Middle Holocene hunting-gathering culture and environmental background of the steppe area of northern China

For a long time, the academic community has known very little about hunter-gatherers in the steppe area of northern China in the mid-Holocene. This article reports on the Ula Usu West site in Siziwangqi Banner, Inner Mongolia, including basic information about the site, animal bones, lithic artifacts and the environmental background. The age of the site is 4.8-4.4 cal. kyr BP, placing it in the Late Neolithic period. Considering integrated evidence from flotation, zooarchaeology, ZooMS analysis and lithic artifacts, the preliminary inference is that the population lived in a hunting-gathering economy. They used lithic tools represented by arrowheads to hunt mainly Antilopinae animals (e.g., Procapra gutturosa). Pollen analysis suggests that the climate was relatively humid, providing advantageous living conditions for the population. The climate evidence is consistent with a warm event at approximately 4.7 kyr BP. A dry-cold event (4.5-4.0 kyr BP) and the gradual expansion of agriculture and breeding might have resulted in the final decline of the population. This article provides new materials for research on the last hunter-gatherers in the steppe area of northern China.

Automated summary

This article reports on the discovery of the Ula Usu West site in Inner Mongolia, which provides information on animal bones, lithic artifacts, and the environmental background of the site. Based on integrated evidence, it is inferred that the site belongs to the Late Neolithic period and the population had a hunting-gathering economy, influenced by a relatively humid climate. However, a dry-cold event and the expansion of agriculture and breeding may have caused the decline of this population.