Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 42 (2022) 103364 Available online 7 February 2022 2352-409X/© 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Re-identifcation of plant impressions on prehistoric pottery from Ukraine Eiko Endo a, * , Hiroo Nasu b , Dmytro Haskevych c , Yakiv Gershkovych d , Mykhailo Videiko e , Olexandr Yanevich f a Center for Obsidian and Lithic Studies, Meiji University, 1-1 Kandasurugadai, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 101-0062, Japan b Center for Fundamental Education, Okayama University of Science, 1-1 Ridaicho, Kita-ku, Okayama City, Okayama 700-0005, Japan c Department of Stone Age Archaeology, Institute of Archaeology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, 12 Heroiv Stalingrada Ave., Kyiv 04210, Ukraine d Department of Eneolithic – Bronze Age Archaeology, Institute of Archaeology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, 12 Heroiv Stalingrada Ave., Kyiv 04210, Ukraine e Archaeology Research Laboratory, Faculty of History and Philosophy, Borys Grinchenko Kyiv University, 13-B Tymoshenka St., Kyiv 04212, Ukraine f Department of Stone Age Archaeology, Institute of Archaeology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, 12 Heroiv Stalingrada Ave., Kyiv 04210, Ukraine A R T I C L E INFO Keywords: Archaeobotany Ukraine Agriculture Pottery impression Panicum miliaceum ABSTRACT In this paper, we report newly obtained data on cereals from the Neolithic to Bronze Age from the northern side of the Black Sea. One part of the North Pontic area, located within present-day Ukraine, is one of the focal points of discussions on the agricultural dispersal between West and East Eurasia; however, existing reliable cereal data are scarce. In this study, we employed an improved silicone casting method to obtain impressions from pottery artifacts and conducted a survey of more than 30,000 pottery samples from different times. Observations of seed surface texture using scanning electron microscopy further improved the identifcation accuracy. The results showed no reliable cereal impressions in Ukrainian sub-Neolithic pottery, despite the predicted exceptionally early start of arable agriculture prior to the 6th millennium BC. In contrast, in Linear Band and Eneolithic pottery, cereals originating from West Asia were identifed, although Chinese millet was absent. Meanwhile, abundant Panicum miliaceum impressions appeared abruptly with incidental barley and wheat in Late Bronze Age pottery. The Chinese millet species Setaria italica, which is clearly distinguishable from P. miliaceum using our method, was not identifed. The archaeobotanical dataset obtained in this survey is an important achievement in examining food globalization that crossed the east and west of Eurasia. 1. Introduction One part of the North Pontic area, located within present-day Ukraine, is one of the focal points of discussions on agricultural dispersal in Eurasia (Motuzaite-Matuzeviciute, 2020; Dal Corso et al., in press). Agriculture is thought to have started exceptionally early in Ukraine, dating back to before the 6th millennium BC (Pashkevich, 2000; Kotova, 2003). However, this conclusion is based on unreliable identifcation of cereals from impressions in pottery (Motuzaite-Matu- zeviciute et al., 2013a; Stevens et al., 2016). On the other hand, Motu- zaite-Matuzeviciute (2012) carried out archaeobotanical investigations in eastern Ukraine and southwest Russia but did not fnd any cereal impressions at 15 sites from the 8th to 6th millennium BC, suggesting that arable agriculture was introduced there around the second half of the 5th millennium BC. For pottery impressions of broomcorn millet dating back to the Neolithic period on the north sides of the Black Sea, it has been pointed out that re-evaluations of these identifcations and time ratios are necessary (Hunt et al., 2018). Thus, the authors of the current paper think it is necessary to revise the previous conclusions regarding start of not only broomcorn millet cultivation but also arable agriculture as such in the whole territory of Ukraine before 6000 BC. A base of such re-evaluation is already founded by a new analysis of the directly radiocarbon-dated macrobotanical remains. Recently, a package of cultivated plants of West Asian origin was recovered from Ratniv-2 in western Ukraine, a Linear Band Pottery Culture (LBK) site. Among them, two Triticum dicoccum samples dated to 5471–5230 cal BC were identifed (Motuzaite-Matuzeviciute and Teliz- henko, 2016), representing the earliest cereals confrmed in Ukraine by * Corresponding author. E-mail address: endosalt@yahoo.co.jp (E. Endo). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jasrep https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2022.103364 Received 8 October 2021; Received in revised form 13 January 2022; Accepted 20 January 2022