Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 106, Issue 14, Pages 5523-5528Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0809960106
Keywords
East Asia; millet; Neolithic; origins of agriculture; stable isotope biochemistry
Categories
Funding
- Wenner-Gren Foundation
- National Geographic Society
- Pacific Rim Research Program of the University of California
- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory [W-7405-Eng-48, DE-AC52-07NA27344]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Stable isotope biochemistry (delta C-13 and delta N-15) and radiocarbon dating of ancient human and animal bone document 2 distinct phases of plant and animal domestication at the Dadiwan site in northwest China. The first was brief and nonintensive: at various times between 7900 and 7200 calendar years before present (calBP) people harvested and stored enough broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum) to provision themselves and their hunting dogs (Canis sp.) throughout the year. The second, much more intensive phase was in place by 5900 calBP: during this time both broomcorn and foxtail (Setaria viridis spp. italica) millets were cultivated and made significant contributions to the diets of people, dogs, and pigs (Sus sp.). The systems represented in both phases developed elsewhere: the earlier, low-intensity domestic relationship emerged with hunter-gatherers in the arid north, while the more intensive, later one evolved further east and arrived at Dadiwan with the Yang-shao Neolithic. The stable isotope methodology used here is probably the best means of detecting the symbiotic human-plant-animal linkages that develop during the very earliest phases of domestication and is thus applicable to the areas where these connections first emerged and are critical to explaining how and why agriculture began in East Asia.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available