Millet

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Any of various grasses used as forage or cereals, probably first cultivated in Asia or Africa about 4000 years ago. Four cereals are grouped under this name. Panicum miliaceum was the most important, first recorded at Jemdet Nasr in Mesopotamia. It was widely grown in Neolithic Europe and was the staple crop in early China. Setaria italica was possibly developed in southern Europe, and even there was never as common as panicum. It was also known in China in the Neolithic. Grains of the Setaria genus were an important item of diet in parts of Mexico as early as c 6500 BC. Eleusine and Pennisetum are of more recent origin, largely confined to tropical Africa, and introduced thence to India. Millets are an important food staple in much of Asia, Russia, and western Africa. In the United States and western Europe they are used chiefly for pasture or to produce hay, although they were major grains in Europe during the Middle Ages. The millets are high in carbohydrates, with protein content varying from 6 to 11 percent and fat varying from 1.5 to 5 percent. They are somewhat strong in taste and cannot be made into leavened bread. They are mainly consumed in flatbreads and porridges or prepared and eaten much like rice.

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Number of cereal plants, belonging to different genera, are described as millets. Broomcorn or common millet (Panicum miliaceum) is rarely grown today, but it had a much wider distribution in the past. The earliest finds are from Neolithic central and eastern Europe, spreading into southern Europe during the Bronze Age. Its origin is uncertain, but it is possible that it was first domesticated in China. Foxtail or Italian millet (Setaria italica) was almost certainly first domesticated in China: S. italica grains have been identified at Banpo dating from the 5th millennium bc. Millet was the chief crop of the Shang and Zhou empires, but barley and wheat began to replace it toward the end of the Eastern Zhou period. In Europe, most finds of foxtail millet come from the Bronze Age of the Alpine region. Today it is still widely grown, particularly in China and India. Bulrush millet (Pennisetum americanum) is commonly cultivated in the Sahel region of Africa and was probably first cultivated in this area. Panicum, Setaria and Pennisetum are all members of the tribe Panicae of the Grass family. Finger millet (Eleusine coracana) belongs to the tribe Chloridae. It is widely grown in central Africa and India, and probably originated in Africa. See also African

The Macmillan dictionary of archaeology, Ruth D. Whitehouse, 1983Copied

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