Archaeobotanical and GIS-based approaches to prehistoric agriculture in the upper Ying valley, Henan, China

Abstract

Archaeobotanical survey has sampled a series of late Neolithic to early Bronze Age settlements in the upper Ying valley (part of the central plain of China) and provided useful data for understanding prehistoric arable ecology and farming during a period of increasing local social complexity. A combination of the modelling functions offered by Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and the data reduction possibilities offered by Principal Component Analysis (PCA) allow us to explore the relationships between local arable ecology, crop-processing strategies and the natural environment. The results suggest that differences in the natural environment around each site are a good explanation for varying patterns of wild food collection, but in contrast, social and cultural factors seem to be much better at explaining variation in farming practice and crop-processing at different sites.

A regional case in the development of agriculture and crop processing in northern China from the Neolithic to Bronze Age: archaeobotanical evidence from the Sushui River survey, Shanxi province

“…Overall, a shift from the Yangshao and Miaodigou II uniformity to the Longshan and Bronze Age diversity is seen in these data, in parallel to that suggested for the Ying valley (Fuller and Zhang 2007;Zhang et al 2010). This is inferred to reflect differences in access to agricultural laborers.…”

“…By contrast some communities shifted towards a smaller scale, and focused level of crop processing, which included some storage before winnowing. Zhang et al (2010) found that in the Ying valley sites that were more closely networked socially were more likely to have similar patterns in terms of crop-processing patterns. This, in turn, suggests that diversification in crop-processing practices, including many households driven to small-scale practices only, accompanied increasing social complexity.…”

“…Over the past decades, there has been a concentration of surveys and excavation projects pursuing Bthe origins of Chinese civilization^(e.g., Liu et al 2002; Yua n a nd C a m p b el l 2 0 09 ) , a n d t h i s ha s m e an t archaeobotanical data has been collected from several site excavations and a number of regional surveys. Data from similar survey archaeobotany includes that from the Yiluo valley ) and from the upper Ying valley (Fuller and Zhang 2007;Zhang et al 2010), both regions that are implicated in the emergence of complex societies and Table 1 major regional centers. Both regional datasets, as well as that from sites such as Taosi (Zhao and He 2006), Wangchengang (Zhao 2007), Huizui (Lee and Bestel 2007), Xinzhai (Zhong et al 2016), and Nanjiaokou ) indicate the predominance of foxtail millet cultivation followed by broomcorn millet throughout the Yangshao, Longshan, and Bronze Age periods.…”

A locally-adaptive model of archaeological potential (LAMAP)

“…Landscapes are generally varied, inhomogeneous, or patchy (e.g., Voorhies, 1972;Fedick and Ford, 1990;Ford and Fedick, 1992;Dunning and Beach, 1994;Fedick, 1995Fedick, , 1996Dunning et al, 1998;Fedick et al, 2000;Kunen, 2001;Penn et al, 2004;Ford et al, 2009;Patterson et al, 2010;Zhang et al, 2010), but logit and WofE models are largely insensitive to landscape variability. This is problematic because settlement behaviour must have been responsive to local conditions while simultaneously determined by larger-scale patterns of landscape use.…”

The International Centre for Chinese Heritage and Archaeology (ICCHA): After a Decade of Success

“…She also began collaboration with UCL's Dorian Fuller on the study of early rice cultivation focused on the site of Tianluoshan, which led to significant international published output (Fuller et al 2009) A second post-doctoral visitor from Peking University was Dr Hai Zhang, who has since developed teaching and research in geographic information system (GIS) and computer modelling in archaeology in Beijing. His time in London led to collaborations in the application of geostatistics to archaeobotanical data and settlement patterns (Zhang et al 2010) and to a sacred Neolithic landscape in China (Zhang et al 2013).…”