Early food production in China's western Loess Plateau.

摘要

There is little doubt that agriculture evolved independently in East Asia, but its timing, nature and context are subject to considerable debate. Explanations for the motivations behind both the earliest efforts at food production, and the subsequent intensification of it are problematic because we know little about the hunter-gatherers responsible for the earliest experiments, and because the timing and intensity of food production are difficult to identify archaeologically. This thesis describes an attempt to address these problems in China's western Loess Plateau, one of several places where food production appears early in the Holocene.;Recent excavations at the Dadiwan site in Gansu Province provide a near continuous record of human activity prior to the origin of agriculture, including a plausible connection between Terminal Pleistocene -- Early Holocene hunter gatherers of the western Loess Plateau and those from the deserts north of the Yellow River. Stable isotope biochemistry of animal bone from Dadiwan documents a symbiotic mutualism between early Holocene microblade-making hunter-gatherers, their dogs, and a C4 plant, most likely broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum), by at least 7500 calBP. Archaeological data throughout the region point to short-term occupations, low population densities, a commitment to large-bodied wild mammals, and limited investments in crop management, plant processing and storage, all characteristic of low-level food production. By 7200 calBP this pattern disappears from the region.;Soon after 6500 calBP a fully intensive relationship between people, plants, dogs, and pigs appears in the western Loess Plateau. Stable isotope biochemistry from the bones of pigs, dogs, and people at Dadiwan illustrate the strength of this relationship, while archaeobotanical remains throughout the western Loess Plateau reveal commitments to the use of both broomcorn millet and foxtail millet (Setaria italica), but little else. This dependence on agricultural products corresponds to the dramatic population growth and demic expansion associated with the Yangshao Neolithic.;The transition to agriculture in the western Loess Plateau illustrates an evolutionary processes repeated in numerous different places at different times throughout arid northern China. The methods and hypotheses described here will help reveal the total pattern of agricultural origins in East Asia.