Millet farming marked a turning point in life during the Bronze Age

The Bronze Age is no longer a mystery box of pottery and tools. Thanks to detailed isotope and botanical analysis, we now see how deeply life changed around 1500 BCE in Central Europe. At the heart of this story is the Tiszafüred-Majoroshalom cemetery in Eastern Hungary.

The research, led by Tamás Hajdu and Claudio Cavazzuti, uncovered how people moved, ate, and related to each other during a time of major cultural shift.

This change was not gradual. It was fast, sweeping, and surprisingly well-documented. Over 130 isotope samples and dental microremains from Tiszafüred tell us how this community responded to larger forces that were shaping Bronze Age Europe.

People stopped migrating and stayed local

Strontium isotope analysis shows a sharp drop in long-distance movement during the Late Bronze Age. Most people buried at Tiszafüred were local. About 75% came from within 20 kilometers. Just one person in the entire sample clearly came from far away.

Migration didn’t stop, but it changed. Middle Bronze Age newcomers often arrived from nearby highlands like the Upper Tisza basin. Later migrants came from farther west, such as Transdanubia or the Southern Carpathians. These areas were linked to the growing influence of the Tumulus culture.

“Mobility is more intense among adult males,” the researchers noted, but the gap narrows in the Late Bronze Age. Female exogamy – marrying outside one’s community – was rare and likely local.

Food became simpler and evenly shared

Nitrogen and carbon isotope values show a major dietary shift. In the Middle Bronze Age, people ate a wider range of foods. Diets varied by social class, especially for protein. Males had more access to meat.

In contrast, Late Bronze Age diets became less diverse and more equal. The reduction in nitrogen variability suggests fewer inequalities in protein access. This matched the social restructuring seen in settlement patterns.

Tell-settlements were abandoned. Communities became less hierarchical and more dispersed.

Millet farming reshaped Bronze Age diet

Carbon isotope data and dental calculus analysis both confirm it: broomcorn millet changed everything. Introduced around 1540–1480 BCE, this high-yield, fast-growing cereal became a key part of the diet.

Microscopic remains from dental plaque confirmed millet traces in 6 out of 11 Late Bronze Age individuals. By contrast, just 2 out of 14 Middle Bronze Age people had eaten millet.

Millet consumption wasn’t just a trend. It represented a shift in how people fed themselves and their communities.

“The strong investment in broomcorn millet as key-cereal is considered one of the earliest phases in Europe,” noted the researchers. This shift likely helped communities support population growth during unstable times.

Millet replaced barley in Bronze Age

Macro-archaeobotany confirmed these findings. Among 22 soil samples, wheat appeared in 60%, barley in less than 10%, and broomcorn millet was absent from Middle Bronze Age layers.

By the Late Bronze Age, millet showed up regularly in dental calculus. Millet’s short growing season and high energy content made it ideal for mobile or resource-stressed communities.

Less inequality, more uniformity

Social structure mirrored diet. The Middle Bronze Age featured elite males with high meat access and fortified tell-settlements. After 1500 BCE, these settlements disappeared.

Community life shifted to scattered villages. Burial customs became less ornate, and hierarchies dissolved.

“The abandonment of the fortified MBA tell settlement is followed by a new phase with less structured centers, less stable social hierarchies and the reduced inequalities that we could clearly observe, at least at the level of food consumption,” the researchers wrote.

Not just herders after all

These results directly challenge long-held beliefs. The Tumulus culture has often been called a herding society. But this study shows less meat and more millet.

People ate local cereals, not just livestock. Protein intake fell even as communities adopted new crops and settlement styles.

“The old topos of the ‘pastoralist Tumulus Grave Culture’… is contradicted,” the researchers concluded in their paper. The people of Tiszafüred lived complex lives that blended old ways and new demands.

This study of a Bronze Age site is one of the most detailed of its kind. It reveals the deep ties between food, identity, and community.

Through teeth and soil, we see how people responded to change – not with chaos, but adaptation. And in doing so, they rewrote the human story in the Carpathian Basin.

The study is published in the journal Scientific Reports.

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