Stable isotopes reveal intensive pig husbandry practices in the middle Yellow River region by the Yangshao period (7000–5000 BP)

It is well-known that pigs (Sus scrofa) were domesticated very early in Neolithic China, but far less is known about the processes by which pig husbandry intensified so that pork became the most important animal protein for humans are less clear. Here, we explore pig feeding practices using the carbon and nitrogen isotope composition of bone collagen, focusing on developments in pig husbandry during the Yangshao period (7000–5000 BP) in the middle Yellow River region of China, and at the site of Xipo (5800–5000 BP) in particular. The results show that the diets of domestic pigs at Xipo were dominated by millet foods. Comparisons with other Yangshao sites in the region show a trend of increasing millet foddering for pigs throughout the Yangshao period. These results, and comparisons of the isotopic data for pigs against those for humans from the Xipo cemetery (5300–5000 BP), suggest that pigs were closely managed by humans. The evidence points to an intensification of Neolithic pig husbandry in the middle Yellow River region from this period.

Agriculture, the Environment, and Social Complexity From the Early to Late Yangshao Periods (5000–3000 BC): Insights From Macro-Botanical Remains in North-Central China

In northern China, the Yangshao cultural period (5000–3000 BC) was a critical timespan in the establishment of agricultural economies and the emergence of social complexity. We present the results of archeobotanical analysis from 58 soil samples collected from 12 recently investigated sites located in the Luoyang Basin, and recovered 5290 carbonized plant remains from 9 sites dating to the Late Yangshao period. We compared our novel dataset with previous archeobotanical date, compiling a total of 196 samples from 58 sites in central and western Henan Province. During the Early Yangshao period (5000–4200 BC), a nascent, extensive agricultural economy based primarily on broomcorn millet, with lesser foxtail millet and rice, was developing in small settlements (<0.2 km2) in the loess tablelands and valleys of western Henan province. However, the population pressure—rather than environmental degradation—drove the “foxtail millet-broomcorn millet substitution” during the Middle Yangshao period (4200–3500BC). The intensive agriculture based mainly on foxtail millet facilitated the development of social complexity in the region, as demonstrated by the emergence of size-graded agricultural settlements of medium (0.2–0.6 km2) and large (> 0.6 km2) scale. Notably, millets tend to be less ubiquitous in these larger settlements compared to smaller ones, with differences in millet ubiquity between sites increasing over time. The local surface hydrology influenced by paleoclimatic changes prompted the spread of agriculture from higher loess tablelands and valleys during the early Yangshao period into more marginal loess tablelands and plains by the Middle and Late Yangshao periods. Rice cultivation is concentrated in valley areas and appears to have been closely tied to environments with better hydrothermal conditions. Our research shows that climatic conditions during the Holocene fostered the development of agriculture during the Yangshao Culture period and that the distribution of settlements throughout this time was influenced by highly localized geomorphologic environments delimiting the distribution of crops. The rise of agriculture promoted the formation of complex and stratified economies in the Yangshao Culture period and it was the intensification and elaboration of these new economic and social systems that led to later transformation in agricultural structures and settlement sizes.

The spatiotemporal evolution of cities from the ancient state period to the kingdom period in the Central Plains region, China

The Central Plains region in China has been an important area for human settlement since ancient times. As the only continuous civilization over thousands of years in the world, the Central Plains Civilization is the origin of the Chinese nation. The number, size, and distribution of cities have changed greatly from the ancient state period (i.e. the Yangshao and Longshan periods) to the kingdom period (i.e. the Xia and Shang Dynasties), which reflects the evolution of settlement and social organization. In this study, GIS technology was used to establish the city spatial database for the periods that witnessed the transition from ancient states to the kingdom, including the Yangshao period, the Longshan period, and the Xia and Shang Dynasties. Moreover, the nearest neighbor distance analysis and the gravity center analysis were implemented to explore the possible factors that were considered in the city site selection, including altitude and distances to nearest rivers. Furthermore, efforts were made to investigate the spatiotemporal evolution of the shape, size, agglomeration, and varying gravity center of cities as well as the spatiotemporal evolution of moats. The results show that: (1) Most city sites were distributed in areas with altitudes of < 500 m above sea level and distances of less than 3 km away from rivers during all three periods. (2) From the Yangshao period to the Xia and Shang Dynasties, the shape of the city gradually changed from circular to square, and the type of moats changed from trenches in the Yangshao period to city walls in the Longshan period and no walls in Xia and Shang Dynasties. (3) The size and grade of the 18 cities in the Yangshao period shared high similarity, with an average area of 20 hectares. In comparison, the sizes of 24 cities in the Longshan period increased significantly, with an average of 39 hectares. During the Xia and Shang Dynasties, there were 22 cities with an average size of 340 hectares, and the grade of sizes became obvious, marking the entrance into the centralized kingdom period. (4) Cities were scattered in the decentralized pattern during the ancient state periods (i.e. Yangshao and Longshan periods), whereas they became agglomerative in the kingdom period (i.e. Xia and Shang Dynasties). This reflects the evolution of the spatial scopes and social organizational forms. (5) From ancient states to the kingdom, the city center moved around Songshan Mountain from the northwest to the southeast and again to the northeast.

Towards an Operative Predictive Model for the Songshan Area during the Yangshao Period

The literature in the field of archaeological predictive models has grown in the last years, looking for new factors the most effective methods to introduce. However, where predictive models are used for archaeological heritage management, they could benefit from using a more speedy and consequently useful methods including some well-consolidated factors studied in the literature. In this paper, an operative archaeological predictive model is developed, validated and discussed, in order to test its effectiveness. It is applied to Yangshao period (5000–3000 BC) in the Songshan area, where Chinese civilization emerged and developed, and uses 563 known settlement sites. The satisfactory results herein achieved clearly suggest that the model herein proposed can be reliably used to predict the geographical location of unknown settlements.

Study on the burial practice of tomb M13 of the Yangshao culture at Baligang site in Dengzhou City

The multidisciplinary research on the Yangshao period (4200–2900 BCE) tomb M13, a joint secondary burial at the Baligang site of the Yangshao culture in Dengzhou City, Henan Province showed that there were in total 126 individuals buried in this grave. Their death crossed at least 200 years; among them, at least five individuals were from three maternal lineages, and the descent system of this group was patrilineal. There were also 138 pig mandibles buried in M13, which had been dated and shows that they were collected across over 400 years. Based on the statistics the death population at Baligang site, it is estimated that the human bones found from M13 went through a secondary burial process during which they were probably regarded as “ceremonial objects.” The joint secondary burials as M13 is seen as a result of some reburying ceremonies held at the Baligang site.