The development of agriculture and its impact on cultural expansion during the late Neolithic in the Western Loess Plateau, China

Abstract

Based on radiocarbon dating and our analysis of plant and animal remains from Buziping, a Majiayao (5300–4300 BP) and Qijia (4200–3800 BP) period site located in Dingxi, Gansu Province, China, and our review of archaeobotanical studies in the Western Loess Plateau and adjacent areas, we discuss subsistence strategies during the Majiayao and Qijia periods. We also discuss the development of agriculture in the Western Loess Plateau and its influence on cultural expansion during the late Neolithic period. Humans settled at Buziping for the first time during the Majiayao period (4890–4710 cal. yr BP by 14C dating). Charred seeds from the site indicate that people engaged in millet-based agricultural production. People continued this type of agriculture during a second phase of occupation (4130–3880 cal. yr BP by 14C dating) during the Qijia period, but the proportion of foxtail millet to broomcorn millet increased from the Majiayao to Qijia period. Raising domestic animals was another aspect of subsistence during the Qijia period. The main domestic animals were likely pigs and dogs, although hunting of wild animals also took place. Subsistence at Buziping site was affected by the rapid development of intensive agriculture that diffused across eastern Gansu Province during the late Neolithic. Our work suggests that millet-based agriculture spread from east to west across the Western Loess Plateau and likely promoted the expansions of those two cultures in the area during the Majiayao period and early–mid Qijia period. Climate change might have also promoted Majiayao and Qijia expansions and probably facilitated the adoption of rain-fed agriculture in this region.

From necessity to choice: dietary revolutions in west China in the second millennium BC

“…The earliest dates for macrofossil evidence of bread wheat and barley fall within the third millennium BC at three sites in Gansu, Xishanping and Buziping in the east and Donghuishan in From necessity to choice 663 Table 1 (Jia et al 2012;Li et al 1989Li et al , 2007. The reliability of the dates has, however, been questioned (Flad et al 2010;Zhao 2009).…”

The spatiotemporal pattern of the Majiayao cultural evolution and its relation to climate change and variety of subsistence strategy during late Neolithic period in Gansu and Qinghai Provinces, northwest China

“…Climate change has been suggested to be a very important factor behind the rise and fall of ancient cultures (Hodell et al, 1995(Hodell et al, , 2001Haug et al, 2003;Chen and Wang, 2012;Medina-Elizalde and Rohling, 2012), while variability of subsistence strategies might also have affected the spread and evolution of Neolithic cultures (Larson et al, 2007;Jia et al, 2013).…”

Non-linear regime shifts in Holocene Asian monsoon variability: potential impacts on cultural change and migratory patterns

“…7), possibly indicating gradual changes in mean precipitation without alterations of the dynamical organisation of rainfall. In general, the Majiayao and Qijia periods are characterised by key agricultural developments (Jia et al, 2013). For the Henan and Shanxi provinces, Liu (1996) revealed that the fifth millennium BP (ca.…”