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Early cultivated wheat and broadening of agriculture in Neolithic ChinaState Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, CAS, Xi-an Hi-Tech zone, Xi-an 710075, China,lxq{at}loess.llqg.ac.cn
Institute for the Environment, Brunel University, Uxbridge UB8 3PH, UK
State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, CAS, Xi-an Hi-Tech zone, Xi-an 710075, China, Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, CAS, Xi-an Hi-Tech zone, Xi-an 710075, China, Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
Department of Earth and Planetary Science, University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan Evidence for cultivated wheat at 4650 cal. yr BP, as part of a broadening agricultural-based society (4650—4300 cal. yr BP), is presented from Xishanping in northwest China. This was established from archaeobotanical evidence and radiocarbon dating. Crops from SW Asia had therefore been adopted in China about 2500 years earlier than previously thought, and long before the `Silk Road' route was known to be used. The data show that the early infiltration and blending of agriculture involving rice, buckwheat, barley, millet and wheat occurred in this region. This raises questions as to why crops from China do not appear further westward at this time and how the blending of agricultural practices contributed to the development of Chinese civilization.
Key Words: Cultivated wheat • complex agriculture • cereals • agricultural expansion • cultural impacts • Neolithic China • East and West Asia • mid Holocene.
The Holocene, Vol. 17, No. 5,
555-560 (2007) This article has been cited by other articles:
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