Prehistoric agricultural decision making in the western Himalayas: ecological and social variables

Abstract

The high-altitude landscape of western Tibet is one of the most extreme environments in which humans have managed to introduce crop cultivation. To date, only sparse palaeoeconomic data have been reported from this region. The authors present archaeobotanical evidence from five sites (dating from the late first millennium BC and the early first millennium AD) located in the cold-arid landscape of western Tibet. The data indicate that barley was widely grown in this region by c. 400 BC but probably fulfilled differing roles within local ecological constraints on cultivation. Additionally, larger sites are characterised by more diverse crop assemblages than smaller sites, suggesting a role for social diversity in the development of high-altitude agriculture.

Patterns of Spread and Adoption of Millet Agriculture Along the Eastern Rim of the Tibetan Plateau: Archaeobotanical Evidence from Houzidong, Southwest China (4200-4000 Cal. BP)

“…It remains controversial if foxtail millet, broomcorn millet, and rice were introduced from northwest China and the middle Yangtze valley separately at various points (D'Alpoim Guedes et al, 2013;d'Alpoim Guedes, 2015;He et al, 2017;Dal Martello et al, 2018), or if they reached the region as a package at a later point (Huan et al, 2022). Recent years have furthermore seen considerable debate on the dates and extend of the early occupation of the Tibetan Plateau and the role that various domesticates had in this development (Chen et al, 2015;d'Alpoim Guedes et al, 2015;Lü, 2016;Lü et al, 2021;Tang et al, 2022;Tang et al, 2023).…”

Entropy Change of Historical and Cultural Heritage in Traditional Tibetan Area of China Based on Spatial-Temporal Distribution Pattern

“…Despite the analysis of the Prehistoric era in high-altitude areas through geological exploration [51], genetic testing [52,53], ecological footprint [54], and humanity relics [55], our understanding of human activities and social processes on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau remains very limited [56][57][58][59]. Despite the evidence of human activities in the traditional Tibetan area dating back millions of years [60], including highly mobile, long-distance, and large-scale migration in the early human activities [61], our understanding of human activities and social processes in the traditional Tibetan area during the medieval period on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau remains limited [62][63][64].…”