This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in ISI Web of Science Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via ISI Web of Science (1) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Li, X. Articles by Masutomoto, R. Search for Related Content GeoRef GeoRef Citation Social Bookmarking                   What's this?

Early cultivated wheat and broadening of agriculture in Neolithic China

State 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

John Dodson

Institute for the Environment, Brunel University, Uxbridge UB8 3PH, UK

Xinying Zhou

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

Hongbin Zhang

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

Ryo Masutomoto

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.

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?