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Mixed farming of rice and millets became the primary subsistence strategy 6400 years ago in the western Huanghuai Plain of Central China: New macrofossil evidence from Shigu

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Abstract

The Huanghuai Plain is located in a transitional climate zone between the Yangtze River and Yellow River valleys in Central China, where mixed farming of millets and rice appeared 8,000 years ago. However, when this specific agricultural model became the primary subsistence strategy and how the crop structure developed in this area have not been confirmed, largely due to the lack of sufficient archaeobotanical evidence and accurate chronological data. In this study, accelerator mass spectrometer (AMS) radiocarbon dating and identification of the plant remains have been conducted at the Neolithic site of Shigu. The results indicate that mixed farming of millets and rice was practised at Shigu during the Yangshao Culture period (ca. 6400–5300 a BP), during which broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum) and foxtail millet (Setaria italica) dominated. This finding is different from the earlier Peiligang Culture sites (9,000–7,000 BP) in the same research region, where wild editable plants were more abundant. Although the crop structure at Shigu changed around 6,000 years ago, with a noticeable decrease in rice cultivation, millets and rice were always the primary plant foods for the local population. The present study thus proposes the formation of a crop-based agricultural society at least 6400 years ago at Shigu in the western Huanghuai Plain of Central China.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Dexin Mao from the Xuchang Municipal Bureau of Culture, and Fujun Cui from the Xuchang Municipal Cultural Relics Administration Office, for their kind help during the sampling at Shigu. The two reviewers are thanked for their constructive comments.

Funding

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2022YFF0801101), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 42272212), the International Partnership Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (132311KYSB20190008), Social Science Planning Project of Anhui Province (Grant No. AHSKQ2021D52), the USTC Funding for Featured Liberal Arts (YD2110002016), and the USTC Youth Innovation Fund (WK2110000020). Weiya Li is a MSCA-COFUND R2STAIR Fellow (GA 101034349), his research is also supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through the “María de Maeztu” excellence accreditation (CEX2019-000945-M).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department for the History of Science and Scientific Archaeology, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China

    Yuzhang Yang, Binggui Sun, Weiya Li & Juzhong Zhang

  2. Department of Management Science, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China

    Miaomiao Yang

  3. Key Laboratory for Archaeological Science and Cultural Heritage Under the Department of Education of Anhui Province, Heifei, 230026, China

    Yuzhang Yang & Weiya Li

  4. Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana I Evolució Social (IPHES-CERCA), Zona Educacional 4, Campus Sescelades URV (Edifici W3), 43007, Tarragona, Spain

    Weiya Li

  5. Departament d’Història I Història de L’Art, Universitat Rovira I Virgili, Avinguda de Catalunya 35, 43002, Tarragona, Spain

    Weiya Li

  6. Northwest A&F University, Yangling, 712100, China

    Zhijie Cheng

  7. Hubei Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Wuhan, 430077, China

    Ling Yao

  8. Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Zhengzhou, 450000, China

    Wanli Lan

  9. School of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Heifei, 230026, China

    Xin Zhou

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  1. Yuzhang Yang
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Contributions

Yuzhang Yang, Weiya Li and Juzhong Zhang conceived and designed the study. Ling Yao provided the archaeological samples and took part in the sampling. Miaomiao Yang, Binggui sun and Wanli Lan collected the study samples and analysed the data. Yuzhang Yang, Weiya Li, Miaomiao Yang, and Xin Zhou wrote and edited the manuscript. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

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Correspondence to Weiya Li.

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Yuzhang Yang and Miaomiao Yang are co-first authors.

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Yang, Y., Yang, M., Sun, B. et al. Mixed farming of rice and millets became the primary subsistence strategy 6400 years ago in the western Huanghuai Plain of Central China: New macrofossil evidence from Shigu. Archaeol Anthropol Sci 15, 122 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-023-01821-5

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