The interplay of millets and rice in Neolithic central China: Integrating phytoliths into the archaeobotany of Baligang

Weisskopf, Alison; Deng, Zhenhua; Qin, Ling; Fuller, Dorian Q.

doi:10.1016/j.ara.2015.10.002

Cited by 26 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…After drying at the site, samples from excavation in 2004 were sent to the archaeobotany laboratory of Institute of Archaeology UCL, and samples from 2007 to the archaeobotany laboratory of School of Archaeology and Museology PKU for further identification and analysis. In addition, sediments from many of the same contexts were processed for phytolith assemblages [ 24 , 25 ].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

From Early Domesticated Rice of the Middle Yangtze Basin to Millet, Rice and Wheat Agriculture: Archaeobotanical Macro-Remains from Baligang, Nanyang Basin, Central China (6700–500 BC)

et al. 2015

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Baligang is a Neolithic site on a northern tributary of the middle Yangtze and provides a long archaeobotanical sequence from the Seventh Millennium BC upto the First Millennium BC. It provides evidence for developments in rice and millet agriculture influenced by shifting cultural affiliation with the north (Yangshao and Longshan) and south (Qujialing and Shijiahe) between 4300 and 1800 BC. This paper reports on plant macro-remains (seeds), from systematic flotation of 123 samples (1700 litres), producing more than 10,000 identifiable remains. The earliest Pre-Yangshao occupation of the sites provide evidence for cultivation of rice (Oryza sativa) between 6300–6700 BC. This rice appears already domesticated in on the basis of a dominance of non-shattering spikelet bases. However, in terms of grain size changes has not yet finished, as grains are still thinner than more recent domesaticated rice and are closer in grain shape to wild rices. This early rice was cultivated alongside collection of wild staple foods, especially acorns (Quercus/Lithicarpus sensu lato). In later periods the sites has evidence for mixed farming of both rice and millets (Setaria italica and Panicum miliaceum). Soybean appears on the site in the Shijiahe period (ca.2500 BC) and wheat (Triticum cf. aestivum) in the Late Longshan levels (2200–1800 BC). Weed flora suggests an intensification of rice agriculture over time with increasing evidence of wetland weeds. We interpret these data as indicating early opportunistic cultivation of alluvial floodplains and some rainfed rice, developing into more systematic and probably irrigated cultivation starting in the Yangshao period, which intensified in the Qujialing and Shijiahe period, before a shift back to an emphasis on millets with the Late Longshan cultural influence from the north.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

From Early Domesticated Rice of the Middle Yangtze Basin to Millet, Rice and Wheat Agriculture: Archaeobotanical Macro-Remains from Baligang, Nanyang Basin, Central China (6700–500 BC)

et al. 2015

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“…We have attributed this shift to cultivation in small fields with tight control of flooding and then draining that helped to increase grain production in early rice, which still had ancestral proclivity to perennial growth and lower grain production (Weisskopf et al 2015a). Through the sequence at Baligang we also see a period when cultivation systems became drier although it is less clear why that was (Weisskopf et al 2015b). In contrast to the generally wet ecology of early rice in China, Neolithic sites from northern India in the Ganges Basin (Mahagara and Koldihwa) indicate very dry conditions, consistent with cultivation on the plains raised well above the river flood plain, supplied only by monsoon rainfall and without methods of water control.…”

Section: What Was the Ecology Of Early Rice Cultivation In Different mentioning

confidence: 98%

Pathways of Rice Diversification across Asia

Fuller

Weisskopf

Castillo

2016

Archaeology International

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The archaeology of rice has made important methodological advances over the past decade that have contributed new data on the domestication process, spread and ecology of cultivation. Growing evidence from spikelet bases indicates that non-shattering, domesticated forms evolved gradually in the Yangtze basin and that there were at least two distinct processes around the Middle Yangtze region pre-dating 6000 BC, and the in the Lower Yangtze region between 6000 and 4000 BC. Early rice cultivation in these areas was based on wet field ecologies, in contrast to rainfed rice that is indicated among the earliest systems in India. When rice first spread north it was not entirely suited to shorter temperate summer growth seasons, and we are able to infer from high levels of apparently green-harvested spikelets that genetic adaptations to temperate conditions evolved after 2000 BC. When rice first spread south, to mainland Southeast Asia, after 2500 BC, it was grown in rainfed, dry ecologies that were less labourdemanding and less-productive. More productive and intensive irrigated rice then redeveloped in Southeast Asia around 2000 years ago, supporting growing population densities and social complexity. IntroductionRice is one of the world's most widely eaten and most productive cereals. Over the past decade archaeobotanical research based at the UCL Institute of Archaeology and involving a wide range of collaborators in east, south, and southeast Asia has been seeking new insights into the processes by which rice evolved and rice cultivation systems evolved, and how these relate to cultural change and long-distance cultural relationships across Monsoon Asia. While this research began with critical reflections and debate surrounding the initial cultivation of rice in China (Fuller, Harvey and Qin 2007) and India (Fuller 2006),

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“…In order to further address the date of wheat adoption in central China, three more charred wheat grains from other sites were sent to the Center for Applied Isotope Studies, The University of Georgia, USA, for direct AMS radiocarbon dating. One was from Baligang (Deng et al 2015;Weisskopf et al 2015), a site near Xiazhai, the other two were from the Nangao and Guojiazhuang sites in the northern part of Shanxi (Jiang 2017).…”

Section: Ams Radiocarbon Datingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Of 14 submitted radiocarbon samples, half came back as apparently intrusive, including six out of seven wheat grains which were thought to derive from 3rd millennium bc contexts, Late Longshan or Shijiahe periods. Only a single wheat grain was dated to before 2000 bc, from a Late Longshan period context at Baligang (archaeobotanical data, Deng et al 2015;Weisskopf et al 2015).…”

Section: Ams Radiocarbon Datesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing the occurrence and status of wheat in late Neolithic central China: the importance of direct AMS radiocarbon dates from Xiazhai

Deng

Fuller

Chu

et al. 2019

Veget Hist Archaeobot

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The introduction of wheat into central China is thought to have been one of the significant contributions of interactions between China and Central Asia which began in the 3rd millennium bc. However, only a limited number of Neolithic wheat grains have been found in central China and even fewer have been directly radiocarbon dated, making the date when wheat was adopted in the region and its role in subsistence farming uncertain. Based on systematic archaeobotanical data and direct dating of wheat remains from the Xiazhai site in central China, as well as a critical review of all reported discoveries of Neolithic and Bronze Age wheat from this region, we conclude that many wheat finds are intrusive in Neolithic contexts. We argue that the role of wheat in the subsistence of the late Neolithic and early Bronze Age of central China was minimal, and that wheat only began to increase in its subsistence role in the later Bronze Age during the Zhou dynasty after ca. 1000 bc.

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The interplay of millets and rice in Neolithic central China: Integrating phytoliths into the archaeobotany of Baligang

Cited by 26 publications

References 36 publications

From Early Domesticated Rice of the Middle Yangtze Basin to Millet, Rice and Wheat Agriculture: Archaeobotanical Macro-Remains from Baligang, Nanyang Basin, Central China (6700–500 BC)

From Early Domesticated Rice of the Middle Yangtze Basin to Millet, Rice and Wheat Agriculture: Archaeobotanical Macro-Remains from Baligang, Nanyang Basin, Central China (6700–500 BC)

Pathways of Rice Diversification across Asia

Assessing the occurrence and status of wheat in late Neolithic central China: the importance of direct AMS radiocarbon dates from Xiazhai

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