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BIOARCHAEOLOGY of ADAPTATION to CLIMATE CHANGE in ANCIENT NORTHWEST CHINA Elizabeth S. Berger a Dissertation Submitted to the Fa

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BIOARCHAEOLOGY of ADAPTATION to CLIMATE CHANGE in ANCIENT NORTHWEST CHINA Elizabeth S. Berger a Dissertation Submitted to the Fa BIOARCHAEOLOGY OF ADAPTATION TO CLIMATE CHANGE IN ANCIENT NORTHWEST CHINA Elizabeth S. Berger A dissertation submitted to the faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Anthropology in the College of Arts and Sciences. Chapel Hill 2017 Approved by: Dale L. Hutchinson Paul W. Leslie Mark Sorensen Benjamin Arbuckle C. Margaret Scarry Feng Li © 2017 Elizabeth S. Berger ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ABSTRACT Elizabeth S. Berger: Bioarchaeology of Adaptation to Climate Change in Ancient Northwest China (Under the direction of Dale L. Hutchinson) The 4000 BP climate event was a time of dramatic change, including a cooling and drying climate and the emergence of pastoral practices and a distinct cultural identity across northern Eurasia. However, the link between the climatic changes and the cultural changes has not yet been thoroughly explored. This dissertation therefore assesses human biological measures such as frailty, physiological stress, and nutritional status to ask whether late Holocene climate change precipitated a crisis and collapse of subsistence practices, as has been claimed. The dissertation employs the theoretical framework of the “adaptive cycle,” an understanding of complex systems that incorporates both change and continuity. The dissertation asks whether the Bronze Age transition, in which humans adapted to the arid climate of the second and first millennia BCE, constituted a “collapse” or “transformational adaptation,” in which the human-environment system changed categorically; or an “incremental adaptation,” in which defining system elements persisted with only peripheral changes. Skeletal samples from six populations (spanning 2600-221 BCE) were examined for bioarchaeological markers of oral health, nonspecific infectious lesions, trauma, stature, and fertility. There was broad continuity and some improvement in population health measures in the Bronze Age study populations, with a decline in health in the Iron Age groups. Bronze Age subsistence systems therefore seem to iii have been resilient enough to adapt to the new climate, while the sociopolitical conditions of the Iron Age led to poorer health outcomes. The Bronze Age transition has often been described in terms of “collapse,” and by critically engaging with this narrative, the current project demonstrates that the transition in fact entailed an incremental adaptation, rather than a collapse. These findings also point to how sociocultural factors can serve as a buffer against environmental stressors in some groups, while themselves serving as stressors in others. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The work of this dissertation was made possible by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (Fellow ID 2011120027), a National Geographic Society Young Explorers Grant (9310-13), a Sigma Xi Grant-in-Aid of Research, a UNC-Chapel Hill Graduate School Dissertation Completion Fellowship, and a Carolina Asia Center Pre-Dissertation Asia Travel Award. The work was also made possible by the generous support of the Department of Anthropology and the Research Laboratories of Archaeology, and by the help of Chris Wiesen in the Odum Institute. I have to thank many people for their help over the years of completing this project. First, my advisor Dale Hutchinson has given me countless hours of guidance on bioarchaeology, writing, and professional development. Throughout my graduate career, he critically engaged with my work and provided a steady guiding hand and encouragement, keeping me grounded and pushing me to be a better writer and scholar. My heartfelt thanks also go to my committee members—Paul Leslie, Mark Sorensen, Ben Arbuckle, and Margie Scarry—for their help on matters of theory and method, their input on publications and the dissertation itself, and their deep intellectual engagement with my project, which has improved my scholarship and given me many fruitful ideas and directions to pursue in the future. Li Feng, who has been my instructor and mentor in Chinese archaeology since I was a sophomore in college, will always have my gratitude for his guidance in the field and the classroom, and for the doors he has opened for me in the world of Chinese archaeology. v Many people in many institutions in China have been invaluable to this work. They welcomed me into their collections and gave me companionship, feedback, and resources without which this work would not have been possible. Zhu Hong of Jilin University wisely guided me towards Northwest China to answer my research questions; he and the faculty and students of the Research Center for Chinese Frontier Archaeology made this institution my first research base in China, and it will always feel like an intellectual home. Wang Hui of the Gansu Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology generously brought me into ongoing work that will form the basis for exciting research collaborations, hopefully for many years to come. The faculty and students of Northwest University welcomed me into their School of Cultural Heritage, and Chen Liang of the physical anthropology section continues to be a valued collaborator and colleague. Wang Weilin, Sun Zhouyong, and the entire Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology have a global outlook that makes working with them exciting and fruitful, and I hope to do so for many more years. Luo Feng and Fan Jun of the Ningxia Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology were welcoming and generous with their time and resources. Pauline Sebillaud has been such a friend and mentor that I can’t imagine having done this work without her companionship, guidance, and support; I look forward to visiting Jilin each year to catch up and share a bottle of Tonghua. Immense thanks to Ye Wa and the Yangguanzhai Archaeological Field School for taking me in as a fieldwork orphan, which was the start of a beautiful friendship. And to all the researchers, locals, and fellow travelers in China who shared meals with me, patiently spoke Chinese with me, and shared their stories with me, thank you. Thanks also to my fellow UNC students and their partners for being wonderful friends and colleagues, giving invaluable feedback, and creating a culture of mutual support and balance: Sara Juengst, Sara Becker, David Cranford, Meg Kassabaum, Claire Novotny, Caela vi O’Connell, Maggie Morgan-Smith, Ashley Peles, Maia Dedrick, Sophie Dent, Isabelle and Augustin, the Bioarchaeology and Archaeology of Food working groups, and the entire 2011 cohort. The encouragement of Brian Miller, Jill Shapiro, and too many others to name in New York, China, Cyprus, and Mongolia started me on the first steps of my graduate career. The help and skills of Lisa-Jean Michienzi, Matt McAlister, Katie Poor, Irina Olenicheva, and Suphronia Cheek made it possible to reach the end of my graduate career. Finally, I could never have gotten to this point without the lifelong support of my family. I graduated from Berger University before I graduated from anywhere else. Love forever to my parents Joe Berger and Deborah Fein, and my sister Emily Berger, who listened to my fears and encouraged my dreams, and always gave me the support I needed. They know me better than I know myself, and never doubted I could do it. Thank you. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS List of figures ................................................................................................................................ xii List of tables .................................................................................................................................. xv Chapter 1 Introduction and Background ......................................................................................... 1 1.1 Project rationale..................................................................................................................... 3 1.2 Project background ................................................................................................................ 6 1.2.1 Geography and climate ................................................................................................... 6 1.2.2 Cultural sequence ........................................................................................................... 7 1.2.3 Evidence for the Bronze Age transition ....................................................................... 10 1.3 Archaeology of the study sites ............................................................................................ 16 1.3.1 Qinghai Plateau............................................................................................................. 20 1.3.2 Hexi Corridor ................................................................................................................ 23 1.3.3 Loess Plateau ................................................................................................................ 25 Chapter 2 Theory and Method ...................................................................................................... 30 2.1 Explanations for the Bronze Age transition ........................................................................ 30 2.1.1 Climatic explanations ................................................................................................... 31 2.1.2 Culture contact explanations ........................................................................................ 35 2.1.3 Hybrid approaches .......................................................................................................
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