Trajectories of Agricultural Development in Prehistoric China

Zhuang, Yijie

doi:10.1002/9781118970959.ch29

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…Fuller and Qin, 2009; Fuller et al, 2009; Zong et al, 2007). These studies have illustrated the significance of changing food traditions to the evolution of prehistoric settlements, from the adoption of sedentism and the establishment of first agricultural settlements, to the emergence of prehistoric walled towns (Liu and Chen, 2012; Zhao, 2014, 2017; Zhuang, 2020; Zhuang and Fuller, In press). It is also evident that this evolution followed diverse trajectories within and between different environmental regions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wells, fields and the emergence of early-to-middle Holocene villages in the Huai River region, China: Contesting regional similarities and differences on prehistoric water management with new archaeological and palaeo-environmental evidence

Zhuang,

Wei,

Zhuang

et al. 2023

The Holocene

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The history of water management is closely intertwined with evolution of social structures. In particular, the emergence of rice farming and transition to sedentary life contributed significantly to the development of water management practices, with increasing labour and economic investments to build and operate water-management infrastructures. Here we present archaeological, archaeobotanical and geoarchaeological evidence of early water management obtained from the excavations of three early-to-middle Holocene sites in the upper and middle Huai River region (UMHR), including Hanjing from Sihong County of Jiangsu Province and Xielaozhuang and Zhangwangzhuang from Luohe City and Zhumadian City of Henan Province. Our 14C dates suggest multiple episodes of regional inhabitation in the UMHR region. Our results also reveal that the wells at Xielaozhuang represent some of the earliest attempts to ensure water consumption in the village, and importantly, the rice-field-like structures at Hanjing and Zhangwangzhuang are evidence of a more systematic effort to modify and transform local landscapes for rice cultivation and related economic activities. In line with the results from published phytolith studies, we found that the early experiment of rice cultivation altered local soil and hydrological conditions at these sites. These early forms of rice fields share some similarities in micro-and-macro- morphologies and represent successful adaptations to the low-lying plains that continued to have fluctuating hydrological regimes. The construction and operation of these wells, moats and rice-field-like structures stimulated collaboration beyond individual households and groups in these early-to-middle Holocene villages in the UMHR region and thus would have had profound social and economic ramifications.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wells, fields and the emergence of early-to-middle Holocene villages in the Huai River region, China: Contesting regional similarities and differences on prehistoric water management with new archaeological and palaeo-environmental evidence

Zhuang,

Wei,

Zhuang

et al. 2023

The Holocene

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How Human Subsistence Strategy Affected Fruit-Tree Utilization During the Late Neolithic and Bronze Age: Investigations in the Northeastern Tibetan Plateau

Zhang

et al. 2022

Front. Plant Sci.

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The history of fruit-tree utilization by prehistoric people has become an important issue that has attracted increasing attention in recent years. However, the question of how people used fruit trees has not yet been answered; in particular, the impacts of different subsistence strategies on human behavior regarding fruit-tree utilization (wild gathering or conscious cultivation) have not yet been considered. Here, we present the results of charcoal identification of fruit trees from 16 dated archeological sites in the northeastern Tibetan Plateau (NETP) spanning the period c. 5,200–2,600 BP. We combine this with reported multidisciplinary evidence to explore the history of fruit-tree utilization as well as its relation to the subsistence strategy in the NETP during the late Neolithic and Bronze Age. Our results demonstrate that Rosaceae [Prunus L., Prunus Padus L., Maloideae L., and Malus baccata (L.) Borkh], Elaeagnaceae (Hippophae L. and Elaeagnus angustifolia L.), and Rhamnaceae (only Ziziphus Mill.) were used by people in the NETP, and there was a downward trend in the use of fruit trees during the late Neolithic and Bronze Age. This is in notable contrast to the situation in the Chinese Loess Plateau in the parallel period. The cold-dry climate during the Bronze Age seemed to be one of the reasons. The fruit trees used by people in the NETP were likely gathered from the wild rather than consciously cultivated, and the subsistence strategy of agropastoralism may have played a significant role during the processes.

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Trajectories of Agricultural Development in Prehistoric China

Cited by 2 publications

References 54 publications

Wells, fields and the emergence of early-to-middle Holocene villages in the Huai River region, China: Contesting regional similarities and differences on prehistoric water management with new archaeological and palaeo-environmental evidence

Wells, fields and the emergence of early-to-middle Holocene villages in the Huai River region, China: Contesting regional similarities and differences on prehistoric water management with new archaeological and palaeo-environmental evidence

How Human Subsistence Strategy Affected Fruit-Tree Utilization During the Late Neolithic and Bronze Age: Investigations in the Northeastern Tibetan Plateau

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