The origins of wheat in China and potential pathways for its introduction: A review

Betts, Alison; Jia, Peter Weiming; Dodson, John

doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2013.07.044

Cited by 135 publications

(90 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…Huoshiliang [24,25]), slightly earlier than sites further west. Comparing the morphology and chronology of wheat at Tasbas and Begash with early wheats in western China points to the mountains of Inner Asia as the likely source of introduction [26]. The geographical location and chronology of the wheat and barley from Tasbas and Begash provide key points of reference to explain the pathway of these grains into the pastoralist economies of the Inner Asian mountains-starting in the third millennium BC and farther into China by the second millennium BC.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Early agriculture and crop transmission among Bronze Age mobile pastoralists of Central Eurasia

et al. 2014

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Archaeological research in Central Eurasia is exposing unprecedented scales of trans-regional interaction and technology transfer between East Asia and southwest Asia deep into the prehistoric past. This article presents a new archaeobotanical analysis from pastoralist campsites in the mountain and desert regions of Central Eurasia that documents the oldest known evidence for domesticated grains and farming among seasonally mobile herders. Carbonized grains from the sites of Tasbas and Begash illustrate the first transmission of southwest Asian and East Asian domesticated grains into the mountains of Inner Asia in the early third millennium BC. By the middle second millennium BC, seasonal camps in the mountains and deserts illustrate that Eurasian herders incorporated the cultivation of millet, wheat, barley and legumes into their subsistence strategy. These findings push back the chronology for domesticated plant use among Central Eurasian pastoralists by approximately 2000 years. Given the geography, chronology and seed morphology of these data, we argue that mobile pastoralists were key agents in the spread of crop repertoires and the transformation of agricultural economies across Asia from the third to the second millennium BC.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Early agriculture and crop transmission among Bronze Age mobile pastoralists of Central Eurasia

et al. 2014

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“…Even so, both cists coincide with the initial occupation phases of both sites and demonstrate longstanding burial tradition of early pastoralists. Along with demonstrating a distinct crematory practice that persists for perhaps 200 years, the deposited grains show a possible geographic route for the spread of wheat into China (see summary in Betts et al, 2014). The funerary practice and structure show no contemporary cases.…”

Section: Early Bronze Age Cremation In Semirech'yementioning

confidence: 99%

Burial ritual, agriculture, and craft production among Bronze Age pastoralists at Tasbas (Kazakhstan)

Doumani

Frachetti

Beardmore

et al. 2015

Archaeological Research in Asia

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a b s t r a c tThis article presents new archaeological research on the ritual and domestic life of pastoralists at the Bronze Age campsite Tasbas, Kazakhstan. We reconstruct the hitherto unrecorded economy of high mountain pastoralists who lived at the site from the mid-3rd to early 1st millennium B.C. We argue that within the broad dynamics of mountain pastoralism there is local variability as shown through multi-season residence, farming, and craft production. In bringing together multiple data sets to address how the site was used we 1) show that ceramics were locally produced with similar manufacture technology across eight centuries -which breaks significantly from the canonical cultural history and large-scale migration paradigms that have defined the regional archaeology for decades; 2) identify a new tradition of cremation ritual (3rd millennium B.C.), and; 3) present the earliest evidence (3rd millennium B.C.) for the local use of domesticated grains and then farming (2nd millennium B.C.) in northern Central Asia. We provide a unique case study to bear on debates concerning the relationship between long-term regional stability and technological innovations among early central Eurasian pastoralists.

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“…4 and 5, we argue that none of the positions cited above (2,3,42) are entirely correct, particularly with regards to the highlands of western Sichuan.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 66%

“…However, they argue that in most of China, there is a delay of roughly two millennia before wheat and barley became an important part of subsistence practices because of cultural resistance to the uptake of new food technologies and preparation methods (3). Others suggest that this process may have taken even longer and that wheat remained a minor crop until the Tang dynasty (39,42). In particular, Boivin et al (3) suggest that wheat changed from being an exotic in the Bronze Age to a risk-buffering crop during the early Han and became a staple only during the late Han dynasty.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Early evidence for the use of wheat and barley as staple crops on the margins of the Tibetan Plateau

Guedes

Lü

Hein

et al. 2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

126

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We report directly dated evidence from circa 1400 calibrated years (cal) B.C. for the early use of wheat, barley, and flax as staple crops on the borders of the Tibetan Plateau. During recent years, an increasing amount of data from the Tibetan Plateau and its margins shows that a transition from millets to wheat and barley agriculture took place during the second millennium B.C. Using thermal niche modeling, we refute previous assertions that the ecological characteristics of wheat and barley delayed their spread into East Asia. Rather, we demonstrate that the ability of these crops to tolerate frost and their low growing degree-day requirements facilitated their spread into the high-altitude margins of western China. Following their introduction to this region, these crops rapidly replaced Chinese millets and became the staple crops that still characterize agriculture in this area today.

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The origins of wheat in China and potential pathways for its introduction: A review

Cited by 135 publications

References 43 publications

Early agriculture and crop transmission among Bronze Age mobile pastoralists of Central Eurasia

Early agriculture and crop transmission among Bronze Age mobile pastoralists of Central Eurasia

Burial ritual, agriculture, and craft production among Bronze Age pastoralists at Tasbas (Kazakhstan)

Early evidence for the use of wheat and barley as staple crops on the margins of the Tibetan Plateau

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