AMS dates and Neolithic cereal measurements from the Kashmir Prehistory Project

The Kashmir Valley is understood to be an important centre of early agriculture in the Western Himalayas. Direct dates of prehistoric cereal remains indicate the valley as a likely route of transmission of agricultural systems between South, Central and East Asia. The movement of these crops into novel mountain environments may have exerted environmental stresses influencing the morphology of cereal crops. This dataset presents AMS dates and measurements of carbonised cereal remains from prehistoric sites recorded during the first phase of the Kashmir Prehistory Project. These data may be of particular utility to regional meta-analyses of change in cereal size in relation to cultural or environmental factors.

Methods
Sediment layers processed using bucket flotation in field. Buoyant carbonised materials were collected by passing through 3mm and 0.3mm meshes.

Identifications were made under dissecting stereoscopes at University of Kashmir, Srinagar and Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaoescience, Lucknow. Length, width and thickness of domesticated cereal types were measured in mm.