Millets, Rice and Farmers: Phytoliths as indicators of agricultural, social and ecological change in Neolithic and Bronze Age Central China

Interdisciplinary study on dietary complexity in Central China during the Longshan Period (4.5–3.8 kaBP): New isotopic evidence from Wadian and Haojiatai, Henan Province

The Holocene ◽

10.1177/0959683620970252 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 095968362097025

Author(s):

Wei Li ◽

Ligang Zhou ◽

YiHsien Lin ◽

Hai Zhang ◽

Ying Zhang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Bronze Age ◽

Central China ◽

Feeding Strategies ◽

Cultural Backgrounds ◽

Hunter Gatherers ◽

Western Asia ◽

The Social ◽

Interdisciplinary Study ◽

Longshan Period ◽

Cattle And Sheep

Central China is one of the key regions of the world that sees the transition from early Neolithic urbanization into the social complexity of Bronze Age civilizations. Previous evidence had indicated that the diets of humans and the feeding strategies of livestock in Central China during the Longshan Period (4.5–3.8 kaBP) became more complex and diverse, including the widespread introduction of cattle and sheep, and the coexistence of different human dietary groups within several settlements. Within this paper new and pre-existing stable isotope analyses from human ( n = 31) and animal bones ( n = 76) recovered from Wadian and Haojiatai, two important Longshan sites in the southeast of Central China, are integrated with multiproxy data from archaeological, environmental, and cultural contexts to interpret the social conditions behind dietary complexity from an interdisciplinary perspective. We suggest that the feeding strategies of cattle and sheep from Western Asia were successfully adapted to the pre-existing local millet farming subsistence regimes, and that the different human dietary groups seen corresponded to continuing diversified subsistence strategies that included millet farming, rice farming, and hunter-gathering. This dietary complexity is considered as a reflection of different patterns within the cultural interactions in Central China during the Longshan Period that saw the mixing of populations with diversified cultural backgrounds. This is represented by the introduction of extraneous livestock and the coexistence of millet and rice farmers at Wadian, and the continued expansion of millet agriculture within Central China indicated by the coexistence of millet farmers and hunter-gatherers at Haojiatai.

Get full-text (via PubEx)

Agricultural adaptations to topography and climate changes in Central China during the mid- to late-Holocene

The Holocene ◽

10.1177/09596836211033201 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 095968362110332

Author(s):

Xin Jia ◽

Haiming Li ◽

Harry F Lee ◽

Zhen Liu ◽

Yong Lu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Bronze Age ◽

Late Holocene ◽

Asian Summer Monsoon ◽

Foxtail Millet ◽

Cold Climate ◽

Rice Cultivation ◽

Central China ◽

Human Settlements ◽

Broomcorn Millet ◽

Wet Climate

The development of pre-historic agriculture and its determining factors have been extensively investigated in recent years. Based on the identification of charred seeds and radiocarbon dating, we found that foxtail millet-based agriculture dominated Neixiang County in Central China during the mid-late-Holocene. There were three different farming patterns in the Nanyang Basin, including rice cultivation in the plains, foxtail millet cultivation in the pediment plains, and broomcorn millet cultivation in the valleys. In addition, during the Neolithic-Bronze Age, the distribution of human settlements with rice cultivation matched with the climate pattern at 31.0–36.5° N in China. The emergence of rice cultivation had been facilitated by a significant increase in East Asian summer monsoon and increased precipitation in Central China since 8500 BP and gradually flourished during the Peiligang (8500–7000 BP) and Yangshao (7000–4500 BP) Period, corresponding to a relatively warm and wet climate. However, the average latitude of the human settlements with rice cultivation shifted southward to 33.29° N during the Longshan Period (4500–4000 BP) due to the cold climate brought by the “4.2 ka event.” Afterward, rice cultivation was basically not constrained by climate change, probably owing to the improved farming methods in the Bronze Age.

Get full-text (via PubEx)

Pottery craft tradition in transition: From Neolithic central China to Bronze Age northern Sweden

Journal of Archaeological Science Reports ◽

10.1016/j.jasrep.2017.03.002 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 16 ◽

pp. 658-664

Author(s):

Ole Stilborg

Keyword(s):

Bronze Age ◽

Central China ◽

Northern Sweden

Get full-text (via PubEx)

Early–middle Holocene ecological change and its influence on human subsistence strategies in the Luoyang Basin, north-central China

Quaternary Research ◽

10.1017/qua.2017.104 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 89 (2) ◽

pp. 446-458 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Junna Zhang ◽

Zhengkai Xia ◽

Xiaohu Zhang ◽

Michael J. Storozum ◽

Xiaozhong Huang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Environmental Changes ◽

Deciduous Forest ◽

Sediment Cores ◽

Agricultural Practices ◽

Central China ◽

Ecological Change ◽

Subsistence Strategies ◽

North Central ◽

Middle Holocene ◽

Early And Middle Holocene

AbstractIn north-central China, subsistence practices transitioned from hunting and gathering to millet-based agriculture between the early and middle Holocene. To better understand how ancient environmental changes influenced this shift in subsistence strategies and human activities at regional to local levels, we conducted palynological and lithologic analyses on radiocarbon-dated sediment cores from the Luoyang Basin, western Henan Province. Our palynological results suggest that vegetation shifted from broad-leaved deciduous forest (9230–8850 cal yr BP) to steppe-meadow vegetation (8850–7550 cal yr BP), and then to steppe with sparse trees (7550–6920 cal yr BP). Lithologic analyses also indicate that the stabilization of the Luoyang Basin’s floodplain after ~8370 cal yr BP might have attracted people to move into the basin, promoting the emergence of millet-based agriculture during the Peiligang culture period (8500–7000 cal yr BP). Once agricultural practices emerged, the climatic optimum after ~7550 cal yr BP likely facilitated the expansion of the Yangshao culture (7000–5000 cal yr BP) in north-central China. As agriculture intensified, pollen taxa related to human disturbance, such as Urtica, increased in abundance.

Get full-text (via PubEx)