Moving agriculture onto the Tibetan plateau: the archaeobotanical evidence

Guedes, Jade d’Alpoim; Lü, Hongliang; Li, Yongxian; Spengler, Robert N.; Wu, Xiaohong; Aldenderfer, Mark

doi:10.1007/s12520-013-0153-4

Cited by 143 publications

(79 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…So, in the southeastern Tibetan Plateau, both broomcorn and foxtail millet reached 3100 masl at Karuo site between 4700 and 4300 cal yr B.P. (21). During our phase three, agriculture reached even higher elevations in the south-central Tibetan Plateau.…”

mentioning

confidence: 58%

Agriculture facilitated permanent human occupation of the Tibetan Plateau after 3600 B.P.

Chen

Dong

Zhang

et al. 2015

Science

537

402

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Our understanding of when and how humans adapted to living on the Tibetan Plateau at altitudes above 2000 to 3000 meters has been constrained by a paucity of archaeological data. Here we report data sets from the northeastern Tibetan Plateau indicating that the first villages were established only by 5200 calendar years before the present (cal yr B.P.). Using these data, we tested the hypothesis that a novel agropastoral economy facilitated year-round living at higher altitudes since 3600 cal yr B.P. This successful subsistence strategy facilitated the adaptation of farmers-herders to the challenges of global temperature decline during the late Holocene.

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mentioning

confidence: 58%

Agriculture facilitated permanent human occupation of the Tibetan Plateau after 3600 B.P.

Chen

Dong

Zhang

et al. 2015

Science

537

402

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“…The distribution of Sino-Tibetan languages through Nepal hints at dispersal along the Himalayan foothills by groups with ancestral knowledge of foxtail millet, broomcorn millet, rice, barley, wheat and buckwheat (Bradley, 2011). Changguogou in southern Tibet, 1450–800 BC, as noted, has affinities to the Karuo Culture, and yielded remains of foxtail millet (D’Alpoim Guedes et al, 2014). However, the absence of loan words for millet connected to those used in Indic languages (see Witzel, 2009) argues against diffusion of the Chinese millets themselves further west via the sub-Himalayan route, or indeed wheat or barley eastwards from south of the Himalayas.…”

Section: Millets Go Westmentioning

confidence: 90%

“…Concerning the spread of wheat and barley back east, D’Alpoim Guedes et al (2014, 2015) highlight the importance of spring-grown varieties for enabling agriculture at higher altitudes, and archaeobotanical evidence indicates that barley, and to some degree wheat, facilitated further upwards colonization of Qinghai and Tibet after 1600 BC (Chen et al, 2014). Yaks ( Bos grunniens ) are also likely to have been domesticated by this time (Larson and Fuller, 2014; Rhode et al, 2007), and thus a suitable agro-pastoral complex facilitated rapid colonization of the Tibetan plateau.…”

Section: Wheat Goes Eastmentioning

confidence: 99%

Between China and South Asia: A Middle Asian corridor of crop dispersal and agricultural innovation in the Bronze Age

et al. 2016

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The period from the late third millennium BC to the start of the first millennium AD witnesses the first steps towards food globalization in which a significant number of important crops and animals, independently domesticated within China, India, Africa and West Asia, traversed Central Asia greatly increasing Eurasian agricultural diversity. This paper utilizes an archaeobotanical database (AsCAD), to explore evidence for these crop translocations along southern and northern routes of interaction between east and west. To begin, crop translocations from the Near East across India and Central Asia are examined for wheat (Triticum aestivum) and barley (Hordeum vulgare) from the eighth to the second millennia BC when they reach China. The case of pulses and flax (Linum usitatissimum) that only complete this journey in Han times (206 BC–AD 220), often never fully adopted, is also addressed. The discussion then turns to the Chinese millets, Panicum miliaceum and Setaria italica, peaches (Amygdalus persica) and apricots (Armeniaca vulgaris), tracing their movement from the fifth millennium to the second millennium BC when the Panicum miliaceum reaches Europe and Setaria italica Northern India, with peaches and apricots present in Kashmir and Swat. Finally, the translocation of japonica rice from China to India that gave rise to indica rice is considered, possibly dating to the second millennium BC. The routes these crops travelled include those to the north via the Inner Asia Mountain Corridor, across Middle Asia, where there is good evidence for wheat, barley and the Chinese millets. The case for japonica rice, apricots and peaches is less clear, and the northern route is contrasted with that through northeast India, Tibet and west China. Not all these journeys were synchronous, and this paper highlights the selective long-distance transport of crops as an alternative to demic-diffusion of farmers with a defined crop package.

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“…In some cases, genetic research supports similar results (e.g., Morrell and Clegg, 2007; Jones et al, 2013). In other cases where independent domestication of crops was thought to have occurred, emerging evidence points instead to diffusion of propagules and skills for cultivating them (e.g., barley in Tibet, see: Dai et al, 2012; d'Alpoim Guedes et al, 2014).…”

Section: Rethinking Fundamental Issuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Agricultural origins from the ground up: Archaeological approaches to plant domestication

Langlie

Mueller

Spengler

et al. 2014

American J of Botany

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The timing, geographical locations, causes, and consequences of crop domestication have long been major concerns of archaeologists, and agricultural origins and dispersals are currently more relevant than ever to scientists seeking solutions to elusive problems involving food insecurity and global health disparities. Perennial research issues that archaeologists continue to tackle include (1) thinking outside centers of origin that were based on limited and insufficient past knowledge; (2) distinguishing between single and multiple domestications of specific crops; (3) measuring the pace of domestication; and (4) decoupling domestication from agricultural economies. Paleoethnobotanists have expanded their toolkits to include analysis of ancient and modern DNA and have added increasingly sophisticated techniques in the field and the laboratory to derive precise chronological sequences to assess morphological changes in ancient and often fragmentary archaeobotanical remains and to correctly interpret taphonomy and context. Multiple lines of archaeological evidence are ideally brought together, and whenever possible, these are integrated with information from complementary sources. We discuss current perspectives and anthropological approaches to research that have as their goals the fuller and broader understanding of ancient farming societies, the plants that were domesticated, the landscapes that were created, and the culinary legacies that were passed on.

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Moving agriculture onto the Tibetan plateau: the archaeobotanical evidence

Cited by 143 publications

References 46 publications

Agriculture facilitated permanent human occupation of the Tibetan Plateau after 3600 B.P.

Agriculture facilitated permanent human occupation of the Tibetan Plateau after 3600 B.P.

Between China and South Asia: A Middle Asian corridor of crop dispersal and agricultural innovation in the Bronze Age

Agricultural origins from the ground up: Archaeological approaches to plant domestication

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