=Zhang |first2=J. |last3=Liu |first3=K. B. |last4=Wu |first4=N. |last5=Li |first5=Y. |last6=Zhou |first6=K. |last7=Ye |first7=M. |last8=Zhang |first8=T. |last9=Zhang |first9=H. |last10=Yang |first10=X. |last11=Shen |first11=L. |last12=Xu |first12=D. |last13=Li |first13=Q. |display-authors=5 |title=Earliest domestication of common millet (Panicum miliaceum) in East Asia extended to 10,000 years ago |volume=106 |issue=18 |pages=7367–7372 |doi=10.1073/pnas.0900158106 |pmc=2678631 |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America |bibcode=2009PNAS..106.7367L |doi-access=free }}</ref> Evidence at Cishan for foxtail millet dates back to around 8,700 years ago.<ref name="Lu"/> Noodles made from these two varieties of millet were found under a 4,000-year-old earthenware bowl containing well-preserved noodles at the [[Lajia]] archaeological site in north China; this is the oldest evidence of millet noodles in China.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4335160.stm |title=Oldest noodles unearthed in China |work=BBC News |date=12 October 2005}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Lu |first1=Houyuan |last2=Yang |first2=Xiaoyan |last3=Ye |first3=Maolin |last4=Liu |first4=Kam-Biu |last5=Xia |first5=Zhengkai |last6=Ren |first6=Xiaoyan |last7=Cai |first7=Linhai |last8=Wu |first8=Naiqin |last9=Liu |first9=Tung-Sheng |display-authors=5 |title=Millet noodles in Late Neolithic China |journal=Nature |date=12 October 2005 |volume=437 |issue=7061 |pages=967–968 |doi=10.1038/437967a |pmid=16222289 |s2cid=4385122 }}</ref>

Palaeoethnobotanists have found evidence of the cultivation of millet in the [[Korean Peninsula]] dating to the Middle [[Jeulmun pottery period]] (around 3500–2000 BC).<ref name="Crawford 1992">{{cite book |last=Crawford |first=Gary W. |chapter=Prehistoric Plant Domestication in East Asia |editor1=Cowan C.W. |editor2=Watson P.J |title=The Origins of Agriculture: An International Perspective |publisher=Smithsonian Institution Press |location=Washington |year=1992 |isbn=978-0-87474-990-8 |pages=117–132 }}</ref><ref name="Crawford Lee 2003">{{cite journal |last1=Crawford |first1=Gary W. |first2=Gyoung-Ah |last2=Lee |title=Agricultural Origins in the Korean Peninsula |journal=Antiquity |volume=77 |issue=295 |pages=87–95 |year=2003 |doi=10.1017/s0003598x00061378 |s2cid=163060564 }}</ref> Millet continued to be an important element in the intensive, multicropping agriculture of the [[Mumun pottery period]] (about 1500–300 BC) in Korea.<ref name="Crawford Lee 2003"/> Millets and their wild ancestors, such as [[barnyard grass]] and [[panic grass]], were also cultivated in Japan during the [[Jōmon period]] sometime after 4000 BC.<ref>{{cite book |last=Crawford |first=Gary W. |title=Paleoethnobotany of the Kameda Peninsula |publisher=Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan |location=Ann Arbor |year=1983 |isbn=978-0-932206-95-4 }}</ref><ref name="Crawford 1992"/>

In the Zhengluo<!--acc to source--> region of China, two millet species (foxtail millet and proso millet) were grown, enabling the people to survive the [[4.2-kiloyear event|cooling of the global climate around 2200 BC]].<ref name="An Kirleis Jin 2019">{{cite journal |last1=An |first1=Jingping |last2=Kirleis |first2=Wiebke |last3=Jin |first3=Guiyun |date=2019-11-01 |title=Changing of crop species and agricultural practices from the Late Neolithic to the Bronze Age in the Zhengluo region, China |url=https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12520-019-00915-3 |journal=Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences |volume=11 |issue=11 |pages=6273–6286 |doi=10.1007/s12520-019-00915-3|bibcode=2019ArAnS..11.6273A }}</ref> Chinese myths attribute the domestication of millet to [[Shennong]], a legendary Emperor of China, and [[Hou Ji]], whose name means Lord Millet.<ref>{{cite book |last=Yang |first=Lihui |title=Handbook of Chinese Mythology |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-19-533263-6 |pages=70, 131–135, 198 |display-authors=etal}}</ref>