DOCSLIB.ORG

Environmental Changes and Human Activities at a Fortified Site of The

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Environmental Changes and Human Activities at a Fortified Site of The Quaternary International 438 (2017) 189e197 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Quaternary International journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/quaint Environmental changes and human activities at a fortified site of the Liangzhu culture in eastern China: Evidence from pollen and charcoal records * Xiaocui Wang a, b, Duowen Mo c, Chunhai Li a, Shi-Yong Yu d, Bin Xue a, , Bin Liu e, Hui Wang f, Chenxi Shi g a State Key Laboratory of Lake Science and Environment, Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China b University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China c Laboratory for Earth Surface Processes, College of Erban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China d School of Geography, Geomatics, and Planning, Jiangsu Normal University, Xuzhou 221116, China e Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Relics and Archaeology, Hangzhou 310026, China f Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing 100710, China g National Educational Examinatios Authority, Beijing 100087, China article info abstract Article history: Liangzhu culture represents the culmination of the Neolithic culture in the Yangtze Delta. Two archae- Received 12 December 2016 ological trenches (LZ-N and LZ-W) from a fortified archaeological site in close proximity to Hangzhou, Accepted 3 May 2017 eastern China, were excavated and studied. The sediments were analyzed to provide vegetation and fire Available online 9 May 2017 records for the reconstruction of environmental change and human impact during the past 5000 years. Pollen data reveal that mixed evergreen-deciduous subtropical broadleaved forests may have developed Keywords: around lakes or swamps in this area. Abundant charcoal detritus and Gramineae pollen with a size Liangzhu culture >38 mm indicate that rice agriculture flourished during 5000e4500 cal yr BP. Low concentrations of Mojiaoshan site > m Pollen charcoal detritus and Gramineae pollen with a size 38 m suggest that the site was abandoned after Charcoal 4500 cal yr BP. Pollen and charcoal data from the LZ-N section suggest that this area has experienced a Vegetation weakened human activity during the late period of the Liangzhu culture (between 4500 and 4300 cal yr Human activity BP), implying that the demise of the Liangzhu culture was a prolonged process rather than a short-lived event. © 2017 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction the culmination of the Neolithic culture in the lower Yangtze River area. This culture is well known for its flourished rice-based agri- As one of the cradles of the Chinese culture, the Neolithic culture culture, making of diverse and sophisticated jade articles, advanced in the lower Yangtze River area has experienced a long and complex pottery technology with diversified types and decoration, the evolutional process during the Holocene. Beginning with the highly complex social structure reflected by large-scale architec- Shangshan culture (11.4e8.4 kyr BP), the Neolithic culture in this tural engineering (Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics area has experienced several periods such as the Majiabang culture and Archaeology, 2008; Zheng et al., 2009; Fuller et al., 2009; Qin (7.0e5.9 kyr BP), Songze culture (5.9e5.3 kyr BP), and Liangzhu et al., 2011). However, the Liangzhu culture terminated mysteri- culture (5.3e4.3 kyr BP). Of these cultural periods, the Liangzhu ously and the regional culture was replaced by a less developed culture is the last stage of the prehistoric culture, which represents culture known as the Guangfulin/Maqiao culture (Chen et al., 1997; Zhu et al., 2003; Chen, 2005; Zong et al., 2011a). Therefore, scru- tinizing the reasons behind the termination of the Liangzhu culture is of great importance for better understanding the rise and fall of * Corresponding author. State Key Laboratory of Lake Science and Environment, Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, regional Neolithic culture and the emergence of early Chinese Nanjing 210008, China. civilization. E-mail address: [email protected] (B. Xue). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2017.05.001 1040-6182/© 2017 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved. 190 X. Wang et al. / Quaternary International 438 (2017) 189e197 The termination of the Liangzhu culture has received great Archaeological excavations reveal that this site appears to be the attention and it is still a matter of debate. Previous studies have central township of the Liangzhu culture in Yangtze Delta, repre- shown that the disappearance of the Liangzhu culture may have senting the highest stage of the Liangzhu culture in the Yangtze been ascribed to a catastrophic environmental event such as rapid River area (Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and climate cooling (Yu et al., 2000; Innes et al., 2014), marine trans- Archaeology, 2008; Liu and Wang, 2014). As such, this site is of gression (Stanley and Chen, 1996; Chen et al., 2008), or flash great importance for unraveling the reason and process of the flooding (Zhang et al., 2004, 2005; Zong et al., 2012; Long et al., termination of the Liangzhu culture. 2014; Liu et al., 2015). However, evidence for such a rapid termi- Previous studies have focused on the structure and provenance nation of the Liangzhu culture is scarce. (Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, The Mojiaoshan archaeological site is located in close proximity 2008; Hu et al., 2013), the internal and external layout of the wall to Hangzhou (Fig. 1), East China. It is the first Neolithic fortified surrounding the Mojiaoshan site (Zhejiang Provincial Institute of township has ever discovered in the lower Yangtze River area. Cultural Relics and Archaeology, 2015), the age when the earthen Fig. 1. (A) Map showing the study area; (B) location of profiles LZ-N and LZ-W(redrawn from Fei and Chen, 2011; Shi et al., 2011; Zong et al., 2011a). X. Wang et al. / Quaternary International 438 (2017) 189e197 191 dike was constructed (Zhang et al., 2014; Liu et al., 2015), as well as earlier than when the site was settled. The LZ-W profile has been the hydroclimatic condition and palaeoecological background (Li described by Shi et al. (2011). Their work was based on AMS 14C et al., 2010; Shi et al., 2011; Liu et al., 2014b) of the Liangzhu cul- dating on bulk organic matter. In this study, we conducted detailed ture. There have been a few studies on the age constraint on the AMS 14C dating of these two profiles on charcoal and plant remains timing of the construction and abandonment of the wall at this site. that are believed to be free of old carbon. For example, base on archaeological evidence, archaeologists infer Five samples on charcoal and one sample on plant macrofossil that the wall was built no later than the late Liangzhu period were collected from the lower part of the two profiles (below (Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, 120 cm) and submitted for AMS 14C dating. In order to obtain 2008), while AMS 14C and OSL dating suggests that the wall was reliable ages for the upper section, additional six samples on pollen built during 4.8e4.5 cal kyr BP (Liu et al., 2015). However, there is concentrates at the depth of 86e144 cm from the LZ-N profile was still a key question about the environmental context in which the dated using the AMS 14C method. Previous work revealed that the site was abandoned (Li et al., 2010; Shi et al., 2011; Long et al., 2014; age of pollen concentrates is slightly older than the actual age due Liu et al., 2014b, 2015). Here we aim to reconstruct vegetation to the introduction of pre-aged organic carbon in the fluvial setting history, environmental changes, and human activities at the (Stanley and Chen, 2000; Stanley and Hait, 2000; Li et al., 2014). Mojiaoshan site based on detailed AMS 14C dating, pollen and Paired samples of charcoal and pollen concentrates were taken charcoal analyses, which in turn may provide an ecological context from the depth of 120e122 cm and 142e144 cm of the LZ-N profile and a chronological framework for the abandonment of this to determine the age offset between these two kinds of materials. Neolithic Liangzhu township. Standard hydrofluoric (HF) acid method (Faegri and Iversen, 1989) was used for the extraction of pollen concentrates. The AMS 14C 2. Regional setting dating was conducted at Beta Analytic Inc. All results were cali- brated using the IntCal13 tree-ring dataset (Talma and Vogel, 1993; The Mojiaoshan site is located at the township of Pingyao, Reimer et al., 2013). The result was expressed as the 2s (95%) Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province (Fig. 1). It is surrounded by the Dax- confidence intervals. iongshan Mountain on the south, the Yaoshan and Nanshan A total of 58 pollen samples were taken at 2 cm intervals from Mountains on the west, and the Dazheshan Mountain on the north. the depth of 158e40 cm of the LZ-N profile, while 42 samples were This area is drained by several creeks such as North Tiaoxi, Middle collected at 2 cm intervals from the depth of 196e125 cm of the LZ- Tiaoxi, and South Tiaoxi, which originate in the west of the Tian- W profile. Note that the depth of 125e30 cm of the LZ-W profile mushan Mountain and merge into East Tiaoxi River, running down represents the post-Liangzhu cultural deposits. Therefore, samples the Tianmushan Mountain from southwest to northeast and dis- were taken at 10 cm intervals from this section due to the less charging into the Taihu Lake. importance of this section to our study. Standard HF method was Regulated by the subtropical monsoon, the regional climate used for the pretreatment of the samples (Faegri and Iversen, 1989; exhibits a significant seasonal variability.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Originally, the Descendants of Hua Xia Were Not the Descendants of Yan Huang
    E-Leader Brno 2019 Originally, the Descendants of Hua Xia were not the Descendants of Yan Huang Soleilmavis Liu, Activist Peacepink, Yantai, Shandong, China Many Chinese people claimed that they are descendants of Yan Huang, while claiming that they are descendants of Hua Xia. (Yan refers to Yan Di, Huang refers to Huang Di and Xia refers to the Xia Dynasty). Are these true or false? We will find out from Shanhaijing ’s records and modern archaeological discoveries. Abstract Shanhaijing (Classic of Mountains and Seas ) records many ancient groups of people in Neolithic China. The five biggest were: Yan Di, Huang Di, Zhuan Xu, Di Jun and Shao Hao. These were not only the names of groups, but also the names of individuals, who were regarded by many groups as common male ancestors. These groups first lived in the Pamirs Plateau, soon gathered in the north of the Tibetan Plateau and west of the Qinghai Lake and learned from each other advanced sciences and technologies, later spread out to other places of China and built their unique ancient cultures during the Neolithic Age. The Yan Di’s offspring spread out to the west of the Taklamakan Desert;The Huang Di’s offspring spread out to the north of the Chishui River, Tianshan Mountains and further northern and northeastern areas;The Di Jun’s and Shao Hao’s offspring spread out to the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, where the Di Jun’s offspring lived in the west of the Shao Hao’s territories, which were near the sea or in the Shandong Peninsula.Modern archaeological discoveries have revealed the authenticity of Shanhaijing ’s records.
    [Show full text]
  • Jade Huang and Chinese Culture Identity: Focus on the Myth of “Huang of Xiahoushi”
    Journal of Literature and Art Studies, June 2016, Vol. 6, No. 6, 603-618 doi: 10.17265/2159-5836/2016.06.003 D DAVID PUBLISHING Jade Huang and Chinese Culture Identity: Focus on the Myth of “Huang of Xiahoushi” TANG Qi-cui, WU Yu-wei Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China This paper focus on the myth of “Huang of Xiahoushi” (夏后氏之璜), focusing on the distribution of Jade Huang (玉璜) since the early neolithic and its process of pluralistic integration. The paper explores the story of ethnic group, cultural identification and the significance of Jade Huang in the discourse construction of etiquette civilization behind the mythic narrative based on multi-evidence method and the local meaning of literature in ancient Chinese context. Keywords: Jade Huang, Huang of Xiahoushi, unified diversity, Chinese identity, etiquette civilization, multi-evidence method Introduction Modern archeological relics including potteries, jades and bronzes bring back the lost history; the process of how Chinese unified diversity took shape in general and the great tradition of jade culture in eight thousand in particular. The handed-down documents echo each other at a distance provide solid evidences for the origin of civilization of rite and music and the core values based on jade belief. Jade Huang is an important one of it. It is illuminated by numerous records about Jade Huang in ancient literature, as well as a large number of archaeology findings past 7,000 years. The paper seeks to focus on the following questions: what is the function of Jade Huang in historic and prehistoric period? Moreover, what is the function of “Huang of Xiahoushi”, which belonged to emperor and symbolized special power in historic documents and myths and legends in ancient china? Jade Huang: Etiquette and Literature Jade Huang (Yu Huang, Semi-circular/annular Jade Pendant) is a type of jade artifact which is seemed to be remotely related to etiquette and literature.
    [Show full text]
  • Banana Cultivation in South Asia and East Asia: a Review of the Evidence from Archaeology and Linguistics
    Banana Cultivation in South Asia and East Asia: A review of the evidence from archaeology and linguistics Dorian Q. Fuller and Marco Madella Research Abstract South Asia provides evidence for introduced banana cul- the present and what can be suggested for the early and tivars that are surprisingly early in the Indus Valley but mid Holocene from palaeoecological reconstructions. Ar- late elsewhere in India. Although phytolith data are still chaeological evidence for bananas in these regions re- limited, systematic samples from fourteen sites in six re- mains very limited. Our purpose in this contribution is to gions suggest an absence of bananas from most of Neo- situate those few data points of prehistoric banana phyto- lithic/Chalcolithic South Asia, but presence in part of the liths and seeds within the history of appropriate sampling Indus valley. Evidence from textual sources and historical (e.g., for phytoliths) that might have provided evidence for linguistics from South Asia and from China suggest the bananas, thus highlighting the potential for more inten- major diffusion of banana cultivars was in the later Iron sive future efforts. We also review some evidence from Age or early historic period, c. 2000 years ago. Never- historical linguistics and textual historical sources on the theless Harappan period phytolith evidence from Kot Diji, early history of bananas in India and China. suggests some cultivation by the late third or early second millennium B.C., and the environmental context implies Cultivated and Wild hybridization with Musa balbisiana Colla had already oc- Bananas in South Asia curred. Evidence of wild banana seeds from an early Ho- locene site in Sri Lanka probably attests to traditions of There is hardly a cottage in India that has not its grove utilisation of M.
    [Show full text]
  • The Neolithic Ofsouthern China-Origin, Development, and Dispersal
    The Neolithic ofSouthern China-Origin, Development, and Dispersal ZHANG CHI AND HSIAO-CHUN HUNG INTRODUCTION SANDWICHED BETWEEN THE YELLOW RIVER and Mainland Southeast Asia, southern China1 lies centrally within eastern Asia. This geographical area can be divided into three geomorphological terrains: the middle and lower Yangtze allu­ vial plain, the Lingnan (southern Nanling Mountains)-Fujian region,2 and the Yungui Plateau3 (Fig. 1). During the past 30 years, abundant archaeological dis­ coveries have stimulated a rethinking of the role ofsouthern China in the prehis­ tory of China and Southeast Asia. This article aims to outline briefly the Neolithic cultural developments in the middle and lower Yangtze alluvial plain, to discuss cultural influences over adjacent regions and, most importantly, to examine the issue of southward population dispersal during this time period. First, we give an overview of some significant prehistoric discoveries in south­ ern China. With the discovery of Hemudu in the mid-1970s as the divide, the history of archaeology in this region can be divided into two phases. The first phase (c. 1920s-1970s) involved extensive discovery, when archaeologists un­ earthed Pleistocene human remains at Yuanmou, Ziyang, Liujiang, Maba, and Changyang, and Palaeolithic industries in many caves. The major Neolithic cul­ tures, including Daxi, Qujialing, Shijiahe, Majiabang, Songze, Liangzhu, and Beiyinyangying in the middle and lower Yangtze, and several shell midden sites in Lingnan, were also discovered in this phase. During the systematic research phase (1970s to the present), ongoing major ex­ cavation at many sites contributed significantly to our understanding of prehis­ toric southern China. Additional early human remains at Wushan, Jianshi, Yun­ xian, Nanjing, and Hexian were recovered together with Palaeolithic assemblages from Yuanmou, the Baise basin, Jianshi Longgu cave, Hanzhong, the Li and Yuan valleys, Dadong and Jigongshan.
    [Show full text]
  • The Spindle Whorl As the Model of the Ritual Disk
    Unraveling the Enigma of the Bi: The Spindle Whorl as the Model of the Ritual Disk JEAN M. GREEN ARCHAEOLOGICAL REPORTS from the People's Republic of China, particularly since the end of the Cultural Revolution in the early 1970s, reveal jade bi disks in the classic form in late Neolithic tombs and provide the basis for a new exploration of the origins of the bi. i The bi is a ritual or decorative jade2 disk with a wide flat body and a relatively small hole in the middle (PIs. I, II). This size aperture sug­ gests that the form originally had a use (that is, the shape conforms to part of an ancient tool) because other Chinese ritual jades, which are obvious reproductions of implements, such as axes, hoes, and adzes, contain holes for wooden handles. Another common Neolithic artifact is a flat disk with a hole in the middle, the dis­ coidal spindle whorl. The whorl is a flywheel on the shaft of a hand-held spindle designed to maintain a twisting momentum to the yarn drawn out from a cluster of fibers. The hand-spindle, thus, is a simple device consisting of a stick and a weight, the whorl (PI. III). The hypothesis developed here is that the class of ob­ jects known as a discoidal spindle whorl and the bi are linked formally, histor­ ically, and contextually. This hypothesis is not entirely new (Robert Poor, personal communication, 1991). As early as 1948, Kuo Pao-chun suggested that the bi was derived from the spindle whorl (fanglun) or the round axe (1948:4-5).
    [Show full text]
  • Evidence for Wild Rice Cultivation and Domestication in the Fifth
    Presumed domestication? Evidence for wild rice cultivation and domestication in the fifth millennium BC of the Lower Yangtze region Dorian Q Fuller1, Emma Harvey1 & Ling Qin2 Prompted by a recent article by Jiang and Liu in Antiquity (80, 2006), Dorian Fuller and his co-authors return to the question of rice cultivation and consider some of the difficulties involved in identifying the transition from wild to domesticated rice. Using data from Eastern China, they propose that, at least for the Lower Yangtze region, the advent of rice domestication around 4000 BC was preceded by a phase of pre-domestication cultivation that began around 5000 BC. This rice, together with other subsistence foods like nuts, acorns and waterchestnuts, was gathered by sedentary hunter-gatherer-foragers. The implications for sedentism and the spread of agriculture as a long term process are discussed. Keywords: East Asia, China, Yangtze region, sixth millennium BC, fifth millennium BC, rice, foraging, cultivation, origins of agriculture Presumed domestication In some legal traditions, people are presumed innocent until proven guilty. In the study of agricultural origins it is perhaps prudent to presume plants are wild until evidence can be found to indicate domestication. This has not, however, been the convention in the archaeology of East Asia, where domestication is taken for granted, unproven and unquestioned. The recent research report by Jiang and Liu (Antiquity 80: 355-61), unfortunately continues this tradition. It seems a curious fact that little discussion has ever been devoted to wild rice foraging in Asia, which logically must have preceded agriculture, or how this might appear archaeologically.
    [Show full text]
  • Evidence for a Late Onset of Agriculture in the Lower Yangtze Region and Challenges for an Archaeobotany of Rice
    Forthcoming In: A. Sanchez-Mazas, R. Blench, M. Ross, M. Lin & I. Pejros (ed.) Human migrations in continental East Asia and Taiwan: genetic, linguistic and archaeological evidence. London: Taylor & Francis Likely publication date 2007. Evidence for a late onset of agriculture in the Lower Yangtze region and challenges for an archaeobotany of rice Dorian Q Fuller1, Ling Qin2, Emma Harvey1 1. Institute of Archaeology. University College London 2. School of Archaeology and Museology, Peking University, Beijing Introduction The origins of agriculture represents a particularly important transition in human prehistory. By producing food through cultivating plants, and to a lesser degree by herding animals, it became possible to store surpluses which could support larger settled populations (sedentism and increased population density), and specialist occupations (non-food producers). With agriculture was created the potential for much greater rates of population increase. The demographic differentiation between the idealized early farmer and hunter- gatherer has been a fundamental assumption for many powerful models of prehistoric population change, genetic change, and language spread (e.g. Bellwood 2005). Within this context, rice agriculture is usually assumed to be an essential factor underlying the Holocene migrations that are supposed to have created cultural geography of much of China as well as Southeast Asia (e.g. Bellwood 2005; Higham 2003). The hard evidence for the timing, geography, and evolutionary processes involved in the establishment of rice agriculture is, however, rather limited and ambiguous. Such evidence will be crucial to any story of agricultural origins and dispersal in East Asia. This paper considers an alternative hypothesis, the late domestication of rice, which sees much of the evidence for early rice as reflecting foraging and a long period of incipient cultivation of still wild plants.
    [Show full text]
  • Archaeology and Paleontology Kǎogǔxué Hé Gǔshēngwùxué ​ 考古学和古生物学
    ◀ Aquaculture Comprehensive index starts in volume 5, page 2667. Archaeology and Paleontology Kǎogǔxué hé gǔshēngwùxué ​ 考古学和古生物学 Modern field paleontology and archaeology Dynasty, c. 100 ce) mentions the find of dragon bones ( were introduced to China in the early twen- 龙骨, fossils) in 133 bce during work on a canal. Several tieth century. Fossil remains have provided sources during the next millennium refer to fossils as an- new insights into the evolution of life, pa- cient animals and plants, and some books have passages remarkably similar to those in modern paleontology. The leoanthropological remains on the evolution Yun Lin Shi Pu (云林石谱, Stone Catalogue of Cloudy of mankind, and archaeological excavations Forest, 1033 ce), for instance, contains detailed descrip- on the development of human cultures. The tions of fossil fishes. Fossils have been collected since an- last twenty years have seen a marked improve- cient times and used in traditional Chinese medicine for ment in research quality, an explosion of new their supposed magical powers and ability to cure disease. data, and several scientific breakthroughs. Still, in the 1950s, paleontologists made major discoveries by asking the local population where they collected their dragon bones. The earliest Chinese experiments in what resembles rchaeology (the study of material remains of modern archaeology were made during the Song dynasty past human life), and paleontology (the study (960– 1279) when ancient inscriptions found on stones of life of the geological past and the evolution and bronzes were studied and catalogued. This tradi- of life) in China share a common past. The first generation tion, although interrupted at the beginning of the Yuan of Western-educated​­ Chinese scholars worked together in dynasty (1279– 1368), continued well into the late Qing the field as geologists, paleontologists, and archaeologists dynasty (1644– 1912).
    [Show full text]
  • EARLY CIVILIZATIONS of the OLD WORLD to the Genius of Titus Lucretius Carus (99/95 BC-55 BC) and His Insight Into the Real Nature of Things
    EARLY CIVILIZATIONS OF THE OLD WORLD To the genius of Titus Lucretius Carus (99/95 BC-55 BC) and his insight into the real nature of things. EARLY CIVILIZATIONS OF THE OLD WORLD The formative histories of Egypt, the Levant, Mesopotamia, India and China Charles Keith Maisels London and New York First published 1999 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 First published in paperback 2001 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” © 1999 Charles Keith Maisels All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress ISBN 0-203-44950-9 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-45672-6 (Adobe eReader Format) ISBN 0-415-10975-2 (hbk) ISBN 0-415-10976-0 (pbk) CONTENTS List of figures viii List of tables xi Preface and acknowledgements
    [Show full text]
  • SCIENCE CHINA New Methods and Progress in Research on the Origins and Evolution of Prehistoric Agriculture in China
    SCIENCE CHINA Earth Sciences • REVIEW • December 2017 Vol.60 No.12:2141–2159 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-017-9145-2 New methods and progress in research on the origins and evolution of prehistoric agriculture in China LU HouYuan1,2,3* 1 Key Laboratory of Cenozoic Geology and Environment, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China; 2 Center for Excellence in Tibetan Plateau Earth Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; 3 University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China Received September 10, 2017; accepted November 15, 2017; published online November 22, 2017 Abstract China is one of the main global centers of origin of agriculture. Foxtail millet (Setaria italica), common millet (Panicum miliaceum), and rice (Oryza sativa) were the first crops to be domesticated in China. There remain many uncertainties and controversies in our current understanding of the chronology, locations, and plant types at the origins and the process of evolution of prehistoric millet and rice farming, and their relationships with climate change and human adaptation. This review summarizes the research progress made by Chinese scientists over the last decade on the origins and evolution of prehistoric agriculture. It highlights novel techniques and methods for identifying early crop remains, including plant macrofossils (carbonized seeds, spikelets), microfossils (phytoliths, calciphytoliths, starch, pollen), and biomarkers; new evidence on the origins, development, and spread of early agriculture; and research related to climate and environmental changes. Further, we pinpoint and discuss existing challenges and potential opportunities for further in-depth investigation of the origins and evolution of agriculture and the adaption of human activities to climate change.
    [Show full text]
  • Temporal Changes of Mixed Millet and Rice Agriculture in Neolithic-Bronze
    HOL0010.1177/0959683617744269The HoloceneWang et al. 744269research-article2017 Research Paper The Holocene 1 –17 Temporal changes of mixed millet and © The Author(s) 2017 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav rice agriculture in Neolithic-Bronze Age DOI:https://doi.org/10.1177/0959683617744269 10.1177/0959683617744269 Central Plain, China: Archaeobotanical journals.sagepub.com/home/hol evidence from the Zhuzhai site Can Wang,1 Houyuan Lu,1,2,3 Wanfa Gu,4 Xinxin Zuo,1 Jianping Zhang,1,2 Yanfeng Liu,4 Yingjian Bao5 and Yayi Hu4 Abstract Mixed millet and rice agriculture is a unique agricultural style of China, and is distributed in a broad band between the Yangtze and Yellow River basin. However, the development of this style during the Neolithic-Bronze Age has not been comprehensively clarified, owing to limited archaeobotanical data and imprecise chronology for most of the regions. Here, the Central Plain, a location where mixed agriculture may have first appeared, was selected as the area for research. Phytolith and macrofossil analyses from the Zhuzhai site, together with the accelerator mass spectrometer (AMS) radiocarbon dating of samples, reveal information about the temporal changes of mixed agriculture as well as the domestication and cultivation of crops in this region. The results indicate that mixed millet and rice agriculture formed in the Central Plain about 8000 years ago. Common millet was the principal crop in the Peiligang and Yangshao periods, with the domestication process beginning in the Peiligang period and continuing up to the Shang period, at which time it was replaced by foxtail millet. Foxtail millet may have gone through a significant degree of domestication by ca.
    [Show full text]
  • A Comprehensive Handbook of Chinese Archaic Jades
    A Comprehensive Handbook of Chinese Archaic Jades Authentication, Appreciation & Appraisal By Mitchell Chen 1 A Comprehensive Handbook of Chinese Archaic Jades : Authentication, Appreciation & Appraisal, Copyright © 2015 by Mitchell Chen. All Rights Reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information, please contact [email protected]. 2 This book is dedicated to My wife Sulan Chen For her warmest support which makes this book possible 3 Foreword The Chinese are a people that have shown a great appreciation on jade. The jade history in China can be traced back as long as eight thousand years. Jade collection, therefore, is not just a hobby. Today, jade authentication, jade appreciation, and jade appraisal have become an interdisciplinary subject in many universities in Taiwan. Professor Mitchell Chen had five years of teaching experiences at the Center of General Education, JinWen University of Science and Technology. The courses he lectured include Antique Jade Authentication and Appraisal, Oriental Arts and Craftsmanship. Professor Chen was not only a teacher, but also a collector. In every class he lectured, he used his own collection as the teaching material. In addition to obtaining the knowledge, all the students in his class benefited a lot by examining real objects. Now Professor Chen is sharing his expertise on the Chinese archaic jade with all the readers in the world by publishing this book. I believe all the jade lovers will enjoy reading this book and obtain the knowledge of Chinese archaic jade authentication, appreciation, and appraisal.
    [Show full text]