The Farming Economy in South and Central Sweden during the Bronze Age - A Study Based on Carbonised Botanical Evidence

The article provides a survey of carbonised seed finds in south and central Sweden which can be attributed to the Swedish Bronze Age, 1800—500 B.C. This period must be considered one of the most dynamic with regard to prehistoric agriculture. The material has been collected at prehistoric dwelling sites and largely consists of household refuse. During the Early Bronze Age agriculture was based on speltoid wheat's and naked barley. Around 1000 B.C. the speltoid wheats and the naked barley decline strongly, while hulled barley takes over as the most important crop. This shift in the choice of crop indicates the introduction of agricultural fertilization and systems with permanent, manured fields.

Prehistoric Agriculture in China: Food Globalization in Prehistory

It is commonly recognised that farming activities initiated independently in different parts of the world between approximately 12,000 and 8,000 years ago. Two of such agricultural centres is situated in modern-day China, where systems based on the cultivation of plants and animal husbandry has developed. Recent investigations have shown that between 5000 and 1500 cal. bce, the Eurasian and African landmass underpinned a continental-scale process of food “globalisation of staple crops. In the narrative of food domestication and global food dispersal processes, China has played a particularly important role, contributing key staple food domesticates such as rice, broomcorn, and foxtail millet. The millets dispersed from China across Eurasia during the Bronze Age, becoming an essential food for many ancient communities. In counterpoise, southwest Asian crops, such as wheat or barley, found new habitats among the ancient populations of China, dramatically changing the course of its development. The processes of plant domestication and prehistoric agriculture in China have been a topic of extensive research, review, and discussion by many scholars around the world, and there is a great deal of literature on these topics. One of the consequences of these discoveries concerning the origins of agriculture in China has been to undermine the notion of a single centre of origin for civilisation, agriculture, and urbanism, which was a popular and widespread narrative in the past. It has become clear that agricultural centres of development in China were concurrent with, rather than after, the Fertile Crescent.

A review on the spread of prehistoric agriculture from southern China to mainland Southeast Asia

<p>The origins and spread of agriculture was one of the milestones in human history. When and how prehistoric agriculture spread to mainland Southeast Asia is highly concerned, which contributed to the formation of modern Austroasiatic in this region. Previous studies mainly focused on the time and route of rice agriculture’s introduction into Southeast Asia while millet agriculture was not paid properly attention. Here we analyze 312 <sup>14</sup>C dating data yielded from charred seeds of rice (<em>Oryza sativa</em>), foxtail millet (<em>Setaria italica</em>) and broomcorn millet (<em>Panicum miliaceum</em>) from 128 archaeological sites in China and mainland Southeast Asia. The result shows that millet farming was introduced to mainland Southeast Asia in the late third millennium BC and rice farming was in the late second millennium BC. The agriculture of mainland Southeast Asia might originate from three areas, Southwest China, Guangxi-West Guangdong and coastal Fujian. The spread route of ancient agriculture in Southwest China is close to the “Southwest Silk Road” recorded in literature, which infers there was possibly a channel of cultural exchanges on the eastern margin of Tibetan Plateau already in the late Neolithic period, laying the foundation of the Southwest Silk Road later.</p>

The Archaeology of Rapa Nui (Easter Island)

The public and scholarly fascination with Rapa Nui or Easter Island has stimulated research on this isolated island since the late nineteenth century. In the last twenty years such research has contributed greatly to knowledge of the archaeological record, as well as prehistoric agriculture, community structure, settlement patterns, and the carving and transport of roughly 1,000 anthropomorphic statues or moai. Although the popularized story of Rapa Nui is one of self-inflicted population devastation through destruction of the environment—ecocide—this research suggests that decentralized social systems, including those related to moai carving, and innovative subsistence practices within a marginal environment contributed to the ultimate survival of the Rapa Nui people.