North-south patterning of millet agriculture on the Loess Plateau: Late Neolithic adaptations to water stress, NW China

Sheng, Pengfei; Xue, Songtao; Sun, Zhongchang; Yang, Liping; Guo, Xiaoning; Jones, Martin K.

doi:10.1177/0959683618782610

Cited by 27 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…Climactic change is regarded as a key factor for prehistoric agriculture changes and cultural evolution (e.g., Dalfes et al, 1997;Bawden and Reycraft, 2002;Staubwasser et al, 2003;An et al, 2005;Jia et al, 2013, Jia et al, 2016Dong et al, 2019, Dong et al, 2021. It is argued that a warm and humid climate was critical in promoting the large-scale development of millet farming on the Loess Plateau after 6,000 BP (An et al, 2004;Sheng et al, 2018;Dong et al, 2019). While a cold and dry climate supported the widespread cultivation of barley and wheat in the Hexi Corridor and northeast Tibetan Plateau around 4,000 BP (Chen et al, 2015;Zhou et al, 2016;Li and Dong, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Agricultural Transformations and Their Influential Factors Revealed by Archaeobotanical Evidence in Holocene Jiangsu Province, Eastern China

Liu

James

et al. 2021

Front. Earth Sci.

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The development and adoption of agriculture has been investigated for decades, and remains a central topic within archaeology. However, most previous studies focus on the crop’s domestication centers, leading to gaps in knowledge, particularly in transitional zones between these centers. This paper reviews published archaeobotanical evidence and historical documents to reconstruct the trajectory of agricultural systems in Holocene Jiangsu Province. Comparing these new results to paleoclimate information, historical documents, and archaeological data enables us to better understand the underlying influences of past agricultural development. Our results indicate that a warm and wet climate may have promoted ancient peoples to first settle in Jiangsu between 8,500 and 6,000 BP and adopt rice farming. The continuous warm and wet climate may have facilitated the rapid development and expansion of rice agriculture, ultimately contributing to large-scale human settlement in 6,000–4,000 BP in Jiangsu Province. Between 4,000 and 2,300 BP during a cooler and drier climate millet agriculture diffused southward, facilitating a mixed rice and millet agricultural system. This mixed farming supported a continuesd widespread settlement and population growth in Jiangsu. After 2,300 BP, political instability in north China resulted in further southeastward migration, advanced planting technology was brought about to south China, facilitating highly developed agricultural systems and rapid population expansion in Jiangsu. Population growth led to the establishment of Jiangnan as the regional economic center, where people chose high-yielding rice and wheat rather than millet.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Agricultural Transformations and Their Influential Factors Revealed by Archaeobotanical Evidence in Holocene Jiangsu Province, Eastern China

Liu

James

et al. 2021

Front. Earth Sci.

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“…Hence, the local ecology surrounding most ancient villages in northern China was C 4 -dominated (Bao et al 2018;Sheng et al 2018). We reason that the most likely explanation for this increase in the isotopic values of hares is due to the expansion of millet agriculture throughout Neolithic northern China (Dong et al 2016;Bao et al 2018;Sheng et al 2018). While most hares on the Loess Plateau had diets consisting entirely of C 3 plants (in an area that was naturally dominated by these plants) (Liu et al 2011), evidence for several 13 C-enriched desert hares from Yangjiesha suggests a long-term pattern of millet (C 4 ) consumption.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…C 4 plants) (Jaang et al 2018; Figure 6). Hence, the local ecology surrounding most ancient villages in northern China was C 4 -dominated (Bao et al 2018; Sheng et al 2018). We reason that the most likely explanation for this increase in the isotopic values of hares is due to the expansion of millet agriculture throughout Neolithic northern China (Dong et al .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Early commensal interaction between humans and hares in Neolithic northern China

Sheng

Sun

et al. 2020

Antiquity

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“…It was useful to base on the crop assemblages recovered from archaeological sites together with radiocarbon dating to quantitatively reconstruct long-term agricultural progress in the mid-late-Holocene (Jia et al, 2013(Jia et al, , 2016Lee et al, 2007;Riehl, 2009;Sheng et al, 2018;Weber and Kashyap, 2016). During 6402-6298 cal yr BP (early-Yangshao Period) in Neixiang, gathering dominated subsistence strategies with the supplementary planting of crops.…”

Section: Agricultural Differences and Their Associated Landforms In The Nanyang Basin During The Neolithic And Bronze Agesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Jia

Lee

et al. 2021

The Holocene

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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.

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North-south patterning of millet agriculture on the Loess Plateau: Late Neolithic adaptations to water stress, NW China

Cited by 27 publications

References 38 publications

Agricultural Transformations and Their Influential Factors Revealed by Archaeobotanical Evidence in Holocene Jiangsu Province, Eastern China

Agricultural Transformations and Their Influential Factors Revealed by Archaeobotanical Evidence in Holocene Jiangsu Province, Eastern China

Early commensal interaction between humans and hares in Neolithic northern China

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

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